Amy Blaney

Biography

After graduating in 2007 with a first-class honours degree in English Literature from the University of Wales Aberystwyth, Amy spent several years working in business and administration before enrolling on the MA English Literatures programme at Keele in 2018. After graduating with Distinction from her MA, Amy stayed on at Keele to undertake her NWCDTP AHRC funded PhD under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Seager, Professor David Amigoni, and Professor David Matthews (University of Manchester).

Alongside completing her PhD, Amy has worked as an Associate Lecturer in English Literature at Staffordshire University and a Sessional Tutor in English Literature at Keele. She was also a P. J. C Field Visiting Fellow to the Centre for Arthurian Studies at the University of Bangor in 2023.

Until recently, Amy was a Researcher Development Officer within the Keele Doctoral Academy, organising and facilitating a monthly peer-led research training initiative called The PGR Café.

Amy now works as a Foundation Year Tutor supporting students within the Foundation Year Centre. In addition to acting as an Academic Mentor, Amy is part of the Centre's Study Skills Support Team, facilitating skills development and engagement across the programme.

Research and scholarship

CURRENT RESEARCH

My doctoral thesis examines literary engagements with Arthurian legend across the long eighteenth-century, considering the ways in which reworkings of Arthur intervene in debates about historiography, gender, class, and national identity.

I am particularly interested in exploring nationalisation of cultural mythologies and in examining the intersections between gendered and national identities within my work.

My wider research interests include Arthurian literature, folklore and mythology, eighteenth and nineteenth-century medievalism, gender theory, cultural memory literary explorations of ageing, and the intersections between literature and history.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

'A great many strange puppets: Queen Caroline, Merlin's Cave, and Symbolic Arthurianism in the Age of Reason', Arthurian Literature XXXVIII (2023), ed. Kevin S. Whetter and Megan G. Leitch

“There’s no such thing as a ‘faithful retelling’ of Arthurian legend”, The Conversation UK. First published 19 February 2021 [https://theconversation.com/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-faithful-retelling-of-the-arthurian-legend-155511]

FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapter: ‘The Arthurian Legend in British Literature, 1700-1830’, The Cambridge History of the Arthurian Legend, eds. Andrew Lynch & Raluca Radulescu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024)

Book Contribution: ‘A Chronology of Lord Byron’s Life, Work & Times’, The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron, eds. Alan Rawes & Jonathan Shears (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023)

Teaching

I have previously worked as an Associate Lecturer in English Literature at Staffordshire University and a Sessional Tutor in English Literature at Keele.

Topics taught include Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, poetry and drama from the medieval period to the present day, the eighteenth-century novel, and academic writing skills.

In the 2023/24 academic year, I am teaching on ENGL40516 The Story of English at Staffordshire University, serving as an Academic Mentor within the Foundation Year Centre at Keele, and am working as part of the Centre's Study Skills Support Team.

Further information

Recent conference and events organisation

• Lead Project Officer, The PGR Café Retreat, Castleton Losehill Hall, 11-13 September 2023
• Researcher Development Officer, The PGR Café Retreat, Keele Doctoral Academy, 2022/3
• Organising Committee & Session Lead, Archival Skills for Postgraduate Researchers, 25 March 2022, Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum

Academic service

• Student Representative (HUM), Faculty Research Committee, 2022/23
• Facilitator, HUMSS Writing Retreat, Keele Researcher Summer School, 16 August 2022
• Facilitator, Online Writing Retreat, Keele Researcher Summer School, 11 August 2021
• Co-Editor and Finance Officer, Under Construction: The Postgraduate Journal for Keele Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019 – 2021
• Committee Member, Keele Humanities and Social Sciences Work in Progress Seminar Series, 2019-2021
• PGR Faculty Rep, School of Humanities 2022/23 & 2023/24
• Facilitator and Session Lead, Keele Researcher Summer School 2021-2023

Collaborations and grants awards

Collaboration

I am an advocate of open research and accessibility with higher education and have previously worked with Tamworth Castle & Archives and The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum to improve public access to their collections material through digitisation. I have also worked with The Brilliant Club and Higher Horizons programmes to support students who are less advantaged to access the most competitive universities, and to succeed when they get there.

Awards and honours

• Literary Encyclopaedia Travel Award, 2022
• International Arthurian Society British Branch Ray Barron Award 2022
• Bob Beattie Postgraduate Student of the Year Awards: Highly Commended, Keele Postgraduate Association, 2021
• British Association of Romantic Studies Stephen Copley Research Award, 2020
• British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Postgraduate Bursary, 2020
• Best Overall Student on an English PGT Programme, Keele University, 2019/20
• NWCDTP AHRC PhD Studentship, 2019
• Keele Postgraduate Association Bursary, 2019
• Keele Graduate Scholarship, 2018/19

Grants

• Keele Doctoral Academy Peer-Led Initiative Funding (2022/23)
• NWCDTP Cohort Development Fund (2021)
• Keele English & Creative Writing Department Researcher Development Fund (2021)
• Keele English & Creative Writing Department Researcher Development Fund (2022)
• NWCDTP Fieldwork and Conference Fund (2022)
• NWCDTP Fieldwork and Conference Fund (2023)
• Keele Key Fund, 2023
• Bob Beattie Postgraduate Student of the Year Award, 2023
• The Centre for Arthurian Studies P J C Field Fellowship, 2023
• Keele Doctoral Academy Peer-Led Initiative Funding, 2022/23
• NWCDTP Cohort Development Fund, 2021
• NWCDTP AHRC PhD Studentship, 2019-2023