It’s been a busy year for the English department! Our students have enjoyed a huge range of experiences ‘beyond the classroom’, with talks from studied poets and visiting academics. Some highlights include:
- Poet Patience Agbabi visited the College to read and talk about her poem ‘Eat Me’ – a text studied on the A Level English Literature course – providing fascinating insights into her inspiration for the poem and the careful and deliberate crafting and stylistic choices she made
- Lecturers from the University of Portsmouth gave talks on The Handmaid’s Tale and comparing The Great Gatsby and Othello. This is the third time the University of Portsmouth have visited us, and they always provide students with useful insights into studying English at degree level
- Poet Daljit Nagra ran an enjoyable creative writing workshop for our A Level English Language and Literature students. He also gave a talk on his studied poem ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover!’ to our A Level English Literature students
- Dr Katrina O’Loughlin from Brunel University gave a brilliant lecture on monsters and the monstrous in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
- We also had two talks via Zoom! One from poet Ian Duhig on his poem ‘The Lammas Hireling’ to help English Literature students with their study of this poem of murder and witchcraft. Professor Paul Rouse also gave a talk on the contexts of the Troubles in Northern Ireland to help English Language and Literature students with their study of Brian Friel’s play Translations
- Grace Cowley from the School of Journalism ran a workshop for students
