READ: Research in English At Durham

22/05/2026

Dr Maryam Mirza's new paper ‘"What’s Gone is Gone”: Partition, Ownership, and Loss in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand’ is now published by Taylor & Francis Group. Read for free:
👉 https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5073892/whats-gone-is-gone-partition-ownership-and-loss-in-geetanjali-shrees-tomb-of-sand

Find out more about Maryam’s research at:
👉https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/maryam-mirza/

15/05/2026

Professor Alastair Renfrew's new paper ‘Lenin as an Object of Formalist Discourse’ is now published by Wiley at:
👉 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/russ.70129

Find out more about Alastair’s research at:
👉 https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/alastair-renfrew2/

13/05/2026

📢 MEMSA Conference 2026 📢

Register by 20th June for the 20th Medieval and Early Modern Student Association (MEMSA) Conference at Durham University. The theme of this year's conference is 'Connection, Conversation, and Contention: Encounters in the Medieval and Early Modern World', featuring papers by postgraduates from around the world.

Our colleague Dr Natalie Goodison, Dr Lisa Kattenberg, and Professor Stuart Carroll will lead the conference which will also include a special collections library tour and tour of Durham city.

Register below by 20th June:
👉https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=i9hQcmhLKUW-RNWaLYpvlFFYknFXEpJOkqwtgqakMuZUMkZGTE1aTEVEUFVVTEE3NlVVOTRMMlRSSi4u&route=shorturl

📅13-14th July
📍St. John's College, Durham

11/05/2026

🕵 The Cambridge Spy Ring: 75 Years since the first defections 🕵

Tickets are now available for the second event in The Afterlives of Cambridge Spies project, funded by the and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and led by our colleague Professor James Smith and Professor Michael Goodman (King's College London). Gordon Corera and Gill Bennett will discuss the legacy of the spies, 75 years on, investigating how the public revelations about the spies unfolded and how they changed British society.

This event will take place both in-person at National Archives and online. Book your place here:
👉

Join Gordon Corera in discussion with Gill Bennett as they investigate the legacy of the Cambridge Spies, 75 years on.

07/05/2026

📚 North East Book Events: May Highlights 📚

There are various literary events happening across the North East this month, so here are our highlights:
Visit our full newsletter for more:
https://readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/events/english-literature-events-in-durham-newcastle-and-the-north-east/

Author events at Collected Books
Hope Reese and Laura Tisdall discuss their newest books, hosted by local Durham bookshop Collected.
📅6th May (Hope Reese), 7th May (Laura Tisdall)
📍Collected Books

Royal Literary Fund Event
'Writer's Block: Conversations with Writers from The Royal Literary Fund', hosted by North East writers Tahmina Ali, Bridget Deane, and Harry Man, explores the writing process and what really happens when authors experiences 'writer's block'.
📅16th May
📍Middlesbrough Library

'Writing Folklore' workshop
The People's Bookshop in association with the North East Folklore Society and Carnyx Press are hosting a panel of guests discussing contemporary resurgence of interest in folklore and folkloric writing.
📅19th May
📍People's Bookshop

Our monthly what’s on guide captures the literature and book chat, lectures, readings and other events in Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Teesside, and the North East UK.

06/05/2026

📢 'The Relationship is the Therapy': A Collaborative Symposium 📢

This Friday, our colleague Dr Josh Pugh, in collaboration with the Institute for Medical Humanities is hosting a symposium on therapy research and practice.

The hybrid symposium explores the therapeutic relationship from cross-sectoral perspective, inviting scholars from the humanities and social sciences and experts in therapy research and policy, as well as clinicians spanning the spectrum of contemporary therapies.

More info here:
👉 https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/events/the-relationship-is-the-therapy-a-symposium-on-therapy-research--practice/

📅Friday 8th May
Institute for Medical Humanities

04/05/2026

🔦🌕May the 4th be with you!

Dr Samuel Thomas’ new paper 'Lines of Flight, Lines of Force: Thomas Pynchon & Star Wars' is now published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Read for free via Durham Research Online:
👉 https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5156659

Find out more about Sam’s research at:
👉 https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/samuel-thomas/

In 2027, Sam is also hosting a conference 'Star Wars: Forces, Forms, Legacies' at Durham University on 7th May, followed by events TBC:
👉 https://starwarsat50.webspace.durham.ac.uk/

01/05/2026

Recent Undergraduate Dissertation Success 🎉

As our finalists have recently submitted their dissertations, we have the pleasure to highlight former student Jake Henson, who recently had an article published in Spenser Studies that was based on his undergraduate dissertation.

This is indicates how exciting undergraduate dissertations can be in laying the foundations for postgraduate degrees and in literary studies and beyond. Congratulations Jake!

Read his article:
👉https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/738546

27/04/2026

Congratulations to the new Dr Ellen Charlesworth who has now completed her viva and submitted her final thesis. 🎉

Read more about Dr Charlesworth’s work at:
👉 https://etheses.durham.ac.uk/id/eprint/16488/

Ellen’s PhD was supervised by Professor Warwick (English Studies) and Dr Leonardo Impett (Computer Science).

24/04/2026

Dr Marco Bernini's new paper ‘Phantasmal Intersubjectivity: Co-Presence and the Emersivity of Literary Characters’ is now published by Duke University Press at:
👉 https://read.dukeupress.edu/poetics-today/article-abstract/47/1/95/407939/Phantasmal-Intersubjectivity-Co-Presence-and-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext

University of Pennsylvania Press have also published Marco's paper on 'AI as Character', which can be read for free here for 90 days:
👉https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/style/article/59/3/466/409286/AI-as-Character-Real-Patterns-in-Fictive?guestAccessKey=d2b13061-72c9-41cd-9068-2b8c780b508b

Find out more about Marco’s research at:
👉 https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/marco-bernini/