Meet the postgraduate researcher: Brenda Metcalfe

Posted on Monday 1 December 2025

The York Graduate Research School connects more than 2,000 PGRs across all disciplines at York. Here, we spotlight Brenda: PhD researcher, book connoisseur and devoted grandmother of six. 

We asked Brenda to tell us more about her research topic, her life outside of her studies and what she wished she'd known before embarking on her research. 

What are you researching? 

My research is focused on Eliza Lynn Linton. She was the first paid female journalist in Britain, and the author of over twenty novels. Lynn Linton embodied feminism, was economically independent and yet her writing increasingly argued against women’s rights. I consider what challenges nineteenth-century women faced in forging writing careers, and the contemporary obstacles for self-expression with Victorian England’s contradictory attitudes regarding gender relations. Lynn Linton wrote her life story as autofiction, in the persona of a man, and my research considers what the text reveals about homoerotic desires, which in turn enables a valuable chronology of public conceptions of lesbian identity in the nineteenth century.

What drew you to this topic?

As a lesser-known writer, there has been a limited amount of material written about Lynn Linton, with much of her work now out of print. However, I feel that she offers a valuable opportunity to highlight the many challenges that women faced, and to further explore the emergence of the independent woman in the nineteenth century. Lynn Linton railed against the ‘shrieking sisterhood’ as she called the suffragettes. She offers the opportunity to consider a different path to women’s rights.

What were you doing before?

I am retired, so I am different from many other PhD researchers. I completed my degree in my forties whilst working full time and bringing up 3 children. As soon as I retired I completed my Master’s degree, and am now beginning the second year of my PhD research. So my message is, you are definitely never too old! Before I retired I worked for England’s largest provider of care and housing for older people. I was responsible for resident consultation and am passionate about ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard. I set up the organisation’s first Black and Minority Ethnic older people’s group, and also established the first LGBT group in any national care or sheltered housing organisation.

If you weren't doing postgraduate research, what would you be doing instead?

Writing a book…. it’s on my bucket list!

What’s on your work desk?

Books, books and more books. I keep tidying them up, but they creep back all the time. I have bought more and more bookcases but have run out of room for more, so have now resorted to adding a portable book trolley.

What's your typical working day?

I’m a part time researcher so my days can be very different. However, I prefer to settle in and research for longer periods rather than dip in and out. If it’s a research day, I will be alternating between reading and sitting at my desk to write or research. I may be at the library on campus, or at the British Library in Wetherby. Or I may be as far afield as The Lake District, where Lynn Linton was born. I have visited her former home Brantwood, and also Keswick museum which holds a small collection of her work. The archivists at both locations have been very helpful. My next trip is to London to view documents from the British Museum Library.

What do you enjoy most about being a postgraduate researcher?

The variety, and the buzz of excitement when you discover some new information. I get such a sense of satisfaction from researching and writing.

What do you wish you'd known before you started?

Not to worry about being the odd one out. I have never felt like that and everyone has been so welcoming. I immediately felt a part of the university community.

If your research had a theme song, what would it be?

‘This is a man’s world’ by James Brown. Women, such as Eliza Lynn Linton, had to be tenacious when competing in challenging, male dominated environments. Yet, she was one of the group of women who were instrumental in creating change, paving the way for later generations of women. So the lyrics of James Brown’s song really resonate:

This is a man's world

But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing

Not one little thing without a woman or a girl.

What do you do to take a break from your studies?

I have 6 small grandchildren aged from 1 to 7, so there is never a dull moment. We do morning school runs, and childcare one day per week for the pre-school children, so I can often be found in a soft play centre shooting down a slide!

Share your story

Could you be our next spotlight? Contact our newsletter team at student-communications@york.ac.uk for more information on taking part in upcoming ‘Meet The PGR’ features.