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Research

Research

The Department of English in UCC sustains a rich and productive research culture and was recognised as excellent in the last institutional Research Quality Review. 

Across the Department, researchers investigate the ways in which meaning is embedded in form and shaped by historical, cultural and political contexts. The Department is active in close and engaged analyses of texts across the full range of English as a subject and beyond, from Old English through to twenty-first century literature, creative writing, and digital media. The Department offers PhD training in all these areas. The Department is also committed to enriching cultural and intellectual life, nationally and locally, through our research-based public engagement activities.

 

Literature and Place

There is a nexus of research expertise in the Department that relates to the culture, history and theory of space and place. Instances include research into regional, national and transnational identities; postcolonial theory; transoceanic and transatlantic literatures and cultures; eco-criticism; creative writing; the short story; theories of space and place.

 

Literature and the Past

Research in the Department currently represents the main periods of literature across its centuries of development. The fullness of our coverage animates a distinct and successful strand of Department research into the transmission and transformation of cultural texts across time, and is very important in defining our identity in national and international terms. The Department has strong theoretical interests in such issues as historiography; cultural history; materiality; reception, influence and intertextuality; mediation; and adaptation; while research in creative writing includes historical fiction and memoir.

 

Additionally, the Department has distinctive constellations of activity in Creative Writing and a growing presence in Digital Humanities.

Research strategy is organised through the School's Research Committee, chaired by Professor Claire Connolly. 

English Department

Roinn an Bhéarla

O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork, Cork. Ireland

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