Postcolonialism research
Several members of the English team have research strengths in this area, in particular Professor John Strachan, Dr Alison Younger, Dr Geoff Nash, Kath Kerr-Koch and Dr Claire Nally.
The Northern Association for Postcolonial Studies (NAPS), a research collective set up to facilitate collaboration in the subject area across the
UK
, is based at
Sunderland
. Its first seminar was held at the
Newcastle University
(summer,
2007), and the second in
Sunderland,
with Lord Desai as the speaker (December, 2007). NAPS also organised a conference held at
Sunderland
in April 2010 on Postcolonialism and Islam.
Sunderland
is a major
UK
centre for Irish Studies. From 2003 an annual Irish Studies conference has taken place here, drawing scholars from around
Europe
and
North America,
as well as from the
UK
and
Ireland.
Two volumes of conference proceedings have been published by the
University
of
Sunderland Press
in 2005 and 2007, the latter edited by Prof. Strachan. Details about the 2009 conference can be found by clicking here. Prof. Willy Maley (University
of
Glasgow),
an internationally renowned specialist in Irish Studies, was appointed as Visiting Professor in English in 2006. Over the past four years the conference has been awarded over £10,000 in external funding. The initial Irish Studies conference led to a collaborative venture between the Universities of
Sunderland
and
Durham:
the North-East Irish Culture Network (NEICN). NEICN aims to forge close links between academic research into Irish Studies and the local Irish community. Prof. Strachan is a member of its executive board. NEICN has a Visiting Speakers Programme to which several distinguished academics and creative writers have contributed (Bernard O'Donoghue, for example).
A major research project on Consumer Culture in
Ireland,
1848-1904
is now in progress, developed under the auspices of NEICN. It involves collaboration with the
School
of
English,
Durham
(Prof. P. Waugh and Dr J. Nash),
University
College,
Dublin,
the
Royal
Irish
Academy,
and the National Library of Ireland and is led by Prof. Strachan and Dr Younger. The project attracted £248,000 in funding from the Leverhulme Trust. Dr Claire Nally was appointed as a Research Fellow based at
Sunderland,
and there are two PhD studentships also associated with the project (one at
Durham,
one at
Sunderland).
