Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson

Supervisors: Seamus Perry and Bysshe Coffey

Research interests: Long nineteenth-century English Literature, women writers, feminist recovery, (trans)nationalism studies, nineteenth-century Italy

Bio: Jessica is a former journalist and union organiser for public university employees. She is now a doctoral student studying Cornelia Turner, a pro-Italian unification novelist mostly known for her relationships with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Giovanni Ruffini. Her academic work has been published in The Pre-Raphaelite Society Review. She rather dislikes making author bios and instead enjoys creative writing, reading, and analogue film photography. Jessica hopes to eventually return to Italy—or the “Mother Country,” as Christina Rossetti calls it—and spend the rest of her days whimsically writing about the human condition.

Education:

• University of Georgia (2023-2025) - MA in English Literature
• University of Oxford, Regent's Park College (2021-2022) - Visiting Non-Matriculated Student
• Columbus State University (2018-2022) - BA in English Literature, minor in History, Medieval & Renaissance Studies Certificate

Publications:

• The Risorgimento of Christina Rossetti, The Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Vol. XXXII, no. 2, Autumn/Winter 2024
• Provincial Setting in Middlemarch, The Arden, Vol. XX, 2022
• “A Mirror Which Makes Beautiful:” Giuseppe Mazzini’s Love of Romantic Literature and its Effects on the Risorgimento, Momentum, 2020
• “An Unfortunate Governess Received:” Anne and Charlotte Brontë’s Portrayals of the Feminine Occupation, Momentum, 2020

Conference papers:

• Who cares about Cornelia Turner?, Victorians Institute Conference. Greenville, SC. 13-14 Sept. 2025.
• Aaron’s Rod and D.H. Lawrence’s Travel Writings in Liberal Era Italy, Lawrence in Mexico: Travel, Translation, and Transcultural Representation. Mexico City, Mexico. 11-15 Aug 2025.
• “The mosquito hovers”: D.H. Lawrence, Blood, and the Disappointment of Italy’s Liberal Era. Virtual Graduate Conference in D.H. Lawrence Studies. 18 May 2024.
• The Risorgimento of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, Victorians Institute Conference. Raleigh, NC. 6-8 Oct. 2023