Paul Stephens
Supervisor: Dr Timothy Michael
Research Interests: C18th and C19th literature, philosophy, economics, and science; political theory; literature and form; aesthetics; visual art; theories of the creative imagination
Doctoral Research: Paul is a DPhil candidate and Junior Dean at Lincoln College, Oxford. His doctoral thesis examines the poetry and prose of Percy Bysshe Shelley through the disciplinary lens of economic philosophy. The thesis explores how the poet’s understanding of concepts such as value, money, debt, and growth are shaped by his ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. His research is funded by an AHRC-Sloane Robinson Foundation Studentship. Before coming to Oxford, he spent several years as a member of the finance team for music group Iron Maiden.
Online: Academia.edu / Linkedin / ORCID / Researchgate / Twitter
Recent Publications:
Stephens, P., 'Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ethics of Debt', The Review of English Studies, 71:298 (2020), 117-139.
Stephens, P., 'Review: Jacqueline Mulhallen's Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary', The Keats-Shelley Review, 33:1 (2019), 134-136.
Stephens, P., 'Coleridge and the National Debt', European Journal of English Studies, 21:1 (2017), 26-42.
Recent Teaching:
Independently designed and delivered the following undergraduate courses (composed of classes and/or tutorials):
- 'The Nineteenth-Century Political Novel'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Forthcoming: Apr-Jun 2021)
- 'Identity in Victorian Shorter Fiction'. Charlbury Education Group (Forthcoming: Jan-Mar 2021)
- 'FHS I, Paper 5 (Literature in English 1760-1830)'. Oriel College, Oxford (Apr-Jun 2020)
- 'John Keats: His Life and Thought'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Apr-Jun 2020) * [Postponed COVID-19]
- 'British Romanticism'. Department for Continuing Education, Oxford (Jan-Mar 2020)
- 'Introduction to British Romanticism'. Advanced Studies in England, Bath (Sept-Dec 2018)
Recent Supervisions:
Currently supervising two undergraduate dissertations on the work of Mary Shelley and John Thelwall.
- 'FHS I, Dissertation'. Faculty of English, Oxford (Jun 2020 - Apr 2021)
Conference Organising:
- Romantic Futurities (1760-1840). British Association for Romantic Studies: PG & ECR Conference (Jun 2020)
- Romantic Exchanges (1760-1840). British Association for Romantic Studies: PG & ECR Conference (Jun 2018)
- Lincoln Leads (Seminar Series II). Lincoln College, Oxford (Jan-Mar 2018)
- Oxford English Graduate Conference (Debts). Faculty of English, Oxford (Jun 2017)
Current Roles:
- Junior Dean: Lincoln College, Oxford
- ECR Rep: The British Association for Romantic Studies
- Treasurer: The Charles Lamb Society
- Treasurer: Romanticism and Eighteenth-Century Studies at Oxford (RECSO) Research Network
- Finance Manager: Uncomfortable Oxford Ltd.
