Cohort Year:
2019
Research Interests:
18th-century British literature & culture; Romanticism; theories of character; formalism & historicism; law & literature; history of social & economic inequality; history of humanitarianism & human rights
Biography
I received my B.A. in English from Kenyon College in 2017. My dissertation project excavates the literary and cultural origins of the undeserving poor in the discourse and practice of philanthropy during the long 18th century. I argue that the theories of character developed in the period’s emergent literary forms, particularly the early novel, were instrumental in centering the concept of deserving in the determination of who should and should not receive charitable relief. My interests include philanthropy’s importance to the discourses of humanitarianism, human rights, slavery, abolitionism, and public welfare. I also serve as a coordinator of the 18th- and 19th-Century Atlantic Cultures Workshop.
