2018/19 MA Dissertation Prize

By Kathryn Holdsworth Dissertation Overview My MA dissertation research focused on the role of gossip in late eighteenth-century adultery narratives, exploring the relationship between gossip and the formation and circulation of knowledge about women.  Drawing on two criminal conversation trials and one novel as case studies (Worsley v Bissett, 1782; Duberly v Gunning, 1792 and Edgeworth’s 1801…

Research Spotlight: Sharon Choe

Studying: PhD in English Literature (full-time)Supervisor: Prof. Jon MeeThesis title: ‘Deformed, Dismembered, Disembodied: Re-inventing the Body Politic in William Blake’Research Interests: William Blake, poetry, medical humanities, the body, disability theory, ‘Britishness’, eighteenth-century Northern antiquarianism, Old Norse reception, myth theory, 1790s. Thesis Overview My doctoral thesis addresses two specific parts of William Blake’s poetry: Blake’s use…

A Visit to the John Carter Brown Library (WRoCAH REP)

By Lilian Tabois  In August 2019 I did a one-month placement at the John Carter Brown Library (JCB) in Providence (RI) as part of the WRoCAH Researcher Employability Project (REP) scheme. These placements provide PhD students with the opportunity to gain experience in a professional context away from the home university in the form of a month-long project with an external…

Research Spotlight: Cheng Li

Studying: PhD in History (full-time)Supervisor: Professor Miles TaylorThesis Title: Pursuing a noble dream of legal codification: Jeremy Bentham’s law reform strategies, 1808-1832Research Interest: British politics and reforms in the eighteenth century and nineteenth century; utilitarianism; Bentham studies; intellectual biography studies; the Age of Reform. Thesis Overview My thesis explores the strategies made by the British…

Conference Report: ‘Crusoe at 300: Adaptations, Afterlives & Futures’

With the words “I was Born in the Year 1632, in the City of York” opening Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, it was only fitting that as we celebrate the 300th anniversary of this work Crusoe should come home to York. Organised by Dr Chloe Wigston Smith and Dr Gabriel Cervantes (University of Glasgow), the Centre for…

Conference Report: Small Things in the Eighteenth Century

By Holly Day On the 6th-7th June, CECS hosted the conference ‘Small Things in the Eighteenth Century,’ organised by Professor Beth Fowkes Tobin (University of Georgia), and our own Dr Chloe Wigston Smith, and funded by CECS and the British Academy. Brittany Scowcroft of CECS provided essential support. Speakers from several disciplines, including literary studies,…

Research Spotlight: Caitlin Kitchener

Studying: PhD in Archaeology (full-time)Supervisor: Dr. Jon FinchThesis Title: ‘Unite and Be Free’: The Historical Archaeology of British Political Radicalism, c. 1815-1822. Research Interests: political radicalism; landscape; early modern material culture; queer theory; archaeological theory  Thesis Overview The post-Napoleonic period was one of lively political activity. The emerging working class protested against a parliamentary system which failed to represent them…