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Research

Find out more about the research being undertaken at UCL English. This includes the three principal themes which form the core of our research activity.

UCL English research appears in many forms, from newspaper reviews to scholarly monographs. We have expertise in just about every facet of this diverse and open-boundaried discipline. 

We also welcome applications for postdoctoral research fellowships.  We are currently accepting 2024-25 applications for British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships and Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships.

The world renowned Survey of English Usage is based in our department.

Learn about our research 

Our research is focussed on three main themes:

  • The City - literary portrayals of city life
  • Editions - our editing work that spans different genres and periods
  • Intercultural Exchanges - writing as a process of exchange that bridges time periods and disciplines 

These themes form the strategic core of our collective thinking and our workshop events and talks.

We are involved in the UCL Centre for Early Modern Exchanges. This centre explores different types of intercultural exchange from 1450 to 1800. Find out more about the Centre for Early Modern Exchanges.

We are also involved in the UCL Urban Laboratory, a cross-disciplinary centre. Find out more about the UCL Urban Laboratory.

The Survey of English Usage

The Survey of English usage was established in 1959 by Randolph Quirk. 

The Survey:

  • collects samples of naturally-occurring language for the purposes of description and analysis
  • is a world leader in corpus linguistics
  • is an internationally renowned resource for the study of present day English

Many renowned linguists have done research at the Survey.

Learn more about the Survey of English Usage.

Our publications

Much of the research published by members of the department is open-access. You can download them for free from UCL Discovery. You can follow links to selected, open-access publications on the webpages for each of our three research themes.

We have put together a list of some of our recent publications.