Owain Burrell
Owain Burrell
I am a PhD candidate and Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. My thesis is entitled The Grammar School Ideal in British Literature 1945-1990, in which I examine the function of the state grammar school as a 'Britishising' tool in the four constituent nations of the UK, through their literary registrations. The grammar school, made state educational policy in 1945, competed with alternative educational traditions in each sub-British nation, but I argue that they were designed to transform local (eg. Welsh, Scottish, Northern English) schoolchildren into British citizens, with varying success.
As well as teaching, I am involved in Academic Writing programmes throughout the university. This includes teaching in the Physics department, and running Academic Writing One-to-One sessions in the ECLS department with Dr Rochelle Sibley.
My research interests include 20th Century British Literature, particularly Welsh literature; education and literature; meritocracy and logics of productivity; and Yiddish literature in translation.
BA, MA: University of Warwick
Conference papers:
Forests and the Future of Englishness; What Happens Now? BACLS biennial conference, University of Birmingham, September 2023
Fiona Mozley’s Elmet and the English Xylosphere; Unbuilding the Future, University of Warwick, June 2023
The Evaluative Logic of Meritocracy; (Re)Imagining Value, Newcastle University, May 2023
'Three Cheers for Mute Ingloriousness!': Tony Harrison and Working Class Silence; Saying Nothing to Say, University of Warwick, May 2023
Teaching 23/24
EN2L4 Literature in Theory
PX376 Communicating Science
ECLS Academic Writing One-to-One Support ( please book an appointment hereLink opens in a new window)
Office Hours: Mondays 10-11, FAB5.31