Keith Hughes

Lecturer

Biography

Background

Keith Hughes holds a BA (Joint Hons) in English & American Literature from the University of Manchester, and both a MSc and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. Following completion of his PhD, he did postdoctoral research at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African American Studies, where he developed an abiding interest in African American literature.

He has taught at numerous institutions, including Napier University and the Workers Educational Association, and holds a Diploma for Teaching in Higher Education from Birkbeck College, London (2001).

Keith Hughes joined the department in 2001, and contributes to teaching across a range of American, English and Scottish literatures, including the postgraduate teaching on ‘the black Atlantic’ and also transatlantic writing.

Research summary

Dr Hughes’s research interests fall broadly into two connected areas:

  1. African American literature,
  2. ‘the black Atlantic’.

His current research interests include:

  • Frederick Douglass’s mid-19th century tour of the British Isles;
  • Richard Wright and Africa;
  • Claude McKay’s poetry; and
  • Jean Toomer’s relationship with European culture.

Dr Hughes would welcome research proposals in any area of African American writing, particularly its transatlantic contexts.

He would also be happy to consider proposals relating to most aspects of American literature.

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