English at the Australian National University

England's 'island nationhood?' with Professor Lorna Hutson | National Library of Australia (NLA) Professor Lorna Hutson examines early modern legal and poetic texts to explore the concept of England's 'island nationhood'.

Excited about this (free!) public lecture at the NLA by one of the foremost scholars of Shakespeare and early modernity, Lorna Hutson. 19 Feb, 6pm. To register or get an online link, visit:
www.library.gov.au/whats-on/eve...
Don't miss this exploration of the idea of English 'island nationhood'!

Shakespeare on the move: Gold rush to Great War | National Library of Australia (NLA) Join us for the third illustrated Shakespeare lecture and discover the objects and stories that reveal how Shakespeare made landfall in Australia.

Tomorrow! Free! Online and in person at the NLA!
From 6-8pm, join ANU English's Kate Flaherty and actors from Bell Shakespeare as they illustrate this Shakespeare lecture, uncovering the objects and stories that reveal how Shakespeare made landfall in Australia.
www.library.gov.au/whats-on/eve...

A HUGE congrats to ANU English's very own @rossmith.bsky.social and @claireghansen.bsky.social on their recent ARC Discovery grant success! 'Handwritten' promises to change how we think about the significance, value & power of writing by hand, then and now - congrats to the dream team! 🥳 🥳 🥳

🥳 HUGE congrats to our own @rossmith.bsky.social who with Trisha Pender just won the Digital Scholarship, New Media & Art award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women for their Encyclopedia project, 5 years in the making! 🥳
link.springer.com/referencewor...
Here's the judges' comments:

Day 3 of our staff members' choice of Top 10 Books of the 21st century, & today it's the turn of Associate Professor of English Julieanne Lamond. That's 2 votes so far for Flamethrowers! Join in as ABC Radio National finds the nation's fave books of the last 25 years: www.abc.net.au/listen/radio...

Day 2 of posting ANU English's staff lists of Top 10 Books of the last 25 years, & today it's the turn of Lecturer Chloe Green! Spot any you love too? You can join in the fun as ABC Radio National tries to find the nation's favourite books of the 21st century so far: www.abc.net.au/listen/radio...

Do it! Such fun!

So first up on @englishanu.bsky.social's staff choices of Top 10 Books of the last 25 years is Senior Lecturer @unamcilvenna.bsky.social! Follow along to find out what the top choices are of the experts who teach this stuff for a living! And create your own list at www.abc.net.au/listen/radio...

Radio National's Top 100 Books - ABC Radio National Radio National's Top 100 Books of the past 25 years is here. Listen on Saturday 19 October and Sunday 20 October as we count down the books you voted as your favourites.

Love books? Which is your favourite of the century so far? Here at ANU English we're joining ABC Radio National in their poll to find the nation's fave books of the last 25 years. Each day we'll post the Top 10 List of a member of our dept. You can join in the fun here
www.abc.net.au/listen/radio...

Publication! ANU English's own Rosanne Kennedy and her PhD student Emmaline Montieth have recently published an open-access article exploring the 'Teach Us Consent' platform as part of a special issue on Lives, Selves, Media & #MeToo in
a/b auto/biography studies:
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Infrastructures of Crisis in Global Twenty-First-Century Literature Infrastructures of Crisis in Global Twenty-First-Century Literature

ANU English's own @lucyneave.bsky.social has a new book out: 'Infrastructures of Crisis in Global 21st-Century Literature'

Now available for pre-order with @edinburghup.bsky.social Be sure to use discount code NEW30 to get 30% off!

Congrats Lucy! 🥳
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-infrast...

GETTING TO KNOW: PLAYWRIGHT DYLAN VAN DEN BERG IN CONVERSATION WITH REBECCA CLODE Dylan Van Den Berg is an award-winning Palawa writer and dramaturg from the northeast of Lutruwita/Tasmania, with family connections to the Bass Strait Islands where his great-grandmother was born.…

ANU English's own @becclode.bsky.social talked to award-winning Palawa writer & dramaturg Dylan Van Den Berg about his adaptation of the Aussie classic The Chosen Vessel, Gothic genre & Aboriginal gothic theatre, & his PhD. Listen to their talk here:
thestreetcbr.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/g...

Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life changing Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Peter Garrett are just a few of the high-profile signatories to an open letter against Job-Ready Graduates – and for the humanities.

Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates

The critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills of Bachelor of Arts graduates are critical for navigating a future of challenges and careers that haven’t yet been imagined.

#RepealJRG

theconversation.com/top-australi...

This sounds amazing: a global get-together of Shakespeare experts on the topic of environmental justice! Organised by ANU English's Claire Hansen. Register here:

This is today at 5pm! Don't forget to register now at the link below, and get ready for some ballad-singing! 🎶

Iran in Finnegans Wake Iran in Finnegans Wake is a scholarly work that meticulously catalogs and analyzes the Iranian, Zoroastrian, and Persian vocabulary found in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. This book is an invaluable re...

Publication klaxon! 🎺
And it's one of our students! ANU English's own Hamid Famahmandian, a PhD student supervised by Russell Smith, catalogs and analyzes the Iranian, Zoroastrian, and Persian vocabulary found in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 🤯. Congrats Hamid! 🥳

www.routledge.com/Iran-in-Finn...

Our own Rosanne Kennedy has a new chapter out with ANU historian Ben Silverstein in a new volume of essays on deep history: “Language Has Country: Memory, Transmission and Sovereignty in Tara Jane Winch’s The Yield” .
Check it out here:
unsw.press/books/deep-h...
Congrats Rosanne and Ben!

A special issue of the Sidney Journal celebrating the incredible career of Professor Mary Ellen Lamb has been published, and our own @rossmith.bsky.social has an article in it!
Rosalind Smith, “Love in the Margins,” Special Issue in Honor of Mary Ellen Lamb, Sidney Journal 43.1-2 (2025), 187-207

‘Wilt Break My Heart?’ Takotsubo Syndrome and Shakespeare’s Discourse of Heartbreak in Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear Shakespeare’s characters knew well the dangers and causes of an overcharged heart. This article places representations of heartbreak in Shakespeare’s canon in dialogue with twenty-first-century med...

Do our hearts really 'break'? Shakespeare thought so.
Our own @claireghansen.bsky.social has published an article with Brid Phillips on Takotsubo Syndrome in Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear in the journal Shakespeare! Read it here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Our amazing leader @rossmith.bsky.social has been awarded the very competitive Ann Ball Bodley Visiting Fellowship in Women’s History at the Bodleian Library for her work on early modern women’s marginalia! She’ll be there for Trinity term 2026. Congrats Ros! 🥳 www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowsh...

Tomorrow (5 June, 1-2pm AEST) I'm giving another talk on 'Disaster, Poverty, and Marginalised Languages in Printed News Ballads' at the ACU IHSS Research Seminar, MEL-412-1-01, Arts Precinct, 36-38 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy and online via Teams. Hit me up if you need the link! 🎶 🎶 🎶

It's Day 6 of @englishanu.bsky.social showcasing courses for semester 2!
#6: 'Capstone: Reaching the Pinnacle' explores works that mark a turning point or culmination in an artist’s career, and how cultural icons like Beyoncé play with the idea of greatness. Students research topic of their choice!

Book Club: Romeo + Juliet The star-crossed lovers find themselves in a gun-fuelled urban war in Baz Luhrmann’s high-energy version.

Join Dr Kate Flaherty (ANU English) & Associate Director of Bell Shakespeare James Evans for a screening & discussion of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet at the National Film & Sound Archive 22 Jun 1pm.
Tip: it's a great way to prepare for ENGL2067 Adaptation (Sem 2)

tickets.nfsa.gov.au/Events/Book-...

Textual Practice Elemental Melodrama. Guest Editors: Monique Rooney, Gillian Russell and Stefan Solomon. Volume 39, Issue 3 of Textual Practice

Excited to share 'Elemental Melodrama,' special issue of Textual Practice I edited w/ @moniquerooney.bsky.social & @gearuss.bsky.social! Essays by Sarah Balkin, Millie Schurch, Meg Brayshaw, @devo3000.bsky.social, and Marcie Frank on revisiting melodrama's elemental roots thru theatre, lit and film

It's Day 5 of @englishanu.bsky.social showcasing our courses for semester 2!
#5: 'Advanced Creative Writing' examines discourse about the significance of literary & genre fiction, & disputes about the category of value in interpretative methods. Students design, edit & publish a literary journal!

Michelle de Kretser wins the Stella Prize with a genre-bending questioning of art and expectation Michelle de Kretser has won the Stella Prize for the first time. Her winning novel, Theory & Practice, is currently longlisted for the Miles Franklin.

As Michelle de Kretser wins the Stella Prize for her book Theory & Practice, @englishanu.bsky.social's Lucy Neave explores how this innovative novel challenges how fiction usually works:
theconversation.com/michelle-de-...

Less than 2 weeks until our conference CFP officially closes on 6th June!

📣 Digital Archipelagos
📣 Digital Humanities Australasia Conference (DHA25)
📣 2-5 December
📣 Australian National University, Canberra

Submissions here: dha25.org

I'll be presenting some new work at this year's American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference in our session on 'Large Language Models and Literature': www.acla.org/virtual-conf...

It's Day 4 of @englishanu.bsky.social showcasing our courses for semester 2!
#4: 'Literature & Modernity' reveals the breadth & diversity of modernist expression in its response to the rapid changes of the period that transformed everything from gender & sexuality to the politics of race & class.

Congrats to @englishanu.bsky.social's own Rosanne Kennedy, who has been awarded a prestigious Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Stellenbosch University, for Jan-June 2026! stias.ac.za Congratulations Rosanne! 🥳