Nigel James Leask (born 1958) is a Scottish academic publishing on Romantic,

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

, and

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

literature, with special interest on

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...

, and

travel writing The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a ...

. He has been

Regius Professor A Regius Professor is a university Professor (highest academic rank), professor who has, or originally had, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Republic ...

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, since 2004. He won the Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year award in 2010 for his book ''Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland''. He is a fellow of

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

and a Centenary Fellow of the

English Association The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by ...

Early life and education

He was born in 1958 and grew up in

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling ( ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.Registers of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. It borders Perthshir ...

. He was educated at

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Stockbridge, is now part of the Senior Scho ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

before taking up a position of Reader in

Romantic literature In literature, Romanticism found recurrent themes in the evocation or criticism of the past, the cult of "sensibility" with its emphasis on women and children, the isolation of the artist or narrator, and respect for nature. Furthermore, several ...

at Cambridge University. He is married and has two daughters.

Career

In 2004, he was appointed to Regius chair of English language and literature at University of Glasgow, and is Head of the School of Critical Studies, currently from 1 August 2010. He also held teaching appointments at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

;

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

; and a visiting professorship at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM),

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. He has lectured widely in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. He published ''The Politics of Imagination in Coleridge’s Critical Thought'', his first book, in 1988; subsequently, British ''Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire'' in 1992, and many others later.

Bibliography

* ''The Politics of Imagination in Coleridge’s Critical Thought'', 1988. * ''British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire'', 1992. * ''Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing, 1770-1840: From an Antique Land'', 2002. * ''Irish republicans and gothic Eleutherarchs: Pacific utopias in the writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Charles Brockden Brown'', 2002. * ''Darwin's Second Sun: Alexander von Humboldt and the Genesis of the Voyage of the Beagle'', 2003. * ''Land, Nation and Culture, 1740-1840: Thinking the Republic of Taste'', 2004, co-edited with David Simpson and Peter De Bolla. * ''Maurice, Thomas (1754–1824), oriental scholar and librarian'', 2004. * ''Burns, Wordsworth and the politics of vernacular poetry'', 2005. * ''Byron and the eastern Mediterranean: Childe Harold II and the polemic of Ottoman Greece'', 2005. * ''Travelling the Other Way: The travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan (1810) and romantic Orientalism'', 2006. * ''Kubla Khan and orientalism: the road to Xanadu revisited'', 2006. * ''Thomas Muir and the telegraph: radical cosmopolitanism in 1790s Scotland. History Workshop Journal'', 2007. * ''His Hero's Story': Dr Currie's Burns, Moore's Byron and Romantic Biography'', 2008. * ''Romanticism and Popular Culture in Britain and Ireland'', 2009, co-edited with Phil Connel. * ''Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland'', 2010. * ''Their Groves o' Sweet Myrtles': Robert Burns and the Scottish Colonial Experience'', 2012.

Awards

* Saltire Award - Scottish Research Book of the Year 2010.

Notes

External links

Professor Nigel Leask, Head of the University’s School of Critical Studies.

The University of Glasgow have been awarded the funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council - The team include English literature professors Nigel Leask.

* ttp://www.investigatingthearchive.org/triangular-traffic/speakers.php Speakers - Nigel Leask {{DEFAULTSORT:Leask, Nigel 1958 births People educated at Edinburgh Academy Scottish writers Scottish literary critics Scottish literary historians Living people Fellows of the English Association Scottish academics of English literature People from Stirling (council area) Scottish orientalists Academics from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Oxford