Georgia Walton

Profile

I joined the School of English as a research student in 2017. Prior to this I completed my MLitt at the University of Glasgow and my BA at the University of Leeds with an Erasmus year at The Freie Universität in Berlin.

My PhD thesis examines the multiple legacies of nineteenth-century New England transcendentalism in contemporary US fiction, memoir and poetry. It includes chapters on authors, Ben Lerner, Maggie Nelson, Marilynne Robinson and George Saunders. I read each of these writers through and alongside nineteenth-century literary forms, figures and modes as they appear in the works of transcendentalist writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Maragret Fuller and Walt Whitman. My chapters focus on realism, the lyric essay, metaphor and sentimentalism respectively. I argue that this return to the literary models of the nineteenth century is part of the renewed interest in sincerity, idealism and activism in contemporary literature.

I am Associate Editor at parallax Journal.

I have taught a range of undergraduate courses in the School of English and am an Associate Fellow of the HEA.

Research interests

My research interests are broadly in US American literature and culture, with an emphasis on the nineteenth century. However, I seek to make connections accross different historical moments and forms. I am particularly interested in the relationships between philosophy and literature, and film and literature.

Engagement and Impact

In April 2018 I devised and ran a workshop on memoir writing that was based on my research on Maggie Nelson’s autotheory. This workshop was part of programme of events organised to complement the exhibition, The House That Heals the Soul, at The Tetley in Leeds.

In November 2019 I undertook my Researcher Emplyability Project (REP) at Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) where I researched the relationship between eco-feminsim and non-reproductive futurism. For the project I selected fictional, poetic and critical texts from the GWL collection and created a resource to help both library staff and users to navigate a series of critical questions around the keywords: motherhood, enivronment and futurity. I wrote about this project in a post for the GWL blog.

Other activities

• Postgraduate rep for the School of English (2018–19)
• LEAP mentor to undergraduate students on the English Literature degree programme (2018–19)

Professional memberships

• British Association of American Studies (BAAS)
• C19: The Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists
• The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
• The George Eliot Fellowship

Awards and Funding 

• Honourable Mention BAAS Postgraduate Essay Prize 2021.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson Society Graduate Student Conference Paper Award 2021.
• George Eliot Fellowship Essay Prize 2021.
• WRoCAH Researcher Employability Project Award for ‘Motherhood, Science, Futurity,’ Glasgow Women’s Library​.
• WRoCAH Large Award to attend the Twelfth International Whitman Week Seminar and Symposium, NYU, June 2019.
• AHRC WRoCAH Doctoral Studentship, University of Leeds, 2017-2020.

Qualifications

• MLitt Victorian Literature, University of Glasgow, 2017
• BA (hons) English Language and Literature, University of Leeds, 2014