Staff Profile
Dr Ella Dzelzainis
Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
- Email: ella.dzelzainis@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7198
About me
I studied for an MA in Victorian Studies and a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London and was then awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. After a spell as a post-doc at King's College, London, I joined the School of English at Newcastle.
My research is interdisciplinary, located in the intersection between literature, feminist history and economic history in the long nineteenth century. I am particularly interested in the impact of T.R. Malthus's thought on nineteenth-century literature, especially the condition-of-England novel and writing by women in the period. My work has also taken a transatlantic turn, focusing on the way in which Britain responded to the idea of American democracy in a range of literary and visual forms. Along with Professor David Feldman (Birkbeck) and Dr Tom Stammers (Durham), I am organising a multidisciplinary seminar series, 'Race, Religion and Difference in the Nineteenth Century'. This collaboration between the North East's Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies and the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (Birkbeck) will launch in Spring 2021.
I enjoy talking about my research with a general audience. I was a guest on a panel on Malthus as part of the British Academy's 'Thinkers for our Time' series and was also delighted to contribute to a public talk on the Victorian Pseudosciences after a performance of Shelagh Stephenson's play, Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing at Live Theatre, Newcastle. I recently gave a talk on Dickens at Ripon Workhouse Museum and was a guest on Radio 4's 'In Our Time' programme on Harriet Martineau.
You can find the 'In Our Time' podcast here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084d7b0
Editorial work and memberships
I am a Standing Advisory Editor for Oxford Bibliographies and am also on the editorial boards of Gaskell Journal, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, and Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature
I am a board member of the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Durham University and am a member of British Association for Victorian Studies, the North American Victorian Studies Association and The Gaskell Society.
Current work
Currently I am completing my book, Commerce Between the Sexes: Feminism and Political Economy in Industrial Fiction, 1832-1855. Other projects include editing volume 4 of Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition (on the 1840s) for Cambridge University Press (general editors of this new 10-part series are Gail Marshall, Andrew Stauffer and Marion Thain), as well as launching the 'Race, Religion and Difference' seminar series this coming Spring (see further details under Profile). Once this is done, I'll be returning to my Malthus project, which considers the impact of Malthusian thinking on the literary representation of women, sex and money in the long nineteenth century.
Postgraduate Supervision
My own work is interdisciplinary, so I particularly welcome applications from postgraduate research students who wish to work in areas across or between disciplines. My work on Malthus means I am interested in supervising topics that explore sex, sexuality and/or economics in nineteenth-century prose, plays and poetry. Projects that think about literature’s engagement with political, historical and religious ideas, on nineteenth-century women’s writing in all its forms, on the transatlantic reception of texts and ideas, or on Victorian feminism are always of interest. I am also a fan of major mid-century novelists such as Elizabeth Gaskell, the Brontës, and Charles Dickens.
My current postgraduate research students are:
Caroline Gardner, 'The Influence of Elizabeth Gaskells Unitarian Background on her Portrayals of Investment in Cranford and Sylvia's Lovers' (MLitt)
Mike Tickell, 'Spirit of Place in the Northumberland Poetry of Wilfred Wilson Gibson (1878-1962)' (MPhil)
Margaret Gray, 'Women's Travel Writing and the Political Economy of Material Objects, 1813-1911' (Phd; funded by a Newcastle University Overseas Research Scholarship)
Undergraduate Teaching
I contribute to Victorian Passions, a large, team-taught module at Stage 2 and am sole convener of Sex and Money: Economies of the Victorian Novel at Stage 3. I also supervise Stage 3 dissertations on nineteenth-century topics.
Postgraduate Teaching
I teach on Radicalisms, an optional module on the taught MA in English Literature. I also supervise MA dissertations.
Postgraduate Research Supervision
I am an experienced postgraduate research degree supervisor. For details of my current supervisees, see details under the Research tab.
Postgraduate Research Degree Examining
I have acted as internal examiner at Newcastle in both Literature and History and have externalled at Exeter, Leicester, Royal Holloway, and Birkbeck. I also act as an Independent Chair for research degree vivas for the University.
- Dzelzainis E. Travel Writing. In: Hartley L, ed. Palgrave History Of British Women’s Writing: Volume 6, 1830-1880. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp.163-177.
- Dzelzainis E. Malthus, Women and Fiction. In: Mayhew RJ, ed. New Perspectives on Malthus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp.155-181.
- Dzelzainis E. Silver-fork, Industrial and Gothic Fiction. In: Linda H. Peterson, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Women's Writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp.89-104.
- Dzelzainis E, Livesey R, ed. The American Experiment and the Idea of Democracy in British Culture, 1776-1914. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013.
- Dzelzainis E. Dickens, Democracy and Spit. In: Dzelzainis, E., Livesey, R, ed. The American Experiment and the Idea of Democracy in British Culture, 1776-1914. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013, pp.45-60.
- Dzelzainis E. Radicalism and Reform. In: Kucich, J; Bourne Taylor, J, ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel 1820-1880. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.427-443.
- Dzelzainis E. The Victorians and America. In: Ledger, S; Furneaux, H, ed. Charles Dickens in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp.211-218.
- Dzelzainis E. Feminism, Speculation and Agency in Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy. In: Dzelzainis, E; Kaplan, C, ed. Harriet Martineau: Authorship, Society and Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010, pp.118-137.
- Dzelzainis E, Kaplan C, ed. Harriet Martineau: Authorship, Society and Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010.
- Dzelzainis E. 'Filthy Lucre': Christianity, Commerce and the Female Bodily Economy in Seamstress Narratives of the 1840s. In: Morgan, V; Williams, C, ed. Shaping Belief: Culture, Politics and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Writing. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008, pp.39-56.
- Dzelzainis E. Reason vs Revelation: Feminism, Malthus and the New Poor Law in Narratives by Harriet Martineau and Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna. 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 2006, (2), 1-15.
- Dzelzainis E. Chartism and Gender Politics in Ernest Jones's 'The Young Milliner'. In: Harris, B, ed. Famine and Fashion: Needlewomen in the Nineteenth Century. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, pp.87-97.
- Dzelzainis E. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Pre-Millenarianism, and the Formation of Gender Ideology in the Ten Hours Campaign. Victorian Literature and Culture 2003, 31(1), 181-191.
- Dzelzainis E, Livesey R. The American experiment and the idea of democracy in British culture, 1776-1914. In: The American Experiment and the Idea of Democracy in British Culture, 1776-1914. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2013, pp.254.
- Dzelzainis E. Tonna, Charlotte Elizabeth. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_55-1.