Research

• Research Clusters
  • The Renaissance, English Language and Medieval Studies
    • Postgraduate Culture
    • Former Graduate Students
  • Poetry, Irish Writing, Creative Writing and Modern Literary Studies
• Current Projects
• Research Forums
• School Research Seminars
• Conferences
• School Research Committee
• Current Research Students
• Completed Ph.Ds in the School of English (since 1990)

Research Director: Professor Paul Simpson

Renaissance Studies

Renaissance studies in the School is a lively and engaged grouping that researches all aspects of the period's literature and culture: archival work is pursued alongside editorial activity in a theorized fashion, an interest in religion, women's writing and extraordinary bodies is a distinctive strength, and attention to the representation of Shakespeare in film and popular culture runs in tandem with scholarship on classical sources and influences. The area encompasses four full-time members of staff and one secondary member. Research activity is complemented by an expanding and successful postgraduate programme: M.A. students, for instance, study in Belfast and in Dublin as part of a collaborative programme between Queen's University and University College, Dublin . The M.A. programme, in fact, has been turned into a key work of research and pedagogy published with Oxford University Press and provides a unique platform for subsequent Ph.D. work. Current graduate students research such subjects as women and the bible, the representation of social mobility, and the relation between the image and the word, and there is an excellent track-record leading from the Ph.D. at Queen's to academic employment. The postgraduate devised and run Renaissance Reading Group meets regularly and is a crucial part of the area's research culture. A postgraduate conference in 2004, 'Renaissance Margins', attracted widespread national and international interest, and two follow-up conferences - on 'Shakespeare, Renaissance, Performance: Early Modern and Postmodern Perspectives' (2007) and 'Renaissance Dualisms' (2008) - also proved highly successful.

Medieval Studies

Members of this grouping engage in research across the whole range of medieval literary studies, from Anglo-Saxon studies to the transition to Early Modern literature and beyond and the reception of medieval literature in the modern world. The group demonstrates a strong commitment to interdisciplinary approaches and an emphasis on collaboration in research and teaching. Following on from the success of the AHRC-funded project ‘Imagining History – Medieval Texts, Contexts and Communities in the Middle English Brut Tradition’, the grouping now co-hosts a new large-scale collaborative research project, ‘Geographies of Orthodoxy: Mapping Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of Christ, 1350-1550’. This is the first extensive investigation of vernacular lives of Christ, which will reassess current models of vernacular theology, orthodoxy and religious dissent in the period leading up to the English Reformation(s).

Anglo-Saxon studies are led by Hugh Magennis, whose continuing investigations into hagiography, medieval ideology and the language of poetry are now being supplemented by research into modern poetic translations of Beowulf. The research leadership of John Thompson and Stephen Kelly is exemplified in their editorship of the recent volume Imagining the Book while Postdoctoral Assistant Ryan Perry is already working at the forefront of later medieval codicology.

The vitality of the Medieval area is evidenced in the conferences and symposia hosted at Queen’s in recent years and in the on-going seminar series ‘Medieval Cultures’. Supported in great part by an energetic group of postgraduate students and other associates, the area boasts a thriving Masters programme in Medieval Studies.

English Language Studies

English Language and Linguistics forms a vibrant and productive research grouping in the School of English and the four full-time members of staff whose interests converge in this field are known for their published work in speech analysis, corpus linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, phonetics and phonology, and stylistics and critical discourse analysis. Recent publications in this area have included single- and co-authored books, edited collections, and numerous articles in journals and chapters in scholarly collections. This output is supplemented by other major editing and archive-related projects.

English Language and Linguistics supports a flourishing postgraduate culture which is underpinned by a successful Masters programme. After a solid grounding in the basic theories of language and in the key principles of linguistic analysis, M.A. students may choose from a number of specialist half modules, and courses currently on offer include forensic linguistics, corpus linguistics, Irish English,  phonological concepts, language and power, and the language of humour. Enrolment at postgraduate research level is comparably strong, with an expanding cohort of students working towards Doctorates in various areas of English language and Linguistics. Current projects include work in stylistics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics and narrative, along with numerous other inter-disciplinary topics (across and beyond the School of English ) which involve joint  supervision with members of the English language team.

The grouping also has an exceptional record in attracting external funding. In addition to the acquiring of smaller-scale awards, members of the team have recently attracted substantial external grants from the  AHRC and from the EU Network of Excellence.