English and Scottish Literature Research Events: Benjamin Kohlman

About the speaker

Professor Benjamin Kohlmann is a historian of British literature and culture working on the period from 1860 to the present. He has a special interest in the relationship between literature and politics, including the literary and cultural histories of socialism. Having pursued undergraduate and postgraduate work at Freiburg and at Yale, he earned his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2010. He held numerous visiting and postdoctoral fellowships in the US and the UK before taking up his current post at the University of Regensburg (Germany) in 2020.

Much of Benjamin’s early research focused on British modernism, especially the politicised modernism of the later interwar years. This work includes his first monograph, “Committed Styles: Modernism, Politics, and Left Wing Literature in the 1930s”. More recently, his work has included the prehistory of the welfare state (c.1860-1940); literary and cultural histories of populism; comparative and global approaches to literature; and literary and cultural theory. His second monograph, “British Literature and the Life of Institutions: Speculative States”, was published by Oxford UP in 2021.

With Janice Ho (University of British Columbia) and Matthew Taunton (University of East Anglia), he is co-editor of a new book series with Oxford UP on “Literature and Politics”.

How to attend

Each year, English and Scottish Literature hosts a variety of exciting research events featuring a fantastic range of guest speakers and colleagues.

Events are free and everyone is welcome. No booking is required.

Are you interested in a PhD in English Literature?

We offer two PhDs: one in English Literature; and one in Creative Writing. Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in all periods and genres of literature and literary analysis. Working with colleagues elsewhere in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) and across the wider University of Edinburgh, we are also able to support research which crosses further boundaries between disciplines and/or languages.