Biography

Dr Rennie is the Researcher for the University's 525 Alumni Portraits project, having previously worked (from 2019-2020) as an Academic Writing Adviser at the Student Learning Service. He gained a PhD in English literature from Aberdeen University in 2017 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Rennie is the author of American Writers and World War I (Oxford University Press, 2020) and editor of Scottish Literature and World War I (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). His current projects include a biography, Sir Alexander Ogston: A life at medical and military frontlines (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). With Dr Niklas Salmose (Linnaeus University), he is editing F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography. His essays have appeared in The Hemingway Review and The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review.

Research Overview

Dr Rennie’s research interests lie mainly in the areas of World War I writing and twentieth-century literature.

Books

• Sir Alexander Ogston: A life at medical and military frontlines (Edinburgh University Press, 2022)
• American Writers and World War I (Oxford University Press, 2020)
• (Ed.) Scottish Literature and World War I (Edinburgh University Press, 2020)

Peer-Reviewed Essays

• ‘The Real British Red Cross and A Farewell to Arms’, The Hemingway Review, vol. 37.2 (2018): 25-41
• ‘‘The World Only Exists Through Your Apprehension’: World War I in This Side of Paradise and Tender Is the Night’, The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, vol. 14 (2016): 181-197
• ‘In the Fields of Democracy: the Midwest in World War I’, Midwestern Miscellany XLIV (2016): 23-38
• ‘‘The Best Combatant Story of the Great War’? Topographical and Descriptive Juxtaposition in Thomas Boyd’s Through the Wheat’, MidAmerica XLI (2014): 95-104

Book Chapters

• ‘The Midwest: Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past’, A History of American Literature and Culture of World War I (Cambridge University Press, 2020), ed. by Tim Dayton and Mark Van Wienen, pp.172-282
• ‘Introduction: ‘A Reflection of the Contrasts’: Scottish Literature and World War I’, Scottish Literature and World War I (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp.1-20
• ‘‘It Takes All Sorts to Make a Type’: Scottish Great War Prose’, Scottish Literature and World War I (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp.44-61
• ‘‘Never Such Innocence Again’: Nostalgic Exploitations of World War I’, Once Upon A Time: Nostalgic Narratives in Transition (Trolltrumma Academia, 2018), ed. by Niklas Salmose and Eric Sandberg, pp.82-98

Funding and Grants

Selected:

(2018) Aberdeen Humanities Fund (World War I workshop grant), £2,500
(2016) Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald Santander Internship, £3,000
(2016) British Association of American Studies Postgraduate Essay Award, £500