Adam J Smith
I am a Lecturer in Literature and Liberal Arts at York St John University where I currently teach on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules.
I work on eighteenth-century political literature and print culture. My doctoral research examined a selection of early eighteenth-century periodicals which were funded by political parties but did not signal their partisan allegiance. The PhD looked particularly at the partisan writing of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.
Subsequently, I have developed an interest in political print culture outside of eighteenth-century London. I have worked extensively of radical newspaper networks across Sheffield and York, with a specific interest in the life and writing of the editor, poet, hymn-writer and activist, James Montgomery.
Generally, I’m interested in the relationships between politics, news and literature and the ways in which partisan identity is cultivated and articulated.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
Blog Literature Eighteenth-Century history Joseph Addison 18thC 18thCentury Sheffield Politics higher education Print Culture University of Sheffield Hartshead at the BL English Literature research teaching E-Learning British Library Polemic Print university
Speaking Texts: Uncovering the 18th-Century Stories hiding in Plain Sight
21 July 2023
21 June 2023, Kingston University School of Art Notes by Adam J Smith Read more about the event here. Opening Karen Lipsedge (Kingston University) opens the symposium: ...
3 May 2020
As the Covid-19 continues to hold the world in Lockdown much attention has turned to Daniel Defoe’s 1722 text, A Journal of Plague Year. Masquerading as a ‘real’...
Brexit, Corbyn, Anything but History: The Way People Talk About Poldark
7 June 2019
“I fought for our liberty. For our hopes. For our dreams. And I’ll keep on fighting. Whatever the cost.” These words were first broadcast in 2016. They were spoken...
Imagining History: A Review of The Hall of Fame Exhibition at Gainsborough Old Hall
30 September 2018
Time is out of joint at Gainsborough Old Hall, just as it is at antiquated piles across the land. It is a strange kind of tourism, when you think about it. At most of these...