My doctoral thesis concerns the seventeenth-century poet and politician, Andrew Marvell (1621-1678).
I examine a series of connections between Marvell and privacy: his attitude towards authorship and print; his interest in private lives; and privacy as a theme in his writing. I explore the changing attitudes to privacy in the seventeenth century before identifying Marvell as an important witness to this ongoing development of his age.
My work challenges current critical insistence that seventeenth-century verse was written primarily for networking or preferment and that ‘publication’ of some form occurred almost invariably. It also contends that privacy was not the unequivocally positive pursuit for Marvell that many would believe, but one filled with dissatisfaction and desolation.
Examiners: Professor Nicholas McDowell and Dr Kate Loveman
Publications
‘”Art indeed is long, but life is short”: Ekphrasis and Mortality in Andrew Marvell’, in David Kennedy and Richard Meek (eds.), Ekphrastic Encounters: New Interdisciplinary Essays on Literature and the Visual Arts (Manchester University Press, 2018), ch. 3.
‘”Far off the Public Stage”: Marvell in Manuscript and Print, 1649-1665’, in Janet Clare (ed.), From Republic to Restoration: Legacies and Departures (Manchester University Press, 2018), ch. 8.
‘”The Genius of the House”: Andrew Marvell’s Private Lord Fairfax’, in Andrew Hopper and Philip Major (eds.), England’s Fortress: New Perspectives on Thomas, 3rd Lord Fairfax (Ashgate, 2014), ch. 8.
‘Special Report: Fairfax 400th Anniversary Conference’, Andrew Marvell Society Newsletter, 4.2 (2012). (Open access.)
‘Religion, Print and Visual Culture in the Early Modern Period: East Midlands Early Modern Colloquium 2011, De Montfort University’, Bulletin of the Society of Renaissance Studies, 28.2 (2011), 24-26.
Review: Blair Worden, Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), and Jason McElligott, Royalism, Print and Censorship in Revolutionary England (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), English Studies, 90.3 (2009), 368-371.
Selected Conference Papers
‘Ekphrasis and Mortality: Andrew Marvell’s Oliver Cromwell’, Ekphrasis: From Paragone to Encounter, University of Hull, 4 July 2013.
‘Marvell and Private Lives: Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax’, Early Modern Seminar, University of Leicester, 11 February 2013.
‘”The Genius of the House”: Andrew Marvell’s Private Lord Fairfax’, The Fairfax 400th Anniversary Conference, 30 June 2012.
‘Marvell and Private Lives’, Doctoral Workshop in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Geneva, 5 October 2011.
‘Marvell in Manuscript and Print: The Public and Private Experiences of 1649-1660’, From Republic to Restoration: Legacies and Depatures, Andrew Marvell Centre, University of Hull, 6 July 2010.
‘Denying Authorship: Marvell, Maniban, and the Quest for Privacy’, SAMEMES Medieval and Early Modern Authorship, University of Geneva, 30 June 2010.
‘Change and Continuity in the Ideology and Practice of Privacy in Seventeenth-Century England’, Revolution and Restoration: Change and Continuity in the British Isles, 1640-1670, Selwyn College, Cambridge, 10 January 2009.
‘One of the Three: Marvell’s Publication Dilemma’, Origins: Medieval and Early Modern English Texts and Contexts, University of Fribourg, 4 April 2008.
Awards and Scholarships
2010-2012: Fee Waiver Scholarship, University of Leicester.
2009-2010: Bradley de Glehn Scholarship, Royal Holloway, University of London.
2007-2009: Research Studentship, University of Geneva, 2007-2009.
Teaching
2011-2014: University of Leicester
- 2014: Renaissance Drama – Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (EN1050).
- 2013: PGR Lecture Series: ‘Literature and the English Civil War’ (EN2050).
- 2011-2014: ‘Shakespeare and English Culture’ (for the International Office).
2007-2009: University of Geneva
- Analysis of Texts: Introduction to Drama and Poetry (Yr 1).
- The Poetry of Andrew Marvell (Yr 2/3).
- Literature and the English Civil War (Yr 2/3).
Writing Privacy 