REF 2021: Unit of Assessment 27

UOA 27: English Language and Literature

REF 2021

Find out about our REF 2021 submission to UOA 27.

English research at BU is distinctive in its focus on contemporary literary cultures and markets and the relationship between literature and the media, responding to its positioning within a Faculty of Media and Communication. As such it provides a vital contribution to the field of English today, particularly in mapping out new areas of enquiry and interdisciplinary approaches to the latest technological innovations and providing world-leading research in emerging fields such as comic studies and the medical humanities.

This is the first time BU has submitted to this Unit of Assessment, representing the increased diversity of research staff. Our inclusive environment embraces institutional and international collaborations, with community and industry outreach a key component of our research approach.

Find out about the impact of our research:

Reading on Screen: enhancing the benefits of reading through engaging with digital technologies

Staff conducting research: Professor Bronwen Thomas, Dr Julia Round

BU researchers have challenged the negative perceptions around digital reading, providing insights into how and why people read on digital platforms. This has led to the development of innovative methods which capture how technology has enriched reading, enabling new social and cultural benefits.

Professor Thomas established the Reading on Screen project, with the University of Brighton, The Reading Agency and DigiTales, a participatory media company. Readers from a diverse range of backgrounds aged 18-87 created digital stories capturing their experiences of reading in the digital age. The project demonstrated how engagement with the digital, far from being confined to younger generations, is in fact also delivering extensive benefits for the older population.

While magazines, books and newspapers are VAT exempt, VAT on digital downloads made reading digitally less affordable. Professor Thomas worked closely with the ‘Axe the Reading Tax’ campaign, led by the Publishers Association with the Book Trust and the National Literacy, to develop a new campaign strategy highlighting how the tax affects the most vulnerable. VAT on digital publications was removed in May 2020.

Insights from BU research have also been used by organisations including DigiTales and The Reading Agency in developing training and workshop materials.

Find out more

Enabling the Genarrator Generation: creating a more active, participatory role for modern readers

Staff conducting research: Dr Jim Pope, Dr Simon Frost

BU researchers have explored theoretical and practical ways in which the reader is placed closer to the centre of literary practice, creating a collaborative model in which users and producers are co-creators of a narrative experience.

Dr Pope spearheaded the creation of the web-based app Genarrator, a free space for digital interactive stories, in which readers participate more fully by choosing the direction and outcomes of a narrative.

The Genarrator website operates as a professional publishing platform and is home to more than 2,000 narratives. Available free of charge, and free of advertising, it enables people to produce interactive narratives, with branching pathways and multiple endings, and provides a collaborative online space for the interactive narrative community.

The research team have used the Genarrator website to work with young people and those not in education, employment or training (NEET) to create interactive narratives, helping improve participants’ understanding of digital storytelling, their creative writing, filming, artistic and technical skills, and enhanced teamwork and cooperation.

In addition, researchers also set up the open call New Media Writing Prize (NMWP) which has contributed to the development and promotion of new media writing over the past 10 years, engaging a range of practitioners including journalists and documentary makers as well as writers and artists.