‘And so betwixt them both’: taking insights from literary analysis into higher education research

This paper looks at ways in which methods used in literary analysis can contribute to higher education research. I start by describing a methodology commonly used in the analysis of literary texts, close reading or textual analysis, and outline how it can be utilised in conjunction with several theoretical approaches in the literary studies toolkit. I then demonstrate how these methodological approaches might work in higher education research through a brief analysis of two texts produced by two universities, focusing on the construction of the doctoral researcher in each. Finally, I close by briefly considering what kinds of texts could be analysed in a higher education research context and argue for a broadening of what counts as data in the field.