The Centre for Poetic Innovation addresses poetry and poetics creatively, critically and historically, promoting and studying poetic innovation in a broad sense of both terms, from poetry as traditionally understood to poetic aspects of visual and material art forms, of prose writing as well as interactions with music, dance and digital poetry. The key aims of the Centre are:
- Hosting speakers, workshops and conferences
- Support and development of doctoral and post-doctoral research
- Public engagement and impact activities
- Joint Research Grant applications and research projects
Upcoming events
Friday 25 September 2026
12-3pm
Scottish Ocean Institute (SOI) New Seminar Room.
The Poetics of Movement and Stillness in the Emergence of Knowing
a Creative Writing Workshop led by Aine McAllister
part of a Knowledge Exchange with the Centre for Intercultural Studies, UCL.
Drawing on the concept of Dúchas (or Dùtchas in Scottish Gaelic), and through walking, this workshop will explore an embodied, dialogic relationality with water as a way to access the poetic imagination. Activating the poetic imagination will be explored as a process of inner consciousness raising through which creativity is realised to restore the interconnectedness of all things human and non-human. I will offer a cairn as a metaphor for that interconnectedness and invite participants to imagine their own poetic representation of the generative potential of a dialogic relationality with nature and water. We will then collaboratively reassemble fragments of our poems into a collective piece to enact a vision of interconnectedness. If you would like to attend, please contact Elodie Laügt ([email protected]) to book a place (and lunch).
Áine McAllister is an Associate Professor in the International Centre for Intercultural Studies at UCL IOE. Áine explores intercultural creativity as critical consciousness raising, with a particular focus on poetry as intercultural knowing. In her work she centres othered ways of knowing; through the body, the heart, the spirit, and relationality with nature, all from within a translanguaging framework. She is interested in how these ways of knowing generate new insights for reimagining how we listen and for amplifying voice for culturally and linguistically marginalised speakers. This is the empirical focus of Áine’s work and how she seeks social justice impact. Her published work, at the intersection of poetic inquiry and Blommaertian applied ethnopoetics and her ‘poetry as translanguaging’ pedagogy are recognized as innovative and transformative for marginalized multilingual groups.
Áine leads the Intercultural Creativity module on the International Centre’s MA in Intercultural Communication. Áine regularly presents at international conferences and has delivered keynotes both as a poet and on poetics as decolonial pedagogy. She comes to Language and Intercultural Studies and the exploration of poetry as an intercultural way of knowing from a background in languages education, teacher education, and teaching and learning leadership in both secondary education and higher education.
Keju vs Jueju: Classical Chinese Poetry, Cosmology, and Power
by Dr Jonathan Stalling
6 October 2026, 5-7pm – UCO: School I
This event is a collaboration with the Department of Chinese Studies
In this lecture, Dr Stalling will explore the relationship and tensions between Classical Chinese ‘regulated verse’ as a testing diagnostic and as a mode of personal lyrical expression.
The lecture will be followed by a wine reception (UCO54)
Dr Stalling is the Director of the David L. Boren School of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the Harold J Newman Chair of US-China and is Professor of International and Area Studies. He is the Director of the Institute for US-China Issues, where he directs The Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, The Newman Prize for English Jueju, the journal Chinese Literature and Thought Today (Routledge), and the CLT book series (University of Oklahoma Press).
Dr Stalling’s interdisciplinary work sits at the cross-section of English-Chinese translation studies, poetics, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. Dr Stalling is also the creator of the English Jueju, a novel system for teaching Classical Chinese poetic forms in English. One can follow this work and learn the form here: www.juejupath.com
‘Carving Dragons: Composing Classical Chinese Poetry in English’: A workshop with Jonathan Stalling
6 October 2026, 3-4pm- ARB: 220 – Arts Seminar 5
In this workshop, Dr Jonathan Stalling will lead participants on a brief nature walk followed by guided writing exercises to compose classical Chinese poetry, but in English.
This workshop has a limited capacity and requires participants to register in advance. All are welcome but Chinese Studies and Comp Lit honours students may be given priority.
To book your place, please visit University of St Andrews Events portal.