Edited by Susann Liebich (Heidelberg University, History) and Laurence Publicover, Senior Lecturer in the Department, Shipboard Literary Cultures uncovers the literary worlds of naval ships, whalers, commercial vessels, emigrant ships, and troop transports from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, revealing a rich history of shipboard reading, writing, and performing. Contributors to the volume explore how literary activities adapt to the maritime world, and how individual and collective shipboard experiences are shaped by these activities. You can see full details of the book and read its open access introduction here.

The volume emerges from a series of activities in Bristol involving both staff and students. The Faculty of Arts' Research Internship Scheme allowed two undergraduates in the Department, Eli Cumings and Eli Lower, to explore archival holdings relating to shipboard culture in London and Bristol over the summer of 2016; Eli Cumings, who is now completing doctoral work at Cambridge, co-authored one chapter of the volume. The Faculty of Arts research cluster 'The Perspective from the Sea', co-led by Laurence and by Senior Lecturer Tamsin Badcoe also played an important part.  It supported a workshop at the SS Great Britain, Bristol, in 2014, co-organised by Jimmy Packham, then a PhD student here, and now a lecturer at the University of Birmingham. Both Tamsin and Jimmy contributed chapters to the volume, Tamsin’s focusing on the diary of a nun travelling to Australia on the SS Great Britain in 1873. Emeritus Professor David Punter wrote the volume's Afterword. Bristol's International Strategic Fund also supported visits to Heidelberg to develop the project, paving the way for a conference in Heidelberg in October 2016 where many of the volume's chapters were first given as papers.

Laurence’s undergraduate special subject ‘Literature and the Sea’, which has been running in the Department since 2013, also helped to inform the project. His next project is 'The Hamlet Voyage', which you can read more about in our earlier news story.