Research areas
The diversity of our research encourages interdisciplinary and collaborative projects within the department and also with colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and other faculties in the university.
Our research groups, primarily period-based with cross-cutting thematic strands, are designed to align with Faculty research centres/clusters and University institutes, and to support the development of innovative projects and grant applications. Combining complementary research strengths, our groups are inclusive and dynamic: each of us belongs to at least one group and many of us belong to more than one.
Thematic strands work across the chronological groups to generate innovative research directions and new team projects – strands include text editing, history of the book, science and medical humanities, environmental humanities, digital humanities, poetry and poetics, and transnationalism.
Medieval Studies
We have a distinctive profile in this area, covering Old and Middle English, history of the language, metrics, and the multilingual literatures of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in dialogue with their continental neighbours. This group is closely aligned with the Faculty Research Cluster, 'Borders and Borderlands', and with the Faculty Centre for Medieval Studies. Thematic approaches include text editing, history of the book, digital humanities, poetry and poetics, and transnationalism.
Early Modern to 1780
A substantial group of senior and early-career staff with particular strengths in Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, book history, Scottish literature, and the ‘long eighteenth century’. This cluster is aligned with the Faculty Centre for Material Texts and has links with other Faculty groups and clusters, especially ‘Early Modern Studies’. Thematic approaches include text editing, history of the book, science and medical humanities, environmental humanities, and digital humanities.
Romantics and Victorians
This group works across British, American, and colonial literatures of the period, including African-American and Indian literatures. This group shares research interests with a number of Faculty clusters and Centres, including 'Romantic and Victorian Studies', 'Global Feminisms', the Centre for Material Texts, Centre for Environmental Humanities, Centre for Black Humanities, and Centre for Humanities, Health and Science. Thematic approaches include text editing, history of the book, environmental humanities, science and medical humanities, and transnationalism.
Modern and Contemporary Literature
Investigating the links between literature and modernity, research interests include women’s writing, eco-criticism, nationalism, medico-scientific writing and war. The group is aligned with the Faculty Research Clusters, 'Modern Britain Research', 'The Embodied Mind', and Global Feminisms and with the Faculty Research Centres in Environmental Humanities, Health Humanities and Science, and Material Texts. The group collaborates with the university’s Brigstow Institute and works closely with the Bristol Poetry Institute in the Faculty of Arts. With a number of practising poets and writers in the department, this group explores the theory and practice of creative writing and the relationships between writers, readers, and the cultural industries.
Global Literatures
Part of our mission to represent world literatures in English, this substantial cluster covers literatures from Britain, Ireland, America, the African continent, and India. We have significant diversity in the field of American literature, from nineteenth to twenty-first century writing and including African American literature. The group has close links with several Faculty research clusters, including 'Global Feminisms', 'Colonial and Postcolonial Societies', and 'Global Slaveries'. It is also active in the Faculty Centre for Environmental Humanities and Centre for Environmental Humanities, and it shares research activities with the Bristol Institute for Migration and Mobility Studies.
Beyond the department
Our research feeds into School of Humanities research clusters, and forms part of the overall research strategies of the Faculty of Arts.