Paul is a postdoctoral researcher and Junior Dean at Lincoln College, Oxford. His doctoral thesis, support by an AHRC-Sloane Robinson Foundation Studentship, examined the poetry and prose of Percy Bysshe Shelley through the lens of economic philosophy. He is currently preparing his first monograph - provisionally entitled Shelley and the Economic Imagination - which connects the poet's discussion of economic ideas (including equality, value, and debt) with his theory of the creative imagination. Before coming to Oxford, he was educated at local state schools and spent several years as a member of the finance team for Iron Maiden.
Recent Publications:
Stephens, P., 'Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ethics of Debt', The Review of English Studies, 71:298 (2020), 117-39.
Stephens, P., 'Review: Jacqueline Mulhallen's Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary', The Keats-Shelley Review, 33:1 (2019), 134-36.
Stephens, P., 'Coleridge and the National Debt', European Journal of English Studies, 21:1 (2017), 26-42.
Recent Teaching:
Devised and delivered the following undergraduate courses (composed of classes and/or tutorials):
- 'Identity in Victorian Shorter Fiction'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Forthcoming)
- 'FHS I, Paper 5 (Literature in English 1760-1830)'. Lincoln College, Oxford (Co-Tutoring; Forthcoming)
- 'FHS I, Paper 5 (Literature in English 1760-1830)'. Oriel College, Oxford (Trinity 2020)
- 'John Keats: His Life and Thought'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Trinity 2020)
- 'British Romanticism'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Hilary 2020)
- 'Introduction to British Romanticism'. Advanced Studies in England, Bath (Michaelmas 2018)
Fellowships:
- Huntington Library, California. Visiting Fellowship (2020)
Conference Organising:
- The Shelley Conference 2022. Bicentenary Conference to Celebrate Percy Bysshe Shelley (Forthcoming)
- Romantic Futurities (1760-1840). British Association for Romantic Studies (Jun 2020)
- Romantic Exchanges (1760-1840). British Association for Romantic Studies (Jun 2018)
- Lincoln Leads (Seminar Series II). Lincoln College, Oxford (Jan-Mar 2018)
- Oxford English Graduate Conference (Debts). Faculty of English, Oxford (Jun 2017)
Current Roles:
- Junior Dean: Lincoln College, Oxford
- Treasurer: The Charles Lamb Society
- Assistant Treasurer: British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies
- ECR Representative: British Association for Romantic Studies
- Finance Manager: Uncomfortable Oxford Ltd.