The Nineteenth-Century Research Group

Please see below for information on some of the PhD candidates working on nineteenth-century topics in the College of Arts here at Lincoln.

 

John Francis Davies (English & History)

 

John Francis Davies (English & History)

Title: Tennyson in the Archive: Transmission and Materiality in Early Manuscripts, 1827-1851

Email: jdavies@lincoln.ac.uk

Profile: I am currently a Doctoral Award candidate in English & History fully funded by a Research Investment Fund Studentship. At the University of Oxford, I’m Visiting Doctoral Scholarship candidate at Wolfson College and the Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW), 2016-18, under the supervision of Prof. Douglas-Fairhurst (Magdalen): my election was nominated by Prof. Dame Hermione Lee and Dr Kate Kennedy-Allum. At Harvard University, I am Joan Nordell Fellow at Houghton, and recipient of the Fellowship award, 2016-17. In 2016, I was also Convenor of the Material Culture Research Group at Darwin College, University of Cambridge, and Invited Speaker at the University of Münster, Germany, in collaboration with Prof. Erbacher.

My thesis explores what can be learnt from the physical nature of manuscripts, proofs, and annotated texts in Alfred Tennyson’s archives, for the years 1827-1851. It draws equally upon all three substantive manuscript deposits at the Tennyson Research Centre (TRC), Lincoln, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Houghton Library, Harvard.

I read English at Reading and Durham, and grew up in London.

Supervisors: Jim Cheshire, Amy Culley, Scott Brewster, and, formerly, Hannah Field (Sussex)

 

Grace Harvey (English & History)

Title: The Politics of Homosocial Friendship and Sociability in the 1790s English Jacobin Novel

Email: gharvey@lincoln.ac.uk

Profile: My research examines the representation and significance of homosocial friendships within the fiction of the English Jacobin novelists throughout the 1790s, specifically Robert Bage, William Godwin, Thomas Holcroft, and Charlotte Smith. My thesis seeks to query how the word friend is often interchanged, or substituted, for other relationships, including teacher, patron, brother, colleague, husband, father, and so forth. Further questions will address how these relationships have subsequently been politicised with a specific focus on the nature and structures of power within these varying dynamics. I also intend my research to discuss the significance and influence of literary and political networks throughout the 1790s, with the political position of these writers grounding the research.

Supervisors: Amy Culley, Chris Marlow, and Ian Packer

 

Ben Perkins (English)

Title: The Treatment of the Non-European Subject in the Poetry of Tennyson

Email: 13466899@students.lincoln.ac.uk

Twitter: @TheTalkingOak

Personal website: https://ulincoln.academia.edu/BenPerkins

Profile: I am a part-time first-year PhD student studying the treatment of the non-European subject in the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson. My main interests in this field are the poet’s attitudes towards the British empire, race, and world religions. I previously studied at the University of Sheffield for a BA in English Literature and an MA in Nineteenth-Century Studies.

Supervisors: Rebecca Styler and Owen Clayton