Following a 12-month Rockefeller scholarship to the University of Minnesota, Professor Dennis Welland began one of the first American Studies courses at the University of Nottingham in 1953. He helped to found the British Association of American Studies and acted as its first treasurer, secretary and chair (1980–83). Welland was the founder editor of the Journal of American Studies (1976). His publications include Arthur Miller (1961), Twain in England (1978) and The Life and Times of Mark Twain (1991).