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.

Research

Overview

Emma Major’s research interests lie in debates about gender, nation, Christianity, and class. 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.

Supervision

She has supervised MA and PhD dissertations by students in English, History, and History of Art, on a broad range of topics and writers, from The Tatler and The Spectator, Samuel Richardson, and Eliza Haywood, to the Oxford movement, Mrs Humphry Ward, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Two of her doctoral students recently successfully completed PhDs: one on female Quaker readers 1885-1925, and the other on Henry Fielding’s early work. She enjoys co-supervising with colleagues from English, History of Art, and History, and welcomes interdisciplinary projects.