Dr Hamish Mathison
Contact |
Room 5.19, Jessop West Internal extension: 28456 email : h.mathison@sheffield.ac.uk |
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Overview |
I joined Sheffield´s team of eighteenth-century literature specialists in 2000 following an undergraduate degree from Keble College, Oxford and a PhD called Communities in Print: Robert Burns and Late Eighteenth-Century Scottish Poetry taken at the University of Aberdeen. |
Research |
My main research field is of Scottish eighteenth-century literature. My PhD was a study of how poetry was popularised and marketed in the eighteenth century, and it looked at how the poetry of Robert Burns (1759-1796) was promoted at the time. I maintain an interest in the theoretical work of Jürgen Habermas and "Frankfurt School" critical theory. My most recent work has been on the connections between print culture and patriotic sentiment in the eighteenth-century Scottish newspaper press, part of a larger interest I have in developing the literary history of early Scottish newspapers. My work in the field of eighteenth-century studies is heavily invested in the emerging discipline of `book history´, and this has led me back to the origins of Scottish print in the sixteenth century. |
Teaching |
Principally, I lecture on and often convene the department's second-level core course on `Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature´, and similarly contribute to our third-level core teaching in the field of Romantic and Victorian poetry. Most years I offer two optional modules: 'Satire and Print in the Eighteenth Century' which is all about print culture in the first half of the century, and 'Writing in Enlightenment Britain' which is about the connections between moral philosophy and literary work in the second half of the century. Alongside my undergraduate teaching activity, I teach a module on eighteenth-century Scottish poetry at MA level and contribute to and sometimes convene our core module on the Eighteenth-Century Studies MA programme. |
Supervision |
I welcome applications from potential research students who wish to work upon the literature of the eighteenth-century. At present I'm supervising PhD students working on topics as diverse as Scottish song, balladry, antiquarian collecting and publishing, literary paratexts and the evolution of literary truth claims in the eighteenth century. |
Publications |
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