Graduate Research Profile
Kelly Battles
Kelly Battles, doctoral candidate of English, has varied research interests, including eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, historiography, and material and visual culture. Her dissertation, “The Antiquarian Impulse: History, Affect, and Material Culture,” makes a significant contribution to the discipline, as it examines antiquarianism—a mode of historical inquiry predating archaeology—throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In her work, she pays special attention to what she terms the “antiquarian impulse,” a certain creative energy derived from anxiety related to history and the ways it is known and represented, especially in the context of crafting narrative.
In addition to her dissertation, Kelly has article manuscripts under review: one on Walter Scott’s historical novel, The Antiquary, and one on Victorian ruin photography that reevaluates conventions associated with the picturesque. In November, she has also presented her paper, “The Rise of Photography and the Antiquarian Eye,” at the Midwest Modern Language Association Conference in Cleveland.
Currently, Kelly teaches as a graduate assistant in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. She has also taught courses for the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities and the Department of English and has been awarded dissertation completion fellowships from both the English department and the Graduate School.
