Interview with Dr Betsy Porritt

Q: What is your role in the department?

As the new teaching fellow at LANS I facilitate the core modules, both as one of the teaching team, and as module lead for From Research to Policy II. I’m currently helping Dr Julia Myatt plan and shape the MRes Interdisciplinary Study, a postgraduate degree LANS is launching in September 2022. Additionally, my role includes guiding and supervising students from their first to their last years in the department.

Q: This is your first year in LANS. Why did you join LANS and how has it been working in the department?

This is my first year in LANS, and at Birmingham! I was lucky enough to get the role a few months after I submitted my PhD. I was drawn to the scope of the teaching the freedom and opportunities of the department and the chance to bring my training and knowledge as an English scholar and poet to this already diverse department. LANS is unlike any department I’ve ever studied or worked in. There’s an energy, an optimism and a passion that make each week a joy, as well as a degree of chaos that a rapidly growing department would inevitably have.

Q: What are your research interests?

I am interested in almost all things poetry related. Specifically I work on post-war and contemporary American and English innovative and experimental poetry. I’m currently working on a project that uses poetry as a way to think through contemporary issues in British farming/rural life following Brexit policy changes and wealth inequality.

Q: How are things going on From Research to Policy II?

We’ve just moved into the data collection phase where students are working independently in groups to find answers to some of the questions their research topics have posed. So, hopefully good! We’ve also just begun a really exciting collaboration with students from Hong Kong who will help FRTPII groups in their policy development later down the road. It’s been a wonderfully tricky challenge to rewrite a module in such different circumstances from last year and taking into account all the feedback we have been given from students. But hopefully some of the changes will pay off.

Q: What advice would you give to new LANS students?

I feel like I’m the one getting advice from students! But in general: be open, be organised, engage with the platforms available to you, follow your gut.