Position research at the heart of Trinity: Prof. Aileen Douglas

Her research interests revolve around English writing in the long eighteenth century (1690s-1820s). While her work started on the novel, as this was the period when the novel emerged, Douglas has now branched out into other forms of print culture. This was the period with a big printing boom leading to daily printed newspapers and magazines. Literacy rates went up significantly, which also meant a huge increase in readership. She is particularly interested in different forms of media. “For example, how script is represented in print through engravings, and reciprocal relationships of the movement between writing by hand and its representations in print. And what kind of implications that has for authors and readers.” She also works on canon formation: “why some books are remembered, and stay in print, while other works disappear and are rediscovered, or are left in obscurity.”

Douglas’s work crosses disciplines, from literature and history to women’s studies and the medical humanities, all of which are integral to her approach of subject matter. She began by studying English and History in Trinity as an undergraduate, “so right from the very beginning there was a link.” Her PhD was about Scottish novelist, Tobias Smollett, who was also a doctor of medicine. As a result, “his fiction is very reflective of eighteenth century writing about the body, and about medicine and philosophy of the body.”

She points out that “in many ways the disciplines and the humanities are relatively recent phenomena. The separation of imaginative writing off into a separate discipline really only begins in the nineteenth century. So you're going back to a time where there are more connections between disciplines that have subsequently become very, very specialized.” She highlights the School of English as a multi-disciplinary school, as there are so many different kinds of literary work going on from popular literature, to research that’s very linguistically-based, and more critical work. “There’s a huge variety [to] the kinds of research that people do within English.” Currently Douglas is working on several collaborative projects, including co-editing an edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield for Cambridge University Press.

Her own recent research includes both short- and long-term projects. In the short-term is an article on Irish eighteenth-century poets which she was requested to write. In the long-term, she is working on a monograph on the figure of the child in fiction in the eighteenth-century: this explores why children appear in the novel at this time. “What kind of work happens in fiction when the child turns up?  What kind of issues or sensibilities do these novels work through? How does the figure of the child relate to the development of domesticity, what are their relations to animals and other creatures?” The monograph will begin with authors of the 1740s like Henry Fielding, then move on to lesser-known writers like Sarah Fielding and Sarah Trimmer who wrote specifically for children, before looking at Maria Edgeworth, someone with extraordinary range who wrote educational tracts for children as well as fiction for adults. Edgeworth, Douglas argues, “connects the figure of the child to the adult in a model of subjectivity.”

The long eighteenth century, with the proliferation of print media, then, was a time of significant cultural and literary shifts: would it be fair to say there are parallels with the present? “I think one of the patterns we see as literary historians and critics is that often new media will excite certain kinds of anxiety as well as a sense of opportunity,” she notes. “With the novel, for example, there was an anxiety about women reading, and how they're going to gain false views of the world through fictions.”

“Today obviously, we have the transformative move to digital and a movement away from print.” Douglas is interested in relation to her own research interests, “because on one hand, it's been fantastic to be able to consult databases like Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), so you have these works in digital form. But, on the other hand, it's not the same, and a lot of the materials I work with involve engravings, which are not always incorporated very well into databases. So you've got great opportunities, things that are available that weren't before. But at the same time, you're losing something else.”

From learning about Douglas’s academic interests, we can see how they self-reflexively highlight the importance of research, particularly her work on the history of literacy itself. “I've always been very interested in access to printed forms,” she notes, “access to libraries, and of course, one of the things we're all very aware of now is digital poverty. I think that getting to a place where you can do research is very important. It’s a very elaborate form of something that happens in everyday life or in education. It's maybe the most specialised form.”

When it comes to pedagogical approaches, Douglas discusses what she calls research-led teaching: “the way we design our courses is influenced by our research, so we might not be teaching our research directly, but still kind of conceptually. And then when you're teaching a specialised course, there is an opportunity teach your research directly.” In courses, such as her own undergraduate module ‘Writing the Body,’ they look at ways of conceptualizing eighteenth century writing and the ways in which the body was represented and written about. This allows for consideration of issues of gender and diversity, in a range of ways. And, she highlights, “it definitely is shaped by my research.”

Douglas has also held the positions of Head of School and Dean of Undergraduate Studies among other roles. She points out that most academics have administrative roles, which brings in the challenge of managing admin and teaching, while trying to find time for research. The idea that everyone would have a day dedicated to research doesn’t always happen, she explains, but there are periods of the academic year, such as after Christmas, when there is time for writing and reading. “The critical thing is to get into that place where you have mental space to actually think through your ideas. And find out what you can do when you have an hour, and what kind of work requires a more sustained period of time.”

When you’ve taken on a role like Director of Research, “you become much more aware of the academic landscape, not just in your own school. But across the university, outside the humanities. And you become more familiar with the issues that other colleagues are dealing with.” The university, she observes, is “a very changing landscape.” There are new research bodies emerging and coming together, such as SFI and IRC. “So administrative roles make one quite aware of the very large developments that are happening that may not affect our colleagues’ research tomorrow or the next day, but will influence the future of research.”

Dublin has also been a key feature in her bigger research projects. When Douglas organised Swift350, the interdisciplinary conference to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Swift, she was working in collaboration with colleagues in Trinity, as well as in other institutions around Dublin, including Marsh’s Library and St Patrick’s Hospital. Parts of the conference took place in these venues, and it also explored the links these historical spaces have with Swift. “It was very satisfying, to work with colleagues in Trinity, but also outside of Trinity and see where we were with Swift.” A large conference like Swift 350 also allows for unexpected “underground correspondences: the way the papers hit off one another brings new perspectives and makes them available.”

She also notes the importance of making the conference accessible: “There are different models of conferences, and when it comes to larger ones they can be hugely expensive to attend. We were running Swift350 on a shoestring budget, to make it accessible for people: we had people from all over, Europe, the United States and Australia.” Conferences are, she notes, “a lot of hard work, coming up with the initiative, dealing with the budgets, bookings and catering. But when it happens you get to see what what's going on and what people are doing. And it can be extraordinarily stimulating.”

From her research, to teaching and academic organisation, Douglas is constantly positioning research at the heart of Trinity. Trinity, she notes, is a great space for making connections and for research and collaboration: “that’s something there is a greater awareness of now. Forty years ago English was more self-contained. Now, a more porous nature is celebrated.”

 

- Article written by Dr Sarah Cullen