Emma Major

Profile

Biography

Emma Major did her first degree in English Literature at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where she was elected a Foundation Scholar in 1993. She came to York because of its interdisciplinary MA and exceptional scholars, and then stayed on for a PhD at the Department of English and Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She has taught at the Universities of York, Leeds, and Sheffield Hallam, where she was Senior Lecturer 2006-8 before returning to York.

Since the publication of her book Madam Britannia: Women, Church, and Nation 1712-1812 (Oxford UP, 2011), she has written two chapters for edited collections: an essay on Catherine Talbot, and another on religion and national identity in 1688. She has ongoing interests in debates in the 1680s and 1690s, and in Charlotte Yonge and Margaret Oliphant. She is currently working on two monographs, one on Anna Laetitia Barbauld and concepts of the public, and the other on religion, rebellion, and nation in the 1840s.

In addition to her published reviews for scholarly and literary publications, she has peer-reviewed projects for the AHRC, Routledge, and Ashgate. She regularly peer-reviews articles on a wide range of topics in the period 1600-1950 for international scholarly journals. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the AHRC funded project Elizabeth Montagu and the Bluestocking Circle.