The first Chair of English was established in the College of Physical Sciences at Newcastle in 1898 (known since 1909 as the Joseph Cowen Chair). A separate Chair in English Language was founded in 1964.
Following in the tradition of such eminent scholars as Ernst Honigmann and Barbara Strang, our staff continue to produce world-leading researchin traditional areas of literary and linguistic studies.
They have also been at the forefront of the development of new research fields, including:
creative writing
postcolonial literature
children's literature
film
the origins of language
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 assessed the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and ranked it 1st in the UK for Research Impact and 3rd overall.
More than 50% of English Language and Literature's work was deemed to be 'world-leading'.
To find out more about how the School performed during the last REF assessment, head to the REF 2014 section.
There is expertise in the School on a great many aspects of literature and language, from linguistic theory to language acquisition and Tyneside dialect to the modern Indian novel.
Our research is united by three core aims:
We aim to cement and enhance our tradition of excellent critical, historical, theoretical and creative scholarship across a full range of periods, genres and linguistic research areas.
We want to expand and deepen our research in certain key areas of particular distinction, especially in new and developing fields in which we are contributing to the shaping of the discipline.
We seek to initiate and sustain research collaborations with regional, national and international partners, particularly with regard to the use and development of archival sources for our research.
We are committed to communicating our work as widely as possible, especially to audiences outside universities. Our research appears in many forms:
scholarly editions and monographs
scripts
novels and poetry collections
films
exhibitions
We are determined to ensure that, in addition to students and academics, our research has an impact on all sorts of people and organisations. This includes cultural institutions and policy makers, and indeed anyone interested in literature and language.
