Job opportunity - Lecturer in Writing for Children and Young Adults

Lecturer in Writing for Children and Young Adults

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The Department of English and the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies seeks to appoint a lecturer in writing for children and young adults. MCYS is a cross-disciplinary research centre which aims to be a centre of expertise for the use of participatory research with children and young people. Established in 2014, MCYS is located in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and has, over the last five years, generated over £1million of external income developing research and knowledge exchange projects that mobilise participatory methodologies. This income has come from a range of prestigious and ground-breaking research projects funded by the ESRC, AHRC, Leverhulme and government bodies. The post offers an opportunity to become a key member of the MCYS.

MMU English came joint 30th (8th for Research Impact) out of 89 subject groups in REF2014, external and internal surveys consistently evidence the strength of both teaching and student support in the department and our undergraduate good honours rates are amongst the best in the sector.

The Department of English fosters a rich and diverse research culture in both critical scholarship and creative writing. It hosts a large undergraduate single honours English programme, and smaller joint honours programmes in English and American Literature, English and Creative Writing and English and Film.The department is home to the Manchester Writing School, run under the creative direction of UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The post is suitable for candidates who write creatively for young people in any medium, candidates who produce scholarly research on writing for children and young adults, and candidates who do both. We welcome applications from candidates with experience of or a demonstrable interest in collaborative Youth Studies research, which links English with disciplines such as Education, Sociology, criminology, history or Linguistics. We also welcome applications from candidates with experience of or a demonstrable interest in working with children and young people as part of their creative and/or scholarly research.

There is a thriving collaborative and interdisciplinary research culture at MMU, both within and beyond the faculty of Arts and Humanities, which is also home to the Manchester Schools of Art and Theatre, and which will open International Screen School Manchester in 2021. Areas of current strength and planned future development in curriculum and research include screen studies, poetry, writing for children and young adults, medical humanities, creative geography, the gothic and interdisciplinary creative arts.

All candidates will to have a doctoral level qualification in a relevant area OR an established professional reputation as a writer of children's and/or young adult literature, as evidenced in national broadcast media appearances, national broadsheet and literary press reviews, or major literary prize success. You will have a track record of publishing high quality creative or critical research outputs which meet or exceed the 3* quality standard set by the Research Excellence Framework. This opportunity will be offered on a permanent, full time basis of 37 hours. The anticipated start date for the successful applicant is December 2019/January 2020. For an informal discussion regarding the requirements of the role please contact, Dr Jess Edwards, Head of the Department of English (J.Edwards@mmu.ac.uk) and, Prof. Hannah Smithson (H.L.Smithson@mmu.ac.uk) Head of the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies. If you would like to join our department and share our ambition, we would love to hear from you.