Lectureship in Eighteenth-Century Literature
School of Cultural Studies
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield, England

1) The Post

The lectureship is a permanent post within the English Subject-Group. The English Subject-Group is part of the School of Cultural Studies.

It is expected that the successful candidate will have a completed Ph.D. in some area of Eighteenth-Century Literature although candidates nearing completion are also invited to apply, as are those with a strong teaching interest in the eighteenth century, but with a research experience in a related field. The successful candidate will be expected to take a lead in teaching the eighteenth-century novel. The ability to teach Renaissance Literature may be an advantage. It is also expected that the successful candidate will wish to contribute to the Corvey Research Project.

2) The English Subject-Group

The English department is situated on the Collegiate Crescent Campus in a Grade II listed Victorian building, adjacent to History and Communication Studies, with which the subject-group has close links. We are currently planning a joint degree with History and an MA in Discourse Analysis with Communication Studies.

The current establishment of the English Subject-Group is 17 including the present post and one other new appointment in the area of creative writing. There are also 3 senior research fellows attached to the subject-group: 2 Corvey Project fellows funded by the British Academy, and a teaching quality fellow funded by HEFCE. There are currently two professors (Sara Mills and E.A. Markham) and one reader (Robert Miles).

English at Sheffield Hallam enjoys a HEFCE excellent rating for its teaching and achieved a 3A(a) in the last RAE, the highest research ranking in the New University Sector. The Times Good University Guide currently ranks Sheffield Hallam English equal thirteenth in England (alongside Bristol, Durham, Lancaster, Liverpool and the University of Sheffield). The subject-group is young, dynamic and collegial. We are looking for a staff member who is interested in working collaboratively with colleagues intent on creating a quality academic environment.

The English Subject-Group currently offers four taught degrees: BA Honours in English studies; BA Honours in Film and Literature; an MA in Creative Writing; and an MA in British Cultural Studies. It currently has 15 research students, the majority of whom are part-time.

The BA English Studies is composed of three interrelated disciplinary strands: literature, linguistics and creative writing. The literature courses cover the period 1580 to the present and are organised chronologically and generically. Alongside Drama, Poetry and Fiction staff offer special options reflecting their research interests. Current options include the Revenge Tragedy, the Thirties Novel, Contemporary Women's Writing, Children's Literature, the Gothic, Existentialism, Contemporary poetry and Modern British Drama. Other units include Literary Theory, Shakespeare, and a final year dissertation or folder of original creative work. The linguistics course is designed to equip students with a close understanding of literary effects and with a grounding in the grammatical and syntactic principles of the English language. The creative writing strand is organised on formalist principles and is designed to introduce students to literary form through practice. The BA English Studies degree currently recruits 110 students per year.

The BA in Film and Literature is composed of units taken from the BA English Studies and from the BA in Film Studies with the addition of specialised, inter-disciplinary courses. The BA in Film and Literature currently recruits 57 students per year.

The MA in Creative Writing offers options in the novel (taught by Jane Rogers; Lesley Glaister; Lynn Alexander); short story (E.A. Markham); poetry (E.A. Markham); Literary Editing (E.A. Markham); scriptwriting (Mike Harris); teaching writing in the classroom (John Turner). The MA accepts 25 students a year, and is the largest programme of its kind in the country.

The MA in British Cultural Studies offers units in Research Methods; Language Discourse and Culture; Post-Colonial Identities; Marlowe, Shakespeare and the British Empire; and Romanticism and Nationalism.

It is expected that the successful applicant will lead the eighteenth-century fiction unit which is taken by both BAES and BAFL students. The remainder of the post-holder's teaching will be composed of any of the units offered by the English Subject-Group in accordance with the post-holder's teaching and research interests as far as that is compatible with the needs of the Subject-Group.

3) The Corvey Project

Funded by the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy, the Corvey Project is one of the largest research projects of its kind in Britain. The core of the project is the University's copy of Edition Corvey, a collection of novels, poems, plays and literary miscellanies from Schloss Corvey in Germany, published on microfiche by Belser. The collection covers the period 1770-1850, with the bulk of the material falling in the period 1800-1830, where the collection of novels represents something like 80% of the total published. The Corvey Project has a two-fold purpose: to map the writing by women as it is represented within Edition Corvey, and to make the results available to the international scholarly community using information technology. The Corvey Project team includes the two British Academy Fellows, Dr. Emma Clery and Dr. Glenn Dibert-Himes; the project director, Dr. Michael Worboys (who is also the head of the Cultural Research Institute); three literature specialists, Dr. Robert Miles, Dr. Philip Cox and Dr. Lisa Hopkins; an IT specialist, Dr. Noel Williams; and a visiting Professor, Dr. Stephen Behrendt from the University of Nebraska. There are currently three research students working on material directly relating to the Project, and fifteen students completing their undergraduate dissertations on Corvey Project authors. Candidates may wish to visit the Project's web site at:

<http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/corvey/c32/mframe.htm>.

In addition the university is in the process of acquiring the travel writing section of Edition Corvey. Candidates interested in this area of research may consult the travel writing bibliography, also available on the Project's web site.

4) Information Technology

The Subject-Group has a strong interest in the application of Information Technology to research and teaching in the Humanities. In addition to work on the Corvey Project, the Subject-Group has developed a range of interactive teaching materials delivered through hypertext principles, including the Versewriter programme, and CD-ROMs on William Blake, Letitia Elizabeth Landon and eighteenth-century satire. The Subject-Group has an ambitious programme of development in this area.

5) The School of Cultural Studies

The School of Cultural Studies is composed of ten subject-groups: English; History; Communication Studies; Northern Media School; Design; Design and Technology Education; Fine Art; Film Studies; Media Studies; History of Art and Design. Eighty percent of staff were entered at the last RAE, and all subject-groups received either 3A or 4. The School of Cultural Studies has the highest research ranking in the University, which in turn has the highest research ranking in the New University Sector.

6) For further information and an application form, please contact:

Ann Baldwin
Human Resources Department
3rd Floor, Surrey Building
City Campus
Sheffield S1 1WB
U.K.
Fax: 0114-225-3957
Internet: a.baldwin@shu.ac.uk