Prof Sharon Ruston
Professor in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Crescent House 501
T +44 (0)161 295 5071
F +44 (0)161 295 5077
s.ruston@salford.ac.uk
My main research interests are in the relations between the literature, science and medicine of the Romantic period, 1780-1820.
My first book, Shelley and Vitality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), explored the medical and scientific contexts which inform Shelley's concept of vitality in his major poetry. Recently I have been working on Mary Wollstonecraft's interest in natural history, William Godwin's interest in mesmerism, and Humphry Davy’s writings on the sublime; these will form chapters in my next book, tentatively called Science and the Romantic Imagination.
I have also begun preliminary work on a Collected Edition of Humphry Davy and his Circle’s letters, with a team of Davy scholars including Professor Frank James (Royal Institution), Professor Tim Fulford (Nottingham Trent University), Professor Jan Golinski (University of New Hampshire) and Professor David Knight (University of Durham). We have recently secured funding from the British Society for the History of Science, the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, and the Wellcome Trust. See the Davy letters so far, here.
I was the lead-investigator on the AHRC doctoral training programme, ‘Theories and Methods: Literature, Science, and Medicine’. From 2009 to 2011 the University of Salford delivered training in collaboration with eleven other partners: the Universities of Keele, Leicester, Manchester, King’s College London and the London Consortium, and the Science Museum, National Maritime Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal Institution of Great Britain, and the Wellcome Library for doctoral students. The website created and hosted by the University of Salford continue to offer training resources in this subject.
My blog can be found here
To listen to my podcast on the Aeolian harp, click here.
See my inaugural lecture (given at the University of Salford, 22nd February 2011), here.
Supervision
Alison Morgan, 'P. B. Shelley’s Popular Songs' (PhD, 2009-12)
Wahida Amin, ‘Science and Poetry: The Case of Humphry Davy’ (AHRC Funded PhD with the Royal Institution; 2009-12)
Jessica Roberts, 'Vitalism in the Periodical Press' (PhD 2010-13)
Jennifer Morgan, ‘Transmission and Reception of P. B. Shelley in Working-Class Journals’ (AHRC Funded PhD with the Working-Class Movement Library; 2010-13)
I would be happy to supervise postgraduate work generallon Romantic-period writers, particularly work that considered the relationship between Romanticism and science and/or medicine.
Teaching
- Green Writing (Level 3)
- Monstrous Bodies (Level 2)
- The Romantic Period (Level 2)
Administrative Posts
I am head of the Literature, Culture and Science research cluster. I also organise the North-West Long Nineteenth-Century Seminar Series.
Selected Publications
(For more information on publications please see my SEEK research profile.)
'Teaching Gender and Sexuality’, in Teaching Romanticism, ed. by David Higgins and Sharon Ruston, Teaching the New English (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp.62-74.
'Authority and Imposture: William Godwin and the Animal Magnetists', in Liberating Medicine, ed. by Tristanne Connolly and Stephen Clark (Pickering and Chatto, 2009), pp.153-64.
'Natural Rights and Natural History in Anna Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft', in Essays and Studies, ed. by Sharon Ruston, 61 (2008), 53–71, Romanticism, Introductions to British Literature and Culture Series (Continuum, 2008), pp.53-71.
Romanticism, Introductions to British Literature and Culture Series (Continuum, 2007).
'Shelley's Links to the Midlands' Enlightenment: James Lind and Adam Walker', British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 30: 2 (July 2007), 227–242.
Shelley and Vitality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
External responsibilities
2007-2009: Vice-President of the British Association for Romantic Studies
Editorial Board member of the Journal of Literature and Science.
Judge for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Associations Essay Prize.