Alumni Services

Giuseppe Albano

Giuseppe's undergraduate studies in English Literature and the excellent teaching he received inspire him to this day in his job curating the Keats-Shelley museum in Rome.

Name Giuseppe Albano
Degree Course MA English Literature (First Class Honours)
Year of Graduation 1998
Giuseppe Albano

Your time at the University

Coming from a state school on the outskirts of Dundee, Edinburgh seemed like a cross between Manhattan and Oxford. But to my mind there could be no place more suitable for studying English Literature, given the university’s remarkable contributions to centuries of Scottish intellectual history.

My memories of the range of teaching styles and personalities I encountered there will stay with me for life, and the freedom the course gave students to pursue and develop their own interests and opinions was a major plus, but also at times a challenge. Edinburgh has never been the kind of place for those who just want to learn how to give the right answers to get their degree.

Tell us about your Experiences since leaving the University

On graduating I took a Masters in Modern Literature and Culture at York, then a PhD in English Literature at Cambridge, writing a thesis on Victorian pastoral poetry. On moving into the museums and heritage sector I later took a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies by distance learning with Leicester University.   

Years later I was fortunate enough to go back to Edinburgh as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, where I also taught some of the courses I’d once taken myself. I was happy to see that the feisty intellectual spirit of Edinburgh still lived on, and I believe still does.  

Edinburgh has never been the place to go to for those who just want to learn how to give the right answers to get their degree.

Giuseppe Albano

Even in my current work as Curator/Director of the Keats-Shelley House museum in Rome, I occasionally hear the voices of my undergraduate lecturers imparting their opinions on the Romantic poets, and imploring us to disagree with standard interpretations.

And I still consult from time to time a short book on Romanticism written by a former Edinburgh lecturer, Aidan Day, which helped kick-start my thinking about the period when I was a student of his in the 90s. 

Alumni wisdom

Edinburgh University inspired me to read voraciously and encouraged me to think critically. I will always consider myself lucky to have had the excellent education I had.  

Related links

Dr Giuseppe Albano receives an MBE for services to UK/Italy relations in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours