Events
Open Day 19 November 2022
Free masterclass seminars on set A Level texts from one of the best English departments in the UK
On Saturday 19 November the English Literature department at Liverpool John Moores University – which has the 12th best English degree out of nearly a hundred courses in the UK, according to the Guardian – is offering seminars on a number of set A Level texts to all students registered to attend its Open Day. Students will have the opportunity to discuss texts and topics that they are currently studying with leading experts. They will also have the opportunity to hear about what it is like to study English at university, and to visit LJMU's facilities, including its flagship Student Life Building and Sports Building. Students who would like to attend the seminars should arrive at the John Foster Building on Mount Pleasant for 10am, with seminars starting at 10:30am and lasting approximately one hour. Attendees will be able to choose from the following three options:
- Professor Joe Moran will be leading a seminar on Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 116', a set poem in AQA's 'Love Poetry Through the Ages Pre-1900' anthology. Prof. Moran is a prominent literary critic and cultural historian whose recent books include Shrinking Violets: The Secret Life of Shyness (2016), First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Writing ... and Life (2018), and If You Should Fail: A Book of Solace (2020). He has also written for the Guardian, the Financial Times, the New Statesman, Times Higher Education, BBC History Magazine, the TLS and others.
- Dr. James Whitehead will be leading a seminar on Byron's 'She Walks in Beauty', another set poem in AQA's 'Love Poetry Through the Ages Pre-1900' anthology. Dr. Whitehead is an expert in Romantic literature, which he teaches at LJMU. His book Madness and the Romantic Poet: A Critical History was published with Oxford University Press in 2017. He is Programme Leader for English.
- Dr. Rachel Willie will be leading a seminar on Shakespeare's Othello, a set text on numerous A Level exam boards. Dr. Wille is an expert in Early Modern Literature, which she teaches at LJMU. Her book Staging the Revolution: Drama, Reinvention and History, 1647-72 was published with Manchester University Press in 2015, and was shortlisted for a major award. She also co-edited The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530-1700, which won the Roland H. Bainton Prize in Reference Works in 2016.
Following the seminars, a subject talk will take place at 12pm and last one hour. This will give students the chance to learn about what studying English Literature at LJMU is like, and why our department has some of the highest student satisfaction scores in the country.