Professor Orietta Da Rold has been named one of twelve lecturers to receive the prestigious 2026 Pilkington Prize, an award established in 1994 by Sir Alastair Pilkington to recognise and acknowledge excellence in teaching. Professor Da Rold was credited as ‘an inspirational teacher whose visionary approach to teaching has had a transformative effect felt far […]

Dr Lloyd Meadhbh Houston, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in English, served as gender-diversity consultant to the Cambridge Festival this year.

Zoë Svendsen and Roman Senkl give a keynote lecture on Story.glitch and the Politics of Interactivity, at ‘ANALOGUE vs. DIGITAL HUMAN feat. ART’, an international, interdisciplinary conference organised by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts Brno (JAMU), in the Czech Republic, 26-27 February 2026. Link to further information about the conference: https://www.theatreconferencejamu.cz/en/keynote-speakers

This improvised evening session will be centred on the idea of “catastrophe”. Open to the public, featuring readings of both newly created and canonical texts, audience members are invited to bring short texts / poems / songs that respond to the topic. Central to the evening will be poet and professor D.S Marriott (Emory University), […]

Lloyd Meadhbh Houston will be performing in a work-in-progress sharing of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Playwriting finalist Danielle James’ new play Sun Day as part of the Front & Centre: International Women’s Day Playwriting Festival in Derry from the 6th till the 8th of March. Link to further information about the Festival: https://www.derryplayhouse.co.uk/event/front-centre-international-womens-day-playwriting-festival Link to further information […]

On Monday 2nd March, Professor Sarah Dillon will join presenter Tom Sutcliffe on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week to discuss “why we should read”. She joins alongside fellow guests, the publisher Margaret Busby and the writer Lottie Moggach. BBC programme billing: “The UK government has declared 2026, the National Year of Reading. The numbers […]

Dr Amy Gaeta and Dr Lloyd Meadhbh Houston give a talk on “More Than Gender, More Than Neurodivergence: Autism and Egg Theory” as invited speakers at the Neurodivergent Humanities Network’s symposium Neurodiversity is More Than… on the 4th of March. Link to further information: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/neurodiversity-is-more-than-tickets-1975828909456

The Corpse in Modern Irish Literature (Liverpool University Press, 2026) is edited by Christopher Cusack, Bridget English, and Matthew L. Reznicek.  Dr Houston’s chapter is on ‘James Joyce’s “The Sisters”: Irish Modernism and the Sexually Pathological Corpse’. Link to further information: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836244837