Dr Amy Burge BA, MA, PhD

Dr Amy Burge

Department of English Literature
Associate Professor in Popular Fiction

My teaching and research interests are in popular fiction, in particular romance, both medieval and modern. My work is intersectional and focuses on gender, ethnicity and sexuality. I’m currently working on a literary history of romantic masculinity and a project exploring Arab and Muslim women’s genre fiction.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) English and Related Literature (University of York)
  • MA (Hons) Women’s Studies (Humanities) (University of York)
  • PhD Women’s Studies (University of York)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (University of Edinburgh)

Biography

I joined the University of Birmingham in August 2018. Prior to this, I taught at Cardiff University, York St John University, Bishop Grosseteste University, the University of York and the University of Edinburgh, where I also worked in academic development.

My doctoral research (completed in 2012) was undertaken at the University of York, where I was jointly supervised between the Centre for Women’s Studies and the Department of English and Related Literature. 

Teaching

  • Popular Fiction before the Novel (UG)
  • The Use of Genre (UG) – module convenor
  • Cultures of Popular Literature (PG) – module co-convenor

Postgraduate supervision

I am keen to hear from prospective students interested in researching the following areas:

Popular romance studies, especially projects on diversity
Popular and genre fiction
Publishing
Migration and refugee fiction
Muslim women's genre writing
Cross-period and cross-disciplinary projects

Update October 2023: I am accepting new PhD students to begin no earlier than academic year 2025/26.


Find out more - our PhD English Literature  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

My research interests lie in popular fiction (especially romance). I am interested in genre fiction, publishing, women’s writing, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and migration. 

I have published research on contemporary women’s historical fiction, sexualisation and women’s advice literature, medieval and modern literary representations of virginity, class and wealth in popular romance fiction, chick lit from the Middle East, imperialism in the medieval romance Emaré, Scottish popular romance in the twentieth century, marriage migration in romance novels, masculinity in Nigerian romance fiction, and migration fiction

I have edited special issues on E. M. Hull's early twentieth-century classic novel, The Sheikmulti-disciplinary approaches to critical love studies, and medieval romance, gender and materiality.

My first book, Representing Difference in the Medieval and Modern Orientalist Romance (Palgrave, 2016) is a comparative study of Orientalism in medieval and modern popular romance and compares the representation of erotic relationships across religious and cultural borders in late medieval Orientalist romance (1330-1450) and British and North American post 9/11 romantic fiction.

I am Principal Investigator for the AHRC-funded Muslim Women's Popular Fiction research network. 

I also have an interest in pedagogy and have published research on using arts-based research methods with university colleagues, understanding the development of postgraduates who teach, and supporting postgraduate students who teach

Other activities

  • I am on the editorial board for the Journal of Popular Romance Studies and a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship and the Love Research Network.
  • I have been a reviewer for The Journal of Masculinity Studies, Routledge and Edinburgh University Press.
  • I have presented my research at many international conferences and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
  • I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Publications

Highlight publications

Burge, A 2020, Class and wealth in popular romance fiction. in J Kamblé, EM Selinger & H-M Teo (eds), The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction. Routledge, pp. 395-410.

Burge, A 2020 'What can literature tell us about migration?' IRiS Working Paper Series, pp. 1-24. <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/iris/2020/what-can-literature-tell-us-about-migration.pdf>

Burge, A 2018, 'The rough guide to love: romance, history and sexualization in gendered relationship advice', Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 649-660. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2017.1287065

Burge, A 2016, Representing difference in the medieval and modern orientalist romance. The New Middle Ages (TNMA), Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-59356-6

Recent publications

Article

Burge, A, McAlister, J & Ireland, C 2024, '“Prince Charming with an erection”: The sensational pleasures of the bonkbuster', Contemporary Women's Writing, pp. 137-155. https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpae002, https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpae002

Burge, A 2022, 'A decolonised alpha hero? Negotiating masculinities in Nigerian romance novels', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 12. <https://www.jprstudies.org/>

Burge, A 2022, 'Beyond Outlander: Annie S. Swan and the Scottish popular romance novel', Scottish Literary Review, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 1-19. <https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/243/article/871719>

Burge, A & Kertz, L 2020, 'Fabricated Muslim identity, female agency, and cultural complicity: the Christian imperial project of Emaré', Medieval Feminist Forum, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 38-69. <https://ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol56/iss1/4>

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Burge, A 2023, Migration in Popular and Genre Fiction. in L Lessard-Phillips, A Papoutsi, N Sigona & P Ziss (eds), Migration, Displacement and Diversity: The IRiS anthology. Oxford Publishing Services, Oxford, pp. 117-121.

Burge, A 2023, Romantic Love across Borders: Marriage Migration in Popular Romance Fiction. in M Grobbelaar, E Reid Boyd & D Dudek (eds), Contemporary Love Studies in the Arts and Humanities: What's Love Got To Do With It?. 1 edn, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26055-1_4

Burge, A & Folie, S 2021, Girls of Riyadh and desperate in Dubai: reading and writing romance in the Middle East. in A Brooks (ed.), Routledge Companion to Romantic Love. 1st edn, Routledge Companions to Gender, Routledge.

Book/Film/Article review

Burge, A 2019, 'Review: Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari, with Eric Klinenberg; Is Monogamy Dead?, by Rosie Wilby; How to Go Steady, by Jacque Nodell', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 8. <http://jprstudies.org/2019/03/review-modern-romance-by-aziz-ansari-with-eric-klinenberg-is-monogamy-dead-by-rosie-wilby-how-to-go-steady-by-jacque-nodell/>

Burge, A 2019, 'Review of Girls’ series fiction and American popular culture', Folklore.

Burge, A 2019, 'Review of Goran Stanivukovic, ed. Timely Voices: Romance Writing in English Literature', Journal of British Studies, vol. 53, no. 3. https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2019.111

Comment/debate

Burge, A 2024, 'Reflections on Lace (1982) by Shirley Conran', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 13. <https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/01/reflections-on-lace-1982-by-shirley-conran>

Editorial

Burge, A, Bonsall, J, Boharski, M, Hayes, L, Howarth, D & Wright, V 2020, 'Introduction: new approaches to medieval romance, materiality, and gender', Medieval Feminist Forum, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 5-17. <https://ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol56/iss1/2/>

Burge, A 2020, 'Introduction to the special issue on The Sheik', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 9. <https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/introduction-to-the-special-issue-on-the-sheik/>

Review article

Burge, A & Robinson, R 2020, 'Review essay on The Sheik', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 9. <http://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/review-essay-on-the-sheik/>

Special issue

Burge, A (ed.) 2020, 'Special issue on E. M. Hull's The Sheik', Journal of Popular Romance Studies, vol. 9.

View all publications in research portal