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Literature Research

Our cutting-edge and outward-facing research in English Literature spans a remarkable range of subjects, histories, and geographies.

Members of the School produce outstanding research on subjects as chronologically disparate as Medieval literature, modernism, and postcolonial and Black Atlantic literatures.

We aim to combine excellence in established areas of research, across a full range of periods and genres, with innovation in critical and textual scholarship.

Literature students

American Literature

Our research is at the forefront of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interventions into the literature and culture of North America.

Children’s Literature

A thriving centre for the study of children’s literature, history and publishing.

18th Century and Romantic

The School’s substantial 18th century and romantic group researches, supervises, and engages with the public in distinctive ways across many areas.

Modernism

We engage with modernism across print and visual cultures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in a global context.

Medical Humanities

The medical humanities research group produces research that engages with medicine by thinking critically and creatively.

Medieval and Early Modern

The medieval and early modern research group produces prize-winning research that is scholarly and forward-looking.

Poetry Criticism

Our research cluster in poetry criticism ranges from the early modern to the contemporary and has strengths in critical, archival, and scholarly editing work.

Postcolonial and Black Atlantic Literature

Interests and expertise in this research cluster range across the literatures of Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean, and include world literature, transnational diasporic writing and Black British writing.

Scholarly Editing and Animating Text

Scholarly editing is a strength at Newcastle. We are making available not just the works of writers, past and present, but new ways of understanding them.

Victorian Literature

We are a dynamic team of interdisciplinary researchers whose work explores Victorian literature in intellectual, material and formal contexts within and beyond the borders of Great Britain.

Theatre and Performance

We produce prize-winning scholarly research and creative writing for stage, screen and radio.

Engagement and impact

What further unites us is a determination to engage diverse audiences with this research, both within and outside of academia. We work collaboratively with a wide range of regional, national, and international partners (archives and libraries; publishers and production companies; cultural organisations; and the creative industries), and we are keen that our research has not only scholarly significance but also public benefits.

Research staff and students play key roles in several research groups and centres. These groups foster interdisciplinary research, and stimulate the development of exciting and innovative research projects. They include:

Project funding

Our projects are funded from various sources, including the UK Research Councils, the British Academy, European agencies, and many trusts and foundations.

Undergraduate
Postgraduate taught
Postgraduate research