Publishing Studies
Our staff and students contribute to a vibrant research environment that is interdisciplinary in emphasis and international in scope.
We offer the following research degrees:
- MA by research
- MPhil
- PhD
- PhD by published work.
Support and Supervision
- Members of staff have published award-winning monographs, key pedagogical textbooks, and a range of scholarly articles and edited collections.
- Projects can be co-supervised with faculty from English, History, History of Art, Modern Languages, and Business.
- Research is supported by the resources of Oxford Brookes Library – especially its Special Collections featuring the Booker Archive, the Publishing in Africa Collection, the Rainbird Archive, and the Peter Stockham Collection of Children’s Books – as well as by other local and regional archives and university libraries.
- Most of our research students are based in Oxford, but a number work on their studies from a distance with regular contact in person and by email.
Research Areas
We focus on, but are not limited to, the following broad areas:
- History and Cultures of Publishing: including book history (1800-present), publishing and propaganda in war, post-colonial publishing, author- publisher relationships, reading and reception (books and magazines), contemporary fiction and literary prizes, the impact of editorial and technological issues.
- International, Strategy, Policy and Development: contemporary publishing in local, regional and national contexts, issues of development, publishing in geographical areas outside the UK, in particular, Africa, China and Europe.
Students pursuing doctoral studies with us are investigating such topics as:
- girls’ magazines in the cultural and consumer marketplace
- the future of university libraries
- German publishing in the First World War
- marketing strategies for children’s literature in the Middle East.
If you have a topic relating to publishing that you would like to study at doctoral level, please contact us with a preliminary synopsis.
Funding is available to support research degrees.
