In this regular feature staff members provide us with insights into their current research activity.

Mike Bradshaw is co-editing a special issue of the journal La Questione Romantica with Gioia Angeletti, a colleague from the University of Parma.

International literary research has long promoted the crossing and erasure of national boundaries to create a genuinely European Romanticism. Recent scholarship on international cultural exchanges, collaboration, and social networks has further promoted the diversification of Romantic studies. Increasingly, new research on transnational Romantic cultures shows a mutually enriching dialogue with the expanding field of critical Refugee Studies.

This special issue of La Questione Romantica aims to consolidate these gains by showcasing new research on the international movement of people in the long Romantic period, and to consider resonances between the Romantic era and contemporary phenomena of migration and expatriation, especially the European refugee crisis of the 21^st century. The collection will include themes such as: expatriate communities; political exile and refuge; transnational and cosmopolitan identities; international literary influence; and multilingual authorship.

It’s a regular feature of this journal to include a selection of original poetry in every issue. For our special number on Migration and Refuge, the editors have invited a range of exciting migrant / diasporic writers to share some new poems which reflect on the lived experience of crossing borders.