18th- and 19th-Century Literature, British and American

Intersecting interests and active research agendas.

Faculty members specializing in the historical fields of 18th- and 19th-century British and American literatures have intersecting interests and work together on graduate examinations, MA theses and dissertations. We have active research agendas in Restoration/Eighteenth Century British Studies (Anderson, Havens), Early American (Chiles), Nineteenth-Century British (Billone, Cohen-Vrignaud, Henry) and Nineteenth-Century American (Chiles, Coleman, Griffin, Papke).

We collaborate to bring in speakers, conduct extracurricular Research Seminars funded by the University of Tennessee Humanities Center, and organize community events such as Author Festivals (Jane Austen, Herman Melville) and the annual Frederick Douglass Day.

Our faculty approach the literature of these historical periods from the perspectives of critical race theory, feminist and gender theory, queer theory, transatlantic studies, theatre studies, religious studies, secular studies, animal studies, and digital humanities, among others.   

Faculty members serve as editors of international journals including: Early American Literature, The Burney Journal, Journal of Victorian Culture, George Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studies and Victorians Institute Journal. The Richard Beale Davis Fellowships offer graduate students the opportunity to serve as Research and Editorial Assistants. We offer generous funding for travel to conferences and archives. We are a member of the Dickens Project and send students to the Dickens Universe in Santa Cruz. Department members have been involved with the R18 Collective, which offers resources, including online productions of plays. Members have also been involved with the Maria Edgeworth Letters Project (https://mariaedgeworth.org/), to which members of the public can contribute via the Zooniverse crowdsourced transcription platform (https://www.zooniverse.org/pr…ia-edgeworth-letters). Furthermore, the University of Tennessee library has a robust collection of print and digital holdings that are relevant to research in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century studies.