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Personal Profile For Professor Neil Sammells
Deputy Vice Chancellor. Chancellory.
BA(Hons) [Oxford], PhD [London].
Personal Statement:
Neil Sammells is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) and Professor of English and Irish Literature, with cross-institutional responsibility for research, learning and teaching, quality assurance and curriculum development. Formerly Dean of Humanities and Head of English at BSU, he has research interests in modern drama and Irish writing, with a particular interest in Oscar Wilde. He is the author of 'Tom Stoppard: the Artist as Critic' (Macmillan, 1988) and 'Wilde Style: The Plays and Prose of Oscar Wilde' (Longman, 2000). He is also the co-editor (with Paul Hyland) of books on Irish writing and writing and censorship and is founding editor of 'Irish Studies Review'. Professor Sammells has been a member of the executive council of the British Association for Irish Studies since 1992 and, in 2000, was convenor of the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures. In addition to his scholarly publications, Professor Sammells is an experienced broadcaster who has appeared on a number of radio arts programmes such as Nightwaves, Kaleidoscope and In Our Time. He is currently an institutional auditor for the Quality Assurance Agency and a member of the Higher Education Academy's Advisory Panel for the award of National Teaching Fellowships.
Membership of Professional Bodies/Subject Associations:
Member British Association for Irish Studies
Member International Association for Study Of Irish Literatures
Teaching Specialism:
19th and Twentieth Century English and Irish Literature and Drama; specifically Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde
Key Publications/Exhibitions/Performances:
1. Books
Tom Stoppard: the Artist as Critic: Macmillan, 1998
Wilde Style: the Plays and Prose of Oscar Wilde : Longman, 2000.
2. Edited collections
Hyland, Paul and Neil Sammells, ed.
Irish Writing: Exile and Subversion: Macmillan, 1992
Hyland, Paul and Neil Sammells, ed.
Writing and Censorship in Britain: Routledge, 1992
Kerridge, Richard and Neil Sammells, ed.
Writing the Environment. London: Zed Books, 1998.
Marshall, Alan and Neil Sammells, ed. Irish Encounters: Poetry,Politics and Prose since 1880.
Bath: Sulis Press, 1998.
Briggs, Sarah, Paul Hyland and Neil Sammells, ed.
Reviewing Ireland: Essays and Interviews from Irish Studies Review. Bath: Sulis Press, 1998.
Beyond Borders: IASIL Essays on Modern Irish Writing. Bath: Sulis Press, 2004.
2. chapters in books
'Oscar Wilde, The Fairy Tale, and The Critics'
in Bruce Stewart, ed., That Other World: the Supernatural and the Fantastic in Irish Literature and its Contexts, Vol. 2.
Gerrard's Cross: Colin Smythe, 1998. 228-39.
'The Early Plays'
in Katherine Kelly, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 104-119.
'Wilde as Irish Playwright'
in Shaun Richards, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 109-121
'The Irish Wilde'
in Philip E Smith, ed., 'Approaches to the Teaching of Oscar Wilde'. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008. 35-42
3. articles
'Pulp Fictions: Oscar Wilde and Quentin Tarantino'.
Irish Studies Review 11 (1995): 39-46.
'The Line is Immaterial: Oscar Wilde and Some Trends in Contemporary Irish Studies'
Literature, Interpretation, Theory 10 (1999), 1-11.
'A Little Oscar Wilde: Houston, Texas, 1911', Irish Studies Review, 13.3
(2005), 397-401
Review of 'Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity, Oscholars, col IV, March 2007
'There is no such thng as an accurate or inaccurate biography', Oscholars, vol IV, September 2007
4. broadcasting
'Wilde's Epigrams', panel discussion with Jonathan Dollimore and John Kelly
BBC Radio 3, Nightwaves, 12 November, 2000.
[Part of British Library Wilde Centenary Celebrations]
'In Our Time', panel discussion on Oscar Wilde and Modernism, chaired by Melvyn Bragg, with Regenia Gagnier and Valentine Cunningham, BBC Radio 4, 5 December 2001.
5 Plenary lectures and international invitations
Inaugural Oscar Wilde Memorial Lecture, Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, 1995
'Current trends in Irish Studies', International Association for the Study of Irish literatures, Gothenburg, 1997. [Keynote address]
'Postcolonial Joyce', Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 1997
'Wilde's Fairy Tales', Princess Grace Irish Library, Monte Carlo, 1997
'Wilde Nature', American Conference for Irish Studies, Fordham University, New York, 1998.
'Pulp Fictions: Oscar Wilde and Quentin Tarantino', International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, Barcelona, 1998
'From Baudelaire to Bowie', Charles University, Prague, 2001
' Wilde and Anglo-American Dandyism', American Conference for Irish Studies, Marquette University, Milwaukee, 2002
'Wilde Now' (plenary), Oscar Wilde Symposium, Magdalen College, Oxford, 2002
Visiting Lecturer on Modern Irish Drama, University of Pecs, Hungary, 2003
'Wilde and Dandyism' (plenary), Re-locating Wilde, University of New South wales, Sydney, Australia, September 2004.
'Wilde in America', Institute of English Studies, University of London, October 2008.
Current Scholarship:
Be Cool: Wilde and Dandyism form Baudelaire to Bowie (monograph)
co-editorship (with Paul Hyland of BSUC) of Irish Studies Review (since 1992)
External Examiners:
University College Worcester, 1994-1997
Liverpool Hope University College, 1995-1998
Lancaster University (PhD), 2003
Charles University Prague (PhD), 2004
Oxford University (PhD), 2009
Other External Roles:
QAA institutional Auditor (Universities of Exeter, Warwick, Leicester, De Montfort)
Member Editorial Advisory Board of Irish Theatre Journal
Member Hefce RAE2008 Data Collection Steering Group
Member of Executive Council of British Association for Irish Studies
Member of BAIS National Postgraduate Awards Committee
General Editor of Longman's interdisciplinary series Crosscurrents
Convenor of 2000 Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures
Chapter Editor, 'Oscar Wilde and the 1890s', Annotated Bibliography of English Studies, Swets and Zeitlinger, 2000-
Member SCOP Research Group
Member HERDA-SW Learning and Teaching, and Research Special Interest Groups
Member Triennial Academic Review Panel, Southampton Institute, 2005
Member Academic Review Panel, University College London, 2007 -
External Validator, Staffordshire University, 2007
Member National Advisory Panel, HEA National Teaching Fellowship Award Scheme, Individual strand, 2008.
Last Updated: 03 January 2010.
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