Allan Ingram

Biography

Allan's first degree and doctorate, on James Boswell and the writing of melancholy, were both taken at Nottingham, after which he taught for six years as Lecturer in English at what was then Newland Park College of Education, then a teacher training college and now Buckinghamshire Chilterns University. Allan Ingram Humanities Northumbria UniversityMy first degree and doctorate, on James Boswell and the writing of melancholy, were both taken at Nottingham, after which I taught for six years as Lecturer in English at what was then Newland Park College of Education, then a teacher training college and now Buckinghamshire Chilterns University. I moved to what was then Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic as Senior Lecturer in English, became Principal Lecturer in 1988 and Professor in 1993.

Research Interest

My research has been mainly in the eighteenth century, though I have also published on literature of the Modernist period, particularly Joseph Conrad and DH Lawrence. Within the eighteenth century I have worked on satire, on melancholy, and on different aspects of insanity. I have published monographs on this topic and two edited collections of primary material. I have also spoken widely at conferences in Europe and America on issues to do with insanity and contributed articles and chapters to various collections. Two other monographs are on Boswell, and on Swift and Pope. I have edited Gulliver's Travels for Broadview Press. Between 2006 and 2009 I was Director of the major research project, 'Before Depression, 1660-1800', which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This delivered two series of public lectures on depression in the eighteenth century, a major international conference in June 2008 and an exhibition of eighteenth-century art at the Shipley Gallery Gateshead, also in summer 2008. I have edited and contributed to several of the project's publications, including the four-volume Depression and Melancholy, 1660-1800 set of primary source material published by Pickering & Chatto and the co-authored volume Melancholy Experience in Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century. For more details please visit the Before Depression project website. While I have taught over many periods, including Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, Romantic poetry and literature of the Modernist period, my main interest has always been eighteenth-century writing. In recent years I have particularly specialised in teaching eighteenth-century texts about insanity, including texts by doctors, by the so-called insane, and texts that represent insanity. I currently teach one third-year module, 'Gender and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Writing'. I also run the exchange programme between English and History and Georgia State University in Atlanta. As part of this I teach a module, 'The Making of British Culture', for students here from Georgia State.