John Strachan

Personal statement

John is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Dean of Graduate College and Director of the Corsham Court Campus. He was previously Dean, School of Humanities and Cultural Industries at Bath Spa, and before that Associate Dean for Research, HCI. He previously held chairs at Northumbria University and the University of Sunderland.

John is Professor of English Literature. His research interests focus on British Romanticism, with a particular attention to Romantic-era popular culture, parody and satire, literary magazines and the work of Leigh Hunt, John Keats, and William Wordsworth.

He is fascinated by the relationship between literature and advertising, the subject of his monographs, Advertising and Satirical Culture in the Romantic Period, Cambridge University Press, 2007, and Advertising, Literature and Print Culture in Ireland, 1891-1922 (co-written with Claire Nally), Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. He is also the general editor of British Satire 1785-1840 (Pickering and Chatto, 5 vols, 2003) and co-editor of Parodies of the Romantic Age (Pickering and Chatto, 5 vols, 1999).

John is an Associate Editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Professor Strachan is Director of GuildHE Research, a co-chair of the Charles Lamb Society, and a Trustee of The Royal Commonwealth Society, Bath. He has a particular interest in global higher education and is Chair of the South West and Wales Africa Research Network, an ambassador for the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and President of the Global Academy of Liberal Arts.

John is the Co-Chair of Radio for a Better World, with Brian Mathew MP, and also sits on the British Council's committee on international higher education. He is the Chief External Examiner for the Arab Open University.

Academic qualifications

• BA (Hons) Southampton, class 1
• MPhil Oxford
• DPhil Oxford

Professional qualifications

• Fellow - Royal Historical Society
• Fellow - Royal Asiatic Society

Funding and awards

• Principal Investigator, AHRC Impact Accelerator Account, 2022-26
• Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Award, 2021
• Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Award, 2019
• British Academy Senior Research Fellow, 2011-12
• British Academy Small Research Grant, 2011
• Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow, 2009-10
• Director, Leverhulme Trust Major Research Project, Consumer Culture, Advertising and Literature in Ireland, 1848-1921, 2008-11
• British Academy Overseas Travel Grant, 2007
• Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow, 2006-7
• Culture Ireland Conference Grant, 2006
• AHRB Research Leave Fellowship, 2000

Professional memberships

• Associate Editor, Oxford Companion to English Literature
• Chair, Guild HE research group
• Editorial Board, Charles Lamb Bulletin
• Co-Chair, Charles Lamb Society
• Volume Editor, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Thomas Love Peacock
• Board Member - Thomas Hardy Country Steering Group
• Member, British Association for Romantic Studies
• Member, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
• Member, International Conference on Romanticism

External examinerships

• External Examiner, University of Liverpool, PhD thesis, 2012
• External Examiner, Leeds Trinity University, BA English, 2012-
• External Examiner, Cardiff Metropolitan University, MA in Creative Writing, 2009-
• External Examiner, Cardiff Metropolitan University, MA in English, 2009-
• External Examiner, University of Glasgow, PhD thesis, 2009
• External Examiner, Northumbria University, Faculty External Examiner, 2009-11
• External Examiner, University of Gloucester, Revalidation of BA in English, 2008-9
• External Examiner, University of Glasgow, MPhil thesis, 2005
• External Examiner, University of Cardiff, PhD thesis, 2004
• External Examiner, University of York, PhD thesis, 2004
• External Examiner, State University of New York, Stony Brook, PhD thesis, 1999
• External Examiner, University of Wolverhampton: External Examiner, BA English, 1996-2000

Other external roles

• Co-Curator, Their Colours and their Forms: Artists' Responses to Wordsworth, an exhibition shown at the Wordsworth Trust Museum and Gallery, Grasmere, 2 February - 10 March 2013.

Teaching specialism

I have taught all periods of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon age to the present day. My undergraduate teaching includes modules on Romanticism and medieval literature. I have supervised PhD students on a wide range of topics in English and Irish literature and cultural history.

Current scholarship

• With Professor Duncan Wu, I co-curate the podcast Living with the Poets, available on iTunes 
• I am currently editing Gryll Grange for The Cambridge Edition of the Novels of Thomas Love Peacock, with general editors Matthew Bevis and Freya Johnston
• I have guest edited a special issue of Romanticism (19:3, October 2013), 'Romanticism and Sport', with contributions by Simon Bainbridge, Kyle Grimes, Jane Moore, Brian Rejack and myself.