About us

The Department of English and American Literature at Reading is renowned for its excellence in teaching and research. We are a lively, friendly Department, with around 30 permanent members of staff who offer innovative undergraduate and postgraduate programmes covering the full range of English and American Literature from the middle ages to the present, as well as post-colonial literatures.  In the most recent RAE (2008) 90% of the work submitted by the Department was judged to be of international standard. 

We are proud of our teaching system, where the emphasis on seminars and tutorial work encourages our students to discuss ideas with tutors and other students in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere.

The Department has received the prestigious Queen's Award for its work on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre Project, and is an acknowledged 'Centre of Excellence' in the dynamic field of Children's Literature. It also contributes to several interdisciplinary and collaborative Research Centres, such as the Early Modern Research Centre, the Renaissance Texts Research Centre, the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies and the Centre for the History of Authorship, Writing and Publishing. A Graduate Centre for Modern Literature is being developed. Furthermore, the Department is linked to the Beckett International Foundation, which administers the largest archive of Beckett manuscript material in the world. Members of staff also contribute to one of the University's research themes, the Material Text Research Theme.  http://www.reading.ac.uk/researchthemes/themes-material.asp