Elspeth (Elsie) Askew

Thesis Title: The Transatlantic Last (Hu)Man: Anthropocentrism and Human Extinction in British and American Periodicals, 1816-1848

Supervisor: Professor Fiona Stafford

Research Interests: Romanticism; the Gothic; the periodical form; transatlantic influence; verbal and visual culture; animal poetry; silence, absence and loss

Doctoral Research: I am exploring literary representations of human extinction in British and American periodicals in the first half of the nineteenth century to consider whether traditional anthropocentric attitudes are reasserted, undermined or both. In my analysis, I hope to draw out the prophetic qualities and contemporary resonances of the texts I analyse, especially in relation to current environmental crises.

Teaching: Graduate Teaching Assistant on the Word and Image course for Paper 6 (Special Options) in Michaelmas 2024

Conference Papers: ‘The cold world shall not know’: Silence and Sympathy in Shelley’s 'Julian and Maddalo', The Shelley Conference, July 2024