World-class Research

91% of our research is rated 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' in REF 2021. We are one of the top 30 English departments in the world in the 2022 QS rankings.

Established strengths

Our established research strengths include world and comparative literature, poetry and poetics, performance studies, environmental and medical humanities, literary and cultural theory, literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present, American studies, cultural history, and British Isles literatures. A summary of our current Research Strategy is online here.

We work closely with the University's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning to support development of innovative programmes of study and teaching delivery.

Research seminar

The department has a vibrant research community with a number of different events happening throughout the term. Information on our current departmental seminar is here: our Research Seminar convenor for 2024-2025 is Dr Steve Purcell.

Major research grants

We currently house two major Leverhulme projects: Dr Mike Niblett's World Literature and Commodity Frontiers: The Ecology of the ‘long’ Twentieth Century; and Dr John Gilmore's William Jones: Oriental Poetry, Latin Scholarship and the European Enlightenment.

Research projects and groups

We work on a wide range of research: a full list of projects and groups is here. Current groups include Multicultural Shakespeare in Britain; Comparative Religions and Literatures; Warwick Research Collective (WReC); Poetry at Warwick; Feminist Dissent and American Studies.