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Gail Marshall

@gailmarshall

Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation (Heritage and Creativity) at the University of Reading, and Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture

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23.09.2023
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Latest posts by Gail Marshall @gailmarshall

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How a small change to the English curriculum could cut teacher workload Tweaking the requirement for GCSE students to read a 19th-century novel could add diversity while maintaining rigour and reducing teacher workload, argues Robert Eaglestone

Brilliant piece in tes by @bobeaglestone.bsky.social arguing that a simple tweak to GCSE English Lit could dramatically improve things. Really pleased to see our work with @mariakna.bsky.social on the difficult vocabulary in the spec cited. πŸ‘ www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

13.03.2026 22:57 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

@univeng.bsky.social

10.03.2026 19:21 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Call for Applications: Visiting Research Fellowships at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading The Samuel Beckett Research Centre (SBRC)Β at the University of ReadingΒ is pleased to announce thatΒ up to 3Β SBRC Visiting Research Fellowships are now available toΒ scholars and researchersΒ looking t…

Great opportunity for Samuel Beckett scholars to work on the Beckett archive at Reading samuelbeckettsociety.org/2026/03/10/c...

10.03.2026 19:21 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Yet more great evidence about how important and skilled English graduates are @univeng.bsky.social

08.03.2026 11:06 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I couldn’t agree more, Andrew. It was horrifying and upsetting, and a terrible prelude to the news of yet more deaths.

06.03.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#EnglishCreates: Futures

Today, Dr JT Welsch (University of York) re-examines the so-called 'death of reading':

'Like most clickbait, these rants rest on a false opposition. There’s no real war between print and digital media.'

universityenglish.ac.uk/death-of-rea...

#EnglishStudies

27.02.2026 10:24 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Such a pleasure to reflect on Middlemarch again. Thanks for the opportunity

25.02.2026 11:06 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks, Susan. That’s really lovely to hear

25.02.2026 11:05 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Fantastic, moving testimony to the power and importance of reading

23.02.2026 18:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Such a brilliant resource - and there’s more to come

11.02.2026 14:07 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#EnglishCreates: Futures continues with this post by Francesca Mackenney and Jamie Castell (Cardiff University):

'How do representations of sound in literature shape our awareness of the natural world?'

Read the full post here: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...

#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism

06.02.2026 20:23 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

New #EnglishCreates post. @ies-sas.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social

29.01.2026 17:29 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

@englishassociation.bsky.social

04.02.2026 06:29 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#EnglishCreates: Futures

Our 'Environments' month continues with Prof Ralph Pite's latest piece on bringing nature into the teaching of English Studies:

'How can you make the natural world an everyday, "natural" presence for students?'

Full post: lnkd.in/ewQk7pDB

#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism

03.02.2026 15:30 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Festivals of the Imagination: early editionsΒ ofΒ novels and poetry byΒ James JoyceΒ  | Special Collections In 2020,Β Stephen James Joyce, Joyce’s grandson, bequeathed the Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection to the University of Reading Special...

To mark Joyce's birthday this week and the final chance to see our 'James Joyce: Enigmas and Puzzles' exhibition, Fiona Melhuish, Librarian (museums and collections), introduces some of the early editions of Joyce's publications. Check out the blog post!πŸ‘‡

collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

03.02.2026 09:41 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
An illustration of Battersea power station with a view of a boat from the river.

An illustration of Battersea power station with a view of a boat from the river.

Have you completed a PhD in the last 10 years? Applications are open for our Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship in Sustainability and Environment. Funding covers an Β£8000 bursary for part-time (0.5) research over 8 months, plus travel expenses. Apply by Monday 9 February. link.bl.uk/VisitingFellowship

14.01.2026 12:48 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#EnglishCreates:Futures continues w/ Prof Ralph Pite's brilliantly insightful reflections on how English Studies seeks to address contemporary climate crisis: 'THE GRAPHS DON'T WORK'

Full post: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...

#EnglishCreates #EnglishStudies #HigherEducation #Ecocriticism

16.01.2026 12:16 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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#EnglishCreates: Futures continues this week with a focus on the 'Blue Humanities':

'Oceans have always seemed mysterious, vast and invulnerable... Until recently, that is...'

universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...

#EnglishStudies #HigherEducation #Ecocriticism #bluehumanities

19.01.2026 15:27 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#EnglishCreates: Futures delves into the Blue Humanities with a post by Dr Laurence Publicover (University of Bristol):

'The language we use to talk about the ocean floor reveals our (often misplaced) assumptions about it...'
universityenglish.ac.uk/literary-stu...

#EnglishStudies #Ecocriticism

20.01.2026 18:47 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

NB
EngLit
#CloseReading

10.01.2026 10:32 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Excellent start to 6 months of showing how and why English Studies matters so much to all of us #EnglishCreates from @univeng.bsky.social and lots of our brilliant colleagues

08.01.2026 20:33 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

And when the cars drove on the right

02.01.2026 22:24 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I do think this is true. I'm often guilty myself of underplaying what the work I do looks like or how much time and effort it takes. Research isn't 'just reading' or a question of sucking up summaries others have created. It's knowledge creation.

So let me go through the process with an example 1/

22.12.2025 01:12 πŸ‘ 144 πŸ” 34 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 8
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Feels like the right day to repost this brilliant tweet from @lewisgoodall.com

#Trump
#BBC
#EpsteinFiles
#CauseAndDeflect

16.12.2025 12:03 πŸ‘ 205 πŸ” 88 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 7
Philosophy 7.7% unemployed

Philosophy 7.7% unemployed

Physics 8% unemployed

Physics 8% unemployed

Who is more likely to be unemployed 15 months after graduation the Philosopher or the Physicist? The answer may not be what you think

01.12.2025 21:24 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
English lit - 6.4% unemployed

English lit - 6.4% unemployed

Maths - 7.5% unemployed

Maths - 7.5% unemployed

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game.

On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad?

WRONG!

01.12.2025 21:19 πŸ‘ 146 πŸ” 60 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 10
Languages - 7.6% unemployed

Languages - 7.6% unemployed

Computer science- 9.7%

Computer science- 9.7%

How about Languages v Computer Science? Hmm…

01.12.2025 21:22 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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UK aims to secure agreement to rejoin Erasmus student exchange scheme Britain quit EU programme after Brexit, when Boris Johnson claimed it did not offer good value for money

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Excellent news

01.12.2025 20:21 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Brilliant opportunity here to work with excellent colleagues - and their amazing collection - at MERL

25.11.2025 18:47 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

One of the finest software engineers I've ever had the pleasure to work with had a degree in music. Another had a degree in Egyptology.
The important thing was that their degrees taught them how to think. Their love of the subjects just made things better.

12.10.2025 23:43 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0