Dr Jenny Buckley has been selected as a HRC Postdoctoral Fellow

During her Fellowship, Jenny will work on preparing her PhD thesis for publication as a monograph. She will also get under way a follow-up research project. This new book aims to explore the materiality of print, with a particular focus on ‘ephemeral’ and disposable print formats and the traces left by readers who interacted with these material objects.  

Jenny was awarded her PhD from York’s Department of English and Related Literature in 2020, where she specialized in literature of the eighteenth century. Her thesis, entitled Facts and Fictionality: Essay-Periodicals and Literary Novelty and supervised by Professor Jon Mee and Dr Alison O’Byrne, examines the ways in which the essay, periodical, and novel influenced one another as each form was developing in the first half of the eighteenth century. Her research shows the ways that each form can provide opportunities for the exploration of, and experimentation with, both fact and fiction.

Jenny said, ‘I’m so grateful for this award, which will support me as I adapt my thesis for publication and start research for my new project on the material culture of periodical print. I'm really excited to be able to take the next step in my research career as part of the research community of the HRC and English department.’

Meanwhile, the Department’s Graduate Chair Dr Chloe Wigston Smith (and a fellow expert in eighteenth-century literature) noted, ‘It’s wonderful to see the HRC recognize the strengths of Jenny’s research into the book project she is planning to adapt from her PhD thesis. Her project, ‘Ecologies of Print: Periodicalism, Fiction, and the Novel, 1700‒1760’ takes an innovative look at how the periodical essay contributed to the novel in the eighteenth century. Jenny also has exciting plans for future work on the role of ephemera in newspapers and magazines from 1700 to 1820. This research will allow Jenny to develop new insights into how readers interacted with a vast array of printed materials often considered to be comparatively cheap and easily disposable after their day of publication. Jenny’s research will offer a counter-narrative to that view by showing their vital contributions to readers’ abilities to navigate the paper world.’

We wish Jenny every success with her Fellowship.