Literary and Cultural Studies

Our literary and cultural studies faculty represent all traditional historical fields within English studies and pursue a wide range of methodological and theoretical projects. We consider the following areas to be among our current strengths: 

Literary History: One of the department’s core strengths linking scholars working in many different fields is a shared interest in literary history. We contribute to the study of literary history in all its cultural and formal diversity. Our faculty are involved in an ongoing collaborative effort to consider ways of rethinking the question of what literary history means and how it is made: its scope and contents but also its forms and methods. 

Literature as a Media Technology: One of the strengths of our department lies in our focus on writing as a media technology and on literature as an art form that is necessarily in interaction with other media technologies. We offer a deep history of these media technologies that goes back all the way to the Middle Ages and traces the complex histories of these formations from the beginnings of manuscript and print culture to comic books, digital technologies, and Indigenous AI.

The South, the Global South, and Empire: The study of the literature of the American South has long been a priority for our department.We are especially interested in expanding the scope of our research activities in this area to include the literary and cultural products of the Global South. Our department forms an important part of a collective of scholars at UGA who are devoted to the study of post-colonial theory and criticism.

Nation, Transnationalism, Translation: Our discipline is fundamentally rooted in the study of the English language in its various cultural traditions. Yet the global presence of English in its interactions with other languages and cultures presents additional opportunities for us to explore broader forms of language use and complex cultural relations. Our department is especially interested in exploring the various ways in which acts of translation constituted in a fundamental way to the formation of Anglophone literary traditions. 

Colloquia, Workshops, and Research Collectives: In addition to scholarly talks, the English Department hosts several lecture series, colloquia, and workshops. 

• The department co-hosts the Symposium on the Book with the UGA Special Collections Libraries, a semesterly seminar and workshop that focuses on books themselves as objects of study. 
   
• The Georgia Colloquium in 18th- and 19th-Century British Literature, directed by Casie LeGette (Associate Professor of English) is housed in the English Department and supported by the Willson Center for Humanities & Arts and the Rodney Baine Lecture Series, the latter of which is devoted to bringing prominent scholars of eighteenth-century studies to campus.
   
• Since 2001, the British and Irish Studies program has supported interdisciplinary teaching and research at the University of Georgia in the culture, history, arts, society, and politics of Britain and Ireland.
   
• The Willson Center’s Interdisciplinary Modernisms Workshop, directed by Nell Andrew (Associate Professor, Art History, Lamar Dodd School of Art) and Susan Rosenbaum (Associate Professor, Department of English) facilitates and formalizes a collaborative and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas providing graduate students, visiting scholars, and university faculty the opportunity to discuss and provide feedback for works-in-progress.
   
• UGA’s Postcolonial Collective is a cross-departmental group of faculty and graduate students whose work intersects with the broad field of postcolonial studies. Hailing primarily from the English and Comparative Literature departments, our primary purpose is to exchange ideas and generate conversations about current trends in the field, while also creating connections with other academic units.  
   
• Held on the Autumnal Equinox, the American Indian Returnings series, or AIR, is supported by the Eidson Foundational Fund, under the direction of LeAnne Howe (Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature, Department of English) and Channette Romero (Associate Professor, English). This annual event brings eminent Native scholars and writers from all fields to campus.