Dr Kelsey Williams

Associate Professor

English Studies University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Kelsey Williams

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About me

About me

MSt, DPhil (Oxon.), FSAS.

After completing my MSt and DPhil at Balliol College, Oxford, I was a lecturer at Jesus College, Oxford, and subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of St Andrews. I joined the University of Stirling in 2016.

Award

Katharine Briggs Award Short List, 2017

My first monograph, "The Antiquary", was short-listed for the Katharine Briggs Award in 2017.

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
University of St Andrews

I was funded by the British Academy to undertake a three-year research project based at the University of St Andrews with the title "Writing Scotland: Antiquarianism, Confessionalism, and National Identity in Early Modern Europe". The fruits of that research are now forthcoming as a monograph from Oxford University Press under the title, "The First Scottish Enlightenment".


Professional membership

Council Member of the Scottish History Society

http://scottishhistorysociety.com/
I am a council member of the Scottish History Society, the leading publisher of original sources relating to the history of Scotland.

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
https://www.socantscot.org/
I am a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, one of the nation's oldest learned societies (founded in 1780), whose purpose is “to investigate both antiquities and natural and civil history in general, with the intention that the talents of mankind should be cultivated and that the study of natural and useful sciences should be promoted”.

Publications Secretary of the Scottish History Society
I am the publications secretary and general editor of the Scottish History Society, Scotland's leading society for the publication of previously unpublished historical texts.

Secretary of the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature
https://ucsl-scotland.com/
I am secretary for the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature, a national body of academics concerned with the condition, development and promotion of Scottish literary studies in higher education.


Professional qualification

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy


Research

I study the intellectual and material cultures of early modern northern Europe, particularly Scotland. My books include The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priests, and History (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 2016). I’ve also published or spoken on numerous aspects of early modern Scottish culture, Latin, Scots, and Gaelic poetry, the history of books, book collecting, and reading, canon and disciplinary formation, epigraphy and carved stones, Scandinavian state-sponsored antiquarianism, and early modern understandings of the ancient past. For more details and information on my latest research see http://kelseyjacksonwilliams.com/ 

Parallel to this, I am the Director of the Pathfoot Press, Stirling's centre for letterpress printing and teaching, in which role I teach hand printing and undertake a variety of commissions and projects with the university and the wider Scottish literary community. For more information about the press see our webpage at pathfootpress.com or follow us on Twitter and Instagram @PathfootPress 

I welcome enquiries from students on all of these topics.  If Scotland, material culture, old books, or printing are all or any of your cups of tea, drop me a line!

Outputs (42)

Outputs

Book Chapter

Williams KJ (2023) Poets in the Age of James VI. In: The Blackwell Companion to Scottish Literature. London: Blackwell. https://www.wileyiran.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pisbn10=1119651565


Book Chapter

Williams KJ (2021) Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. In: Pelling M & Jones E (eds.) A Cultural History of Historiography, Volume 4: The Age of Enlightenment and Revolution (1650-1800). The Cultural Histories Series. London: Bloomsbury.


Book Chapter

Williams KJ (2020) The Scottish Heresy: George Mackenzie's Pelagian Biographies. In: Loughlin F & Johnston A (eds.) Antiquity and Enlightenment Culture: New Approaches and Perspectives. Metaforms, 17. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 131-151. https://brill.com/view/title/55350


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2019) Roman Coins, Money, and Society in Elizabethan England. Sir Thomas Smith’s ‘On the Wages of the Roman Footsoldier’. Review of: Andrew Burnett, Richard Simpson and Deborah Thorpe, Roman Coins, Money, and Society in Elizabethan England. Sir Thomas Smith’s ‘On the Wages of the Roman Footsoldier’. New York, American Numismatic Society, 2017. ISBN978-0-89722-352-2. 222 pp., 27 col. illus., 7 b. & w. illus. £60. Journal of the History of Collections, 31 (2), pp. 431-432. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhy048


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2018) Andrew Pettegree, ed. Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print. Review of: Andrew Pettegree, ed. Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print. Library of the Written Word 60 / The Handpress World 45. Leiden: Brill, 2017. 562 pp. ISBN: 9789004340312. Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, (13), pp. 124-126. http://www.edinburghbibliographicalsociety.org.uk/publications/journal-of-the-edinburgh-bibliographical-society-no-13-2018/


Book Chapter

Williams KJ (2017) The Antiquities at Stonehenge. In: Carter M, Lindfield P & Townshend D (eds.) Writing Britain's Ruins. London: British Library Publishing, pp. 76-78. http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/9780712309783/Writing-Britain%27s-Ruins/


Authored Book

Williams K, Bennett K & Davidson P (2017) Aubrey's Villa. Seaton, Devon: The Old School Press.


Authored Book

Williams KJ (2016) The Antiquary: John Aubrey’s Historical Scholarship. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-antiquary-9780198784296?cc=gb〈=en&


Book Review

Williams KJ (2016) World Antiquarianism: Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Alain Schnapp with Lothar von Falkenhausen, Peter N. Miller, and Tim Murray. Los Angeles, la: Getty Research Institute, 2013. ISBN 978-1-60606-148-0. Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 1 (1), pp. 107-111. https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-00101005


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2016) John Aubrey: Brief Lives with an Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. Edited by KateBennett. 2 vols. Oxford University Press. 2015. clvii + 1,776pp. £250.00. Review of: John Aubrey: Brief Lives with an Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. Edited by Kate Bennett. 2 vols. Oxford University Press. 2015. clvii + 1,776pp. History, 101 (344), pp. 135-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.12160


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2015) The Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter-Writing, 1512-1635. ByJames Daybell. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. xv + 357pp. £60.00. Review of: The Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter‐Writing, 1512‐1635. By Daybell, James. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. xv + 357pp. History, 100 (341), pp. 454-455. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.12112_11


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2014) Linda Phyllis Austern, Kari Boyd Mcbride, And David L. Orvis (eds), Psalms in the Early Modern World. Review of: Linda Phyllis Austern, Kari Boyd McBride, and David L. Orvis (eds), Psalms in the Early Modern World. Pp. xxiv + 385. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2011. (ISBN 978 1 4094 2282 2).. Notes and Queries, 61 (2), pp. 307-308. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gju045


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2013) ISABEL RIVERS and DAVID L. WYKES (eds), Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales.. Review of: Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes (eds), Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales. Pp. xiv + 299. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. (ISBN 978 0 19 954524 7). Notes and Queries, 60 (3), pp. 455-456. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjt111


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2012) NICOLAS K. KIESSLING (ed.), The Life of Anthony Wood in His Own Words. Review of: Nicolas K. Kiessling (ed.), The Life of Anthony Wood in His Own Words. Pp. xii +  256. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2010 (ISBN 978 1 85124 308 2).. Notes and Queries, 59 (2), pp. 273-274. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjs058


Book Review

Jackson Williams K (2010) REID BARBOUR and CLAIRE PRESTON (eds), Sir Thomas Browne: The World Proposed. KATHRYN MURPHY and RICHARD TODD (eds), 'A man very well studyed': New Contexts For Thomas Browne. Review of: Reid Barbour and Claire Preston (eds), Sir Thomas Browne: The World Proposed. Pp. xii + 368. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 (ISBN 9780199236213). Kathryn Murphy and Richard Todd (eds), ‘A man very well studyed’: New Contexts For Thomas Browne. Pp. xviii + 314 (Intersections 10). Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008. Hardback (ISBN 9789004171732).. Notes and Queries, 57 (3), pp. 437-440. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjq088


Teaching

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

During the 2020-21 academic year I will be convening, leading seminars or delivering digital content for:

  • 901: Intro to English (co-convenor)
  • 903: Literary Revolutions
  • 9WH: Writing and History: Scotland and Empire (co-convenor)
  • 9WI: Writing and Theory (co-convenor)
  • 9HA: Renaissance Literature, 1500-1660 (co-convenor)
  • 9HC: British Literature, 1700-1830
  • 9N2: Scottish Literature from Renaissance to Union (convenor)
  • 9DP: Dissertation Preparation
  • 9A8: English Studies Dissertations

Masters Teaching

I am the programme director for the MRes Humanities at Stirling and welcome enquiries from prospective students. During the 2020-21 academic year I will be convening the following masters level modules:

  • ARTP001: Training for Masters in the Arts and Humanities I
  • ARTP002: Training for Masters in the Arts and Humanities II
  • HUMPP12: Research Preparation I
  • HUMPP14: Research Preparation II
  • HUMPP13: MRes Dissertations

I am also teaching masters level workshops on:

  • Palaeography (both semesters)
  • Descriptive Bibliography (Autumn 2020)

Doctoral Supervision

I am currently supervising the following doctoral projects:

  • Lorna Wallace, The Ideals of Duty: Renaissance History Plays and the Politics of Duty
  • Mhairi Rutherford, Provenance and Marginalia in Episcopalian Libraries: Recovering the Intellectual History of the Scottish Episcopalian Church (1700-1880)
  • James Johnson, A Comparative Study of Carved Stones in Scotland and Wales
  • Maike Dinger, Fiction(s) of Political Participation: Literature, Media and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum
  • Francesca Pontini, Reading the Margins: Investigating Reading Practices in Early Sixteenth-Century Scotland

Former doctoral students who have now completed their studies include:

  • Mairi Macleod, The Metaphysical Landscapes of Neil M. Gunn (PhD, 2020)
  • Fanny Lacôte, Dark Channel Crossings: The Reception of the English Gothic Novel and French roman noir in Postrevolutionary France, 1789-1821 (PhD, 2018)

Outreach

I run regular letterpress workshops and classes with my fellow printer Dr. Dawn Hollis (University of St Andrews) for members of the university, students, and the general public. I also consult for community groups interested in preserving and/or interpreting the carved stones in their areas.

Past Teaching

Prior to arriving at Stirling I taught early modern and Romantic literature at Jesus College, Oxford, and early modern history at the University of St Andrews. While at St Andrews I also developed an honours module on the transnational cultural history of northern Europe which continues to run.

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