Emeritus Professor John McGavin

I have retired from full-time teaching, but this aspect of my work was very important to me, whether in the university or through outreach to schools or adults seeking a return to education (a field in which Southampton English was conspicuously successful while circumstances permitted). I have taught across the English discipline from the earliest period to the most recent, but mostly in the broad medieval and early-modern areas. I have enjoyed joint teaching with friends in Archaeology and History. I received a Vice-Chancellor's award for excellence in teaching and a Lifetime Achievement award from the Southampton University Students' Union.

My MA and PhD degrees are from the University of Edinburgh. In 1975, I was appointed as a lecturer to the English department at the University of Southampton, retiring from it as Professor of Medieval Literature and Culture in 2015, since when I have remained attached as an emeritus professor. I have held research Fellowships at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. During my full-time career, I had spells as Head of Department and Assistant Dean (postgraduate). Since 2015 I have continued a long-term research project on early Scottish drama records; occasional teaching (for Archaeology); internal and external examining of doctoral degrees, and have served a second term on the Research Excellence Framework sub-panel for English Language and Literature. I was also Chair of the Executive Board of the Toronto-based research  project Records of Early English Drama. I am a Fellow of the English Association. In recent years I have volunteered as a core Public Contributor in the university's Centre for Primary Care Research, and have helped also with Patient and Public Involvement in clinical research at the University Hospital Southampton. 

Prizes

• The Frank Watson Prize (2009)