About
Professor Shane Weller is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation. Educated at the universities of Oxford and Yale, Shane worked for some years in the publishing industry in New York and London before pursuing a career in academia. He joined the University of Kent in 2005, was promoted to a professorship in Comparative Literature in 2010, and from 2013 to 2019 was Head of the School of European Culture and Languages. He was appointed to the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation at Kent in 2021.
Shane is responsible for the University’s
Research and Innovation Strategy, one of the University’s three key pillars,
alongside Education and Student Experience and Engagement and Impact. The
Research and Innovation Strategy is designed to ensure that Kent’s researchers
are supported and enabled to achieve the highest-quality research and
innovation, judged by international comparators. A strong commitment to an
inclusive, people-centred approach to research and innovation culture lies at
the heart of the strategy, as does a focus on close partnerships with business
and industry, the third sector, and the wider community.
Research and Academic Background and Interests
Shane’s own field of research is the history of ideas, with a particular focus on modern European literature and culture. His principal publications include the following books: A Taste for the Negative (2005), Beckett, Literature, and the Ethics of Alterity (2006), Literature, Philosophy, Nihilism (2008), Modernism and Nihilism (2011), two volumes in the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project series (co-authored with Dirk Van Hulle, 2014 and 2018), Language and Negativity in European Modernism (2019), Samuel Beckett and Cultural Nationalism (2021), and The Idea of Europe (2021).
Shane is a member of the editorial boards of the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and the Journal of Beckett Studies, and a general editor of the Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature book series. He regularly delivers keynote lectures and invited talks both nationally and internationally.
"The University of Kent benefits from an extremely rich and high-quality research culture across a wide portfolio of subject areas. Our Signature Research Themes reflect our collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to research, as do many of our other research activities. In my capacity as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation, I am fully committed to working closely with colleagues across the institution to enable, support, and reward the highest-quality research, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary work that can make a significant contribution to society, locally, nationally and internationally."
Shane Weller
Contact
Joanna Green - PA to Research and Innovation Senior Leadership
Email: J.W.Green@kent.ac.uk
Phone: 01227 (82)4689