Alessa Johns

1. How did you become interested in eighteenth-century studies in particular?
When I went to graduate school I thought I was going to be a medievalist, but then in a class we read Daniel Defoe’s Roxana, and I was hooked. For one thing, after reading Latin, it seemed amazing and so efficient to read English. But Roxana’s character! and the themes in that novel—they just fascinated me.
2. What are you working on right now?
I’m working on two connected projects at the moment, both of which follow from my book Bluestocking Feminism and British-German Cultural Transfer, 1750-1837 (2014). They might come together in a monograph, since both have to do with the eighteenth-century “contact zone,” as Mary Louise Pratt calls it, between British and German culture. The first concerns English-language instruction in Germany. Surprisingly, the first person appointed to be a Professor of English was a man named John Tompson—at the University of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, not at a British university. He put together an important, very up-to-date British Literature anthology that was used all over German-speaking lands. I’m interested in the students and lay people who used his text and how they went about learning the English language via the literature and the culture. My second project looks at German-language newspapers in London. They give us a good idea of the German immigrant community in the city, and as you might imagine, those people do not fit stereotypes—they were not Kantian philosophers and did not resemble characters in a play by August von Kotzebue, who was so popular Jane Austen incorporated his Lovers’ Vows into the plot of Mansfield Park. So by looking at the newspapers we get a different idea about how German immigrants absorbed and influenced British life that includes material and not just intellectual and literary culture.
3. How do you approach or incorporate gender or women's studies in your work?
Up until now I have probably focused 95% of my work on women and gender. When I was in graduate school thinking about a dissertation I got caught up in the recovery project. And I still believe it’s one of the most important pursuits that has taken place and is still underway in literary studies. It may seem hard to believe, but when I was an undergraduate I had no female professors, and when I went to grad school the syllabus for my eighteenth-century seminar had no women on it. I was determined to change both those situations to the extent that I could. The recovery project has made a huge difference.
4. What is one book or article that you are reading now that gets your creative and/or analytic side going? Why? (eighteenth-century studies, scholarship, anything)
In the mail I just got my copy of Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690-1820s: The Long Eighteenth Century, edited by Jennie Batchelor and Nush Powell. It’s a huge, important book that will open doors to all sorts of exciting new scholarship using newspapers and magazines. There are so many amazing essays with such great research! It’s fun just to see all the topics covered. Up to now periodicals have not gotten as much attention as they deserve; our understanding of British history and of the role of women and gender will expand enormously because of this collection.
5. What more can we do to support women in academia? In ASECS?
I think feminist scholars should continue to support the hiring and promotion of women in the academy in every way they can; to stimulate students’ interest in women writers and gender questions in the long eighteenth century by designing creative and interesting syllabi; to encourage the ongoing project recovering women writers; and to urge colleagues to share their findings about women writers at the ASECS meeting. I’ve gotten lots of ideas for my syllabi and my research by hearing ASECS presentations. Also, the regional eighteenth-century studies meetings like WSECS and SEASECS are a great place for graduate students and beginning scholars to gain experience presenting their work—I hope everyone can attend and support their regional meetings. And I’m glad that the proceeds from the Masquerade Ball will support scholars in non-tenure-track positions, which is very important as well. Feminists have made a huge difference and I am happy to see that they continue to do so year after year!

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