ProfessorPorscha Fermanis

I teach a range of topics at stage 1 but my teaching interests at stages 2, 3 and 4 focus on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (1780-1850), with a particular interest in global Romanticism (including Romanticism in Australia, South Africa, India and Southeast Asia) and the history of sexuality in the Romantic period. I am committed to expanding and diversifying the curriculum as it applies to my areas of expertise. I believe that it is important to encourage and support all students in their quest to learn. I therefore attempt to make my classes accessible but challenging, using a variety of active learning techniques. I showcase transferable skills to students, making them aware of what skills they are acquiring in the moment. As Director of Graduate Studies for the School, I was instrumental in updating our MA programmes and in redesigning the compulsory "Literary Research Skills" module. I helped to establish an English Graduate Society and ran transferrable skills workshops for Doctoral and Postdoctoral students. In undergraduate teaching, I co-developed the lecture module "Romanticism" and assisted in the development of the stage 1 module "Literature and Crisis". From 2022-2024, I was the School's Director of Teaching and Learning. I am currently the subject head of English.