This research project uses psychological, critical and creative methods to study how readers respond to the visual aspects of poetry. It involves specialists in English and Comparative Literature, Fine Art and Psychology. These include the shape of visual or concrete poetry (where words are arranged spatially in particular patterns on the page), the combination of poetry with images (in artists' books and prints), and the moving words and images found in digital poetry (a relatively new form of poetry which is usually web-based and often interactive). [read more]

The project began upon the long-overdue cataloguing of the Lord Chamberlain's collection from 1852 onwards. The pilot covered the decade to 1863. The collection for that period numbers about 3000 plays, including for example the British versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin and many farces and pantomimes with political implications around issues such as first-wave feminism. Cultured mid-Victorians agreed with G. H. Lewes that 'drama is extinct as literature' and ignored the new performance culture; these plays have therefore never been considered in either literary or social histories. [read more]

This project will update, analyse and re-present three important collections of children's playground songs and rhymes: the Opie Collection of Children's Games and Songs, and selections from collections at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) and the Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture (LAVC). [read more]

The central aim of the 1807 Commemorated project was to both map and analyse the responses of museums and their audiences to the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade act of 1807. [read more]