Current PhD Students

Aubrey Williams

Thesis Title:

To Know, Hope, or Accept: Sublime Bodies in Second Wave Romantic Poetry

Supervisor:

Professor Jon Mee

Description:

I’m a 3 rd year PhD student, working in British Romanticism with speculative realism and ecocriticism. My thesis focusses on Lord Byron and Percy Shelley in relation to the sublime- particularly in nature- and their divergence from the likes of William Wordsworth in terms of how they think about, right about, and experience nature. The poets also appear to be in a sort-of dialogue or debate concerning related questions of civilisation and humanity. Importantly, I contend the sublime is frequently used by Byron and Shelley to demonstrate the pull natural bodies have on us, and to attempt to overcome the barriers we have by virtue of being human. I also consider the sublime in human spaces, such as ruins, cities, and prisons, and the difference between it versus in nature. I trace Byron and Shelley’s journeys in the Alps, moreover, and consider their appreciation of Jean Jacques Rousseau. I find that Byron and Shelley, while more pessimistic and optimistic respectively about the human-nature connection, both sympathetically appreciate nature for what it is and for the fascination it elicits without over-romanticising it.

I previously studied Celtic at Prifysgol Aberystwyth University (BaHons), before relocating upon graduation to the Netherlands to study English at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, where I achieved my second BA and my Research Masters (cum laude), whereupon I specialised in the sublime in Romanticism, with a particular focus on space such as mountains, prisons, and ruins. I lectured at Groningen between 2020-2023 in the Department of English, teaching a variety of courses including modern literature, essay composition, presenting research, literary theory, and the changes in English literature from 1550 until the present
day.

I currently work as a freelance English teacher and accent coach. At York, I also work for Professor Rachael Scarborough King visiting from California as a research assistant on the Tuke family’s letters as part of the Ballitore Papers Online project.

I am also a published sci-fi author and voice actor.