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Professor Liz Oakley-Brown
Professor in English LiteratureResearch Overview
I teach and research fifteenth- and sixteenth-century writing in English. My methodological approach is generally from a twenty-first century critical perspective.
While my research interests are varied, I mainly work on: Ovid in English; Tudor Gothic; Premodern Gothic; Surface Studies; the Cultural Politics of Tudor translation.
With Duncan Lees (Warwick University), I have co-edited a collection of essays called Translating Shakespeare: Access and Mediation (Palgrave 2025). My most recent major publication is the book Shakespeare on the Ecological Surface (Routledge 2024). I am completing a new book about Tudor Gothic (Cambridge University Press, contracted 2026).
In 2026, I'm developing public engagement projects related to Shakespeare, soil and climate emergencies.
My Role
In 2025/ 26, I convene, teach seminars on and deliver lectures for the year-long core module ENGL100 Literature in Time: Continuity and Change. I also teach my MA module Tudor Gothic and my underegraduate module ENGL393 Premodern Gothic. I deliver lectures for a range of modules: ENGL101 World Literature; ENGL102 Literature, Place and Space; ENGL201 Introduction to Theory and Practice; ENGL202A Love, Sex and Death in Early Literature; ENGL202B Power, Politics and Place in Early Literature and ENGL306 Shakespeare
I am English Literature's Programme Lead.
Career Details
I joined the Department in 2006. I completed my BA, MA and PhD at Cardiff University. I gained my PGCtHE from Aberystwyth University (2003). I have previously taught at Aberystwyth University (2001-4) and Canterbury Christ Church University (2004-6).
During my career at Lancaster University, I have held the following administrative roles: Part One Director (2007-10); Employability Officer (2011-14); Convenor of the MA in English Literary Studies (2015-21); Department Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). In 2022, I was awarded the Dean's Award for Outstanding Contribution in EDI.
External Roles
I was co-editor of Literature Compass: Renaissance (March 2015-May 2016)
I was a member of the Renaissance Editorial Board for Literature Compass (September 2009-15)
I served as an elected member of the Society for Renaissance Studies Council (May 2008-2014)http://www.rensoc.org.uk/), and I was the acting Membership Secretary 2011-12 . From 2012-14, I chaired the judging panel for the Renaissance Studies article prize.
Additional Information
I co-convene the Northern Premodern Seminar (formerly the Northern Premodern Seminar): http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/northern-premodern-seminar/ Please contact me if you would like to organise a seminar or join the seminar's mailing list.
I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA).
PhD Supervision Interests
I have supervised successful postgraduate research on: Ovid and crip/queer queer theory; sixteenth-century occult poetics; Long Meg of Westminster and Robin Hood narratives; early modern mazes; transcultural migrations and Chinese identities; surrealist art and classical myth; early modern revenge and biopolitics. I would especially welcome research students working on the following aspects of late medieval, early modern and premodern texts (broadly defined): classical mythology in anglophone cultures; ecology; embodiment, I am happy to co-supervise Creative Writing theses.
Shrewsbury Quarry: excavating the past; imagining the future
17/11/2018 → 18/11/2018
Research
The Surface Studies Network
01/06/2013 → …
Other
Corpus Research in Early Modern English
01/10/2011 → …
Research
Shakespearean Surfaces: Reading, Writing and Performing Superficiality in Sixteenth-Century England.
01/08/2008 → …
Other
Shakespearean Soil Imaginaries: Creative Encounters with Climate Emergencies
Oral presentation
"Soil Time in Shakespeare'
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
“A Thousand Premodern Plateaus?: Teaching Beyond the Medieval and Early Modern Canon”
Oral presentation
Shakespeare’s Samphire and the Poetics of Planetary Precarity
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
‘Rotting’, ‘Reverence’ and Cymbeline’s Creative Engagements with Climate Emergencies'
Oral presentation
Tudor Gothic
Oral presentation
Castle Summer Seminar
Symposium
Beyond Shakespeare Live [podcast]
Other
Shakespeare, Race and Pedagogy [podcast]
Oral presentation
Shakespeare’s Soilscape Tragedies
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Dispatches
Invited talk
Parchment, Paper, Print, Ipad: Marlowe's Ecocodicological Elegies
Oral presentation
Urban Surfaces: Living Walls
Invited talk
Christopher Marlowe's E(rot)ic Verse
Oral presentation
The DAPHNE Project": A Celebration of Anne Hirsch-Henecke’s County South sculpture Daphne
Symposium
Siting Shakespeare's Seaweed
Oral presentation
Making Shakespeare Pay
Oral presentation
Castellations - Diverse Conversations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Castles
Other
'Living Walls'
Oral presentation
Literature Compass (Journal)
Editorial activity
Renaissance Studies (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Ashgate (Publisher)
Publication peer-review
Translation Studies (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Literature Compass (Journal)
Editorial activity
- FASS Health Hub
- Literature, Science and Medicine
- Literature, Space and Place
- Shakespeare Programme
- Transcultural Writing, Practice and Research Network