Stephen M. Pett

Thesis title: "Anglican Christianity and British Women Writers of the Mid-Nineteenth Century"

Background

Stephen Pett is currently a PhD student in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.  After a considerable gap in studies, Stephen returned to university in 2019 to complete his undergraduate degree.  He graduated cum laude in 2021 with a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts - Lowell.  Continuing on to postgraduate study at the University of Edinburgh, he was awarded the MSc Literature & Society: Enlightenment, Romantic, and Victorian with merit. 

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts in English -- University of Massachusetts - Lowell

Master of Science in Literature & Society: Enlightenment, Romantic, and Victorian -- University of Edinburgh. 

 

Responsibilities & affiliations

Stephen is a member of the British Association for Victorian Studies, the North American Victorian Studies Association, the British Association for Romantic Studies, the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, the Scottish Church History Society, the Conference on Christianity & Literature, the Modern Language Association, and the Modern Humanities Research Association. 

Research summary

Eighteenth-Century and Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists

Early Feminism in Literature

Religion in Literature

Christianity in Literature

Anglicanism in Literature

Current research interests

Stephen's current PhD project examines the influence of different forms of Anglican Christianity on novelists of the mid-nineteenth century. It has been specifically designed to help bring light to the life and works of Scottish author Catherine Sinclair who was both prolific and popular in the mid-nineteenth century but is largely absent from modern literary study and research. This project will involve comparing the influence of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the works of Catherine Sinclair to the influence of the United Church of England and Ireland in the works of Charlotte Brontë.