Research

The English Department has a strong research culture. Staff conduct and publish research in a wide range of fields within the discipline, with a dual emphasis on critical and creative contributions to new knowledge. The Department includes distinguished researchers in several fields, from Shakespearean studies to literature and evolution. Staff members have been recognised nationally and internationally through awards and special citations, appointments to editorial boards and election to the New Zealand Academy of Humanities and the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Staff in the Department regularly publish monographs and editions, journal articles, novels, poetry and short story collections. This strong research culture is reflected and continued in the Department’s graduate students who are actively assisted to publication and national and international conferences.

Staff members have a diverse array of research interests. Areas in which staff strength clusters include:

• late medieval and early modern literature (1400-1700)
• nineteenth-century literature
• creative writing
• drama
• modern and contemporary literature
• colonial and post-colonial literature, including New Zealand literature
• critical literacy.

Individual staff also lay claim to particular areas of research specialisation, such as literature and evolution, literature for younger readers (children’s and adolescent), and Irish literature.

Department of English staff research interests

Departmental research seminars are held weekly and include presentations by staff, PhD students, members of other departments, and visiting scholars. The Department is fortunate in attracting numerous scholars, many from overseas, for short and long-term association on a range of programmes, from Research Fellows to scholars on self-funded sabbaticals to Distinguished Visitors and Hood Fellows. Since 2001 the Department has had more than 75 international visitors.

Since 2005, the Department has also hosted the annual Dr. Alice Griffin Fellowship in Shakespearean Studies, an endowed fellowship which provides for the short-term visit of an internationally leading scholar to give public lectures, seminars and classes, and meet with staff and students.

Since 1981, the Department has also hosted an annual year-long fellowship for a New Zealand creative writer. Initially established by the University this fellowship has more recently developed into a six-month fellowship jointly sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, the Michael King Centre in Devonport and Creative New Zealand. Fellows are appointed by public advertisement and application, and, while in residence, spend at least two days a week in the Department, which provides them with office space. While working on a major creative manuscript, they attend seminars and consult with students, especially in the Masters of Creative Writing programme, give readings, lectures and other presentations, and are generally available for consultation and discussion. The Department is strongly committed to the maintenance of this Fellowship, which provides an important link between the University and the creative community of New Zealand.