Professor Robert Hampson

Professor Robert Hampson FEA, FRSA has been Professor of Modern Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, since 2000. He was educated at King's College, London, and the University of Toronto.He gained his BA and PhD from King's College, London, and his MA from Toronto (which he attended as the result of the award of a Commonwealth Scholarship). 

Professor Hampson has an international reputation as a Conrad scholar and critic. His books on Conrad include Joseph Conrad: Betrayal and Identity (Macmillan, 1992), Cross-Cultural Encounters in Joseph Conrad's Malay Fiction (Palgrave, 2000) and Conrad's Secrets (Palgrave, forthcoming). He has also edited various works by Conrad and was the editor of The Conradian. He has also co-edited two collections of essays on Ford Madox Ford - Ford Madox Ford: A Re Assessment (Rodopi, 2002) and Ford Madox Ford and Modernity (Rodopi, 2003) - and works by Kipling and Rider Haggard.

In addition, he has had a long-term involvement with contempory innovative poetry as editor, critic and practitioner. He co-edited the magazine Alembic during the 1970s, and he and Peter Barry co-edited the pioneering collection of essays The New British poetries: The scope of the posible (Manchester University press, 1993). His own most recent poetry publications include Assembled Fugitives: Selected Poems 1973-1998 (Stride, 2000), Seaport (Shearsman, 2008), and an explanation of colours (Veer, 2010).

Since 1980, he has successfully supervised twenty-three PhD theses:

1. Sandra Penney: First-person narration in the works of Conrad and later novelists (1980-84). Funded by a Northcliff Scholarship. Dr Penney subsequently took up a teaching post at the University of Newfoundland.

2. David Miller on W. H. Hudson (1981-86). The thesis was subsequently published as W.H. Hudson and the Elusive Paradise (Macmillan, 1990). Dr Miller became a researcher on an AHRB-funded project at Nottingham Trent University and subsequently joined the academic staff there.

3. Susan Tiley: 'Joseph Conrad: Language and Narrative' (1983-89). Dr Tiley became a consultant in the computing industry.

4. Nik Panagopoulos on Conrad and Schopenhauer (1988-93). The thesis was later published as The Fiction of Joseph Conrad: The influence of Schopenhauer and Nietszche (Peter Lang, 1998). Dr Panagopoulos took up a teaching post in Greece at a private university.

5. Daniel Lea on J.G. Farrell (1992-96). dr Lea became a lecturer at John Moore's University, Liverpool, and subsequently at Oxford Brookes.

6. Anna-Marie Allen on Henry James (1992-97). Dr Allen became a financial consultant.

7. Siv Janssen on the representation of mothering in Victorian fiction (part-time 1984-98). Dr Janssen became a lecturer at Greenwich University and now teaches in New Zealand.

8. Teng Hong-Shu: 'Conrad and Conspiracy' (1995-99). dr Teng became an Associate Professor at feng Chia University, Taiwan.

9. Patricia Scanlan on English surrealism (part-time 1989-99). Dr Scanlan became a Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of North London and now runs Artery Editions.

10. Heloise Coffey: 'An Examination of the relationship between female emancipation and imperialism in the writings of Lady Florence Dixie' (part-time 1995-2001). Funded by the British Academy.

11. Susan Barras on games and gaming in late-nineteenth-century colonial fiction (1998-2001). Funded by the AHRB. Dr Barras became a sixth-form teachger.

12. Hilda Bronstein on Mina Loy (1998-2002). Funded by the British Academy. Dr Bronstein became a Lecturer in Creative Writing.

13. Redell Olsen on contemporary women's poetry (1998-2002), Funded by the British Academy. Dr Olsen became a Lecturer in English Literature at Royal Holloway.

14. Olivia Jennings on Janet Frame (1997-2002). Funded by the British Academy.

15, Hwang Pao-i on national identity and contemporary fiction (1999-2003). Dr Hwang became Associate Professsor at Taiwan National University.

16. Yael Levin : 'Joseph Conrad and the Otherwise Present' (2000-03).The thesis was published as Tracing the Aesthetic Principle in Conrad's Novels (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Dr Levin is Lecturer in English at Tromso University.

17. Tiffany MacEnroe on Mangan, Yeats and Joyce (2006). Dr MacEnroe went on to teach at Brunel University.

18. Georgina Colby on Kathy Acker and Brett Easton Ellis (2007). Part of the thesis was published as Brett Easton Ellis: Underwriting the Contemporary (Palgrave, 2010). Dr Colby became a Lecturer in American Literature at Westminster University.

19. Maria Ollivere on D.H. Lawrence and Wyndham Lewis (2011).

20. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, The Poethic Economy (2011).

21. John Wallen on Richard Burton and Orientalism (2011). This was published as Richard Burton and Orientalism.

22. Andrew Purssell on Jospeh Conrad and Graham Greene (2011).

Research Associate, Centre Vortex, Paris III.

Affiliate of the Centre for Creative Writing, University of Essex.

Advisory Board, International Ford Madox Ford Studies Series, Rodopi.

Editorial Board, Conradiana.

Advisory Board, Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

Editorial Board, Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry.

Editorial Board, Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad.