People

Steering Committee

Prof M A Katritzky – Director, GOTH & Professor of Theatre Studies
Dr Andrew Murray – GOTH EDI Co-ordinator, Lecturer in Art History
Mrs Jennie Owen – Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Isabelle Lepore-Thompson – GOTH PGR Scholar and PGR Forum convenor
Katie Robinson-Sherlock – FASS PGR Student and GOTH PGR Forum Co-convenor

Advisory Board

Professor Pavel Drábek – Professor of Drama and Theatre Practice, University of Hull
Professor Suman Gupta – Professor of Literature and Cultural History, The Open University
Professor Natasha Korda – Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Professor of English, Wesleyan University
Professor Noémie Ndiaye – Associate Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern English Literature, University of Chicago
Professor James Robson – Professor of Classical Studies, The Open University
Dr Hole Rößler – Acting Head, Research Planning and Research Projects, Herzog August Library
Dr Shafquat Towheed – Senior Lecturer in English, The Open University
Dr Emilia Wilton-Godberfforde – Director of Studies, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge.

Members

Past Team Members

We thank the following for their invaluable contributions to GOTH:

Dr Gemma Allen (Steering Committee, 2019-2022)
Dr Sally Blackburn-Daniels (Consultant, 2021-2023)
Christopher Dobson (GOTH PG Scholar, 2020-21)
Dr Chloe Fairbanks (Consultant, 2025)
Shazna Muzammil (Co-ordinator, 2019-2020)
Dr Christine Plastow (Steering Committee, 2019-2023)
Professor Clare Taylor (Steering Committee, 2019-2022)
Dr Molly Ziegler (Steering Committee, 2022-2024)
Kim Emmerson Pratt (PGR Forum Convenor, 2020-2025; Steering Committee, 2024-2025)

Kim Pratt, who died on 22 March 2025, was then nearing completion of her OU doctoral thesis, jointly supervised by Classical Studies and English, on classical literary representations of Polyphemus and their influence on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. A valued member of The Open University family from 2007, Kim was awarded her OU BA (Hons, First Class) in 2013 and OU MA (Distinction) in 2014. Kim brought exceptional energy, dedication, generosity and warmth to the many OU activities she was involved in. She is greatly missed.

The Kim Emmerson Pratt Memorial Lecture

We honour Kim’s memory, academic achievements and contributions to GOTH and its Postgraduate Forum by renaming our public Annual GOTH Lecture (first presented in 2024, by Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou) the Kim Emmerson Pratt Memorial Lecture (2025 presenter: Dr Emilia Wilton-Godberfforde; confirmed 2026 presenter, Professor Genevieve Lively).

Financial support

We wish to thank and register our deep appreciation to OpenARC and to the anonymous Foundation which donated external funding for the GOTH doctoral studentship as well as two significant contributions towards costs associated with the GOTH programme during its first decade.