Lecturer in Creative Writing, Literary Prose
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LECTURER IN CREATIVE WRITING, LITERARY PROSE FURTHER PARTICULARS LANCASTER UNIVERSITY The University was founded in 1964 and has established itself as one of the UK's top research-led institutions, often ranked the number one university in the Northwest and currently ranked in the top 10 UK universities by the Times, Guardian and Independent. The University is expanding, and offers world class facilities to staff and students. Its main campus is situated on the southern outskirts of Lancaster and is set in 250 acres of landscaped parkland, close to the lively, friendly and historic city of Lancaster. The campus is 30 miles south of the Lake District, 20 miles east of the Yorkshire Dales, and even closer to the Forest of Bowland and the Fylde. It is about one hour's drive or 1 ¼ hours by train from Manchester International Airport and about 2 ½ hours by train from London. THE ENVIRONS OF THE UNIVERSITY The university is situated 3 miles south of the City of Lancaster in the North West of England and close to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks as well as other areas of outstanding natural beauty. Lancaster is a small historic city with a 12th-century castle dominating the hill above the River Lune, and is associated with the towns of Morecambe and Heysham on the coast and with many beautiful rural villages. It has Georgian architecture and historic buildings and offers excellent shopping, a cinema, theatre and good restaurants, with many well-preserved older buildings. The three towns and the villages have excellent schools and enjoy easy access to the M6 motorway, as well as to the main west coast railway line and Manchester International Airport. Housing is affordable and varied, ranging from country cottages through to town houses and flats. THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING The Department is home to 25 permanent staff members, seven at the professorial level, and a number of teaching assistants and associates, most of them taken from our own Ph.D. programme. The Department is also home to Distinguished Professor Terry Eagleton, who lectures and leads seminars on campus three weeks a year. Enrolment in our undergraduate programme averages about 170 students per year, with the addition of coterie of minors from other departments and visiting students from abroad. Our current postgraduate population numbers about 140. This figure includes about 35 students enrolled in our Distance Learning MA in Creative Writing, about 65 undertaking MAs in Literature and in Creative Writing, and about 40 students at various stages in pursuing a PhD. Although English Literature and Creative Writing are in principle two separate subject areas, and usually taught as such, the department has been seeking ways to accommodate each to the other. Our creative writers lecture to our literature students, and our literature specialists lecture to our creative writing students, especially in the first year of undergraduate studies. The Department hosts a number of initiatives, through readings, seminars and conferences where synergies between the two subject areas are promoted and discussed. One of our Professors in English Literature, John Schad, is both a theorist and a creative writer, and is leading initiatives to create an MA pathway, and other learning and research opportunities, in the area of critical-creative writing. The Literature section’s teaching and research strengths include early modern writing, the long nineteenth century, modernism, intersections between literature and film, and contemporary writing, including postcolonial writing. Research initiatives are promoted through a number of organisational entities: The Shakespeare Programme, which will host the next Biennial Conference of the British Shakespeare Association, and which regularly organises biannual sessions of the Northern Renaissance Seminar. The Wordsworth Centre , established in 1987, whose primary aim is to promote interest in Wordsworth and the Lake District, and whose work is closely allied with The Wordsworth Trust at Grasmere. The Ruskin Centre, a dedicated research centre that carries out research into John Ruskin and his circle, focussing on the uniquely comprehensive holdings of the Ruskin Library, which is housed on campus. The Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research (CTWR), which links Lancaster University's postgraduate student community to extensive research activity in creative writing and its impact on society. From the beginning CTWR has had an internationalist focus, including outreach programmes in Africa. Research initiatives are further encouraged through a series of departmental seminars and literary readings and though informal links among staff members cooperating in several research clusters - namely: Literature and Religion, Literature and Location, Transcultural Writing, and Film and Popular Genres. A Gothic Studies group meets regularly to discuss the latest publications and productions in the field, and hosts seminars and conferences. The accomplishments of individuals in our Department is by any measure impressive; for example: Paul Farley, one of Britain’s most respected public poets, has just produced, in collaboration with Michael Symmons Roberts, a book called Edgelands which has been hailed by The Times as ‘a masterpiece of its kind’; Hilary Hinds is about to publish her definitive study of George Fox and Early Quaker Culture, and as Wellcome Institute Fellow is now working on Twin Beds: A Cultural Study; whilst theorist Arthur Bradley and Ruskin specialist Andrew Tate, recently collaborated on their provocative The New Atheist Novel: Fiction, Philosophy and Polemic after 9/11 . LECTURER IN CREATIVE WRITING, LITERARY PROSE The full-time appointment will be a lecturer with a strong record of publications, a commitment to practice-based teaching at undergraduate and MA levels, and to the supervision of MA and PhD students. The lecturer will be a specialist in ‘literary prose’, a term which to identify any form of prose writing, fictional or non-fictional, in short form or long, which is primarily artistic in intention rather than commercial. A conventional mainstream novelist or short story writer would fit the bill, but so would an experimental writer or a specialist in the burgeoning field of ‘creative non-fiction’. S/he will be expected to contribute fully to the Department’s research profile via publications. The ability to enhance the research profile of the Creative Writing Programme with up to four good research outputs returnable for REF at the 3* or the 4* level is essential. An ability to work collaboratively on the development of research projects in the Department and the Faculty are also desirable. A doctorate or equivalent publication record, qualifying the applicant to supervise PhD students, is required. An interest in contributing to our rapidly expanding international (partly virtual) postgraduate programmes, both at MA and PhD level, would be an advantage; so would commensurate expertise and experience in the management of virtual learning environments, or interest in developing our initiatives in critical-creative writing. At undergraduate level and MA level, the lecturer will be expected to offer lectures and practice- based teaching via workshops. S/he will also be required to contribute to summer schools and residential courses as appropriate, to assess work and attend examination board meetings. As with research, the ability to work collaboratively and across disciplinary boundaries in order to contribute to the development of teaching and curriculum, will be advantageous. Some administrative duties will also be attached to the post. Every effort will be made to ensure that these are commensurate with the career age and experience of the applicant and the level of appointment. .