Encouraging the public to share ‘a passion for literature’

The British Academy project Literature and the Reading Public welcomes young literary researchers to first meeting

THEIR specialities range from Shakespeare and Charles Dickens to sci-fi and novels spawned by Thatcher’s Britain, but ten of the UK’s brightest young experts must come together at the University of Huddersfield and devise a joint project that will encourage the public to share their passion for literature.

Dr James Underwood – who is Research Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University – has earned a Rising Star Engagement Award from the British Academy.  It includes a £9,000 grant for a project named Literature and the Reading Public: Challenges and Opportunities.  It sees Dr Underwood training and mentoring a specially selected new network of early career researchers.

A first two-day session has now been held and on Day One there were talks from five established experts in the field of literature and public engagement.

The University of Huddersfield’s Dr David Rudrum spoke about an innovative module for literature students in which they work with organisations such as museums to develop a public-facing project.

There were also talks and workshops from Heather Lusardi, of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, and from broadcaster Dr Sarah Dillon, on how academics can work with the media to share their enthusiasm for the study of literature.  Dr Josie Billington, Deputy Director of the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society, spoke about research into the health benefits of reading.  And Professor Richard Marggraf Turley, of the University of Aberystwyth, told how he had worked with scientists to use brain scanning technology to monitor people’s mental activity when they were absorbed in literature.

Day Two of the event saw the ten early-career researchers, selected by Dr Underwood, give presentations on their specialities.  They will assemble again at the University of Huddersfield to devise a public engagement project on which they will collaborate.

“It will quite challenging because we are based at ten different universities and are all working on different subjects within the field of literary studies,” said Dr Underwood.  But he said that the first session held as part of his British Academy-backed project had been highly productive.

“We covered a lot of ground, from very practical advice to theories of public engagement, and we heard about some outstanding examples from our invited speakers.”