Professor Rhona Brown
- Professor of Scottish Textual Cultures (Scottish Literature)
telephone:
01413308529
email:
Rhona.Brown@glasgow.ac.uk
R405 Level 4, Scottish Literature, 7 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0073-8227Biography
Rhona Brown is a graduate of Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities. Her PhD, entitled '"For what use was I made, I wonder?": The Construction and Revision of Robert Fergusson in his Cultural Contexts', was completed in 2004. She joined Scottish Literature as a Lecturer in 2006, and teaches across the Scottish Literature undergraduate degree
Rhona's research specialism is in eighteenth-century Scots language poetry, the history of the Scottish periodical press and textual editing. Her first monograph, Robert Fergusson and the Scottish Periodical Press, was published in 2012, and she has published widely on the work of Fergusson, Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, as well as eighteenth-century journalism, the development of the periodical press, eighteenth-century clubs, societies and networks, and eighteenth-century Scottish literary culture in general.
In 2023, Rhona completed two major textual editing projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. As Co-Investigator of 'The Collected Works of Allan Ramsay' (PI Murray Pittock), she is editor of Ramsay's Poems (2 volumes, published in 2023) and co-editor (with Craig Lamont) of Ramsay's Prose (2024), published by Edinburgh University Press. She was also Co-Investigator of 'Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century: Poetry and Correspondence' (PI Gerard Carruthers), where she is co-editor of three volumes of Burns's letters (forthcoming). She has also produced an online edition of The Edinburgh Gazetteer, a radical Scottish newspaper of the 1790s. In 2023, Rhona was awarded Leverhulme Trust funding for a project entitled 'The Collected Works of Robert Fergusson: Reconstructing Textual and Cultural Legacies'. The project will produce a new textual edition of the works of Robert Fergusson (1750-74), to be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2026, and commemorate the 250th anniversary of Fergusson's death via collaborations and events throughout 2024.
Rhona has held various roles in key organisations in Scottish literary studies, including the Association for Scottish Literature, the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures and the Universities Committee for Scottish Literature. She is currently co-editor (with Scott Lyall, Edinburgh Napier University) of Scottish Literary Review and is a Series Editor for the Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature series, published by Brill. In 2022, Rhona was appointed to the first Editorial Board for the new Scottish Universities Press, an Open Access publishing platform owned by a consortium of Scottish Higher Education Institutions. In 2023, she became Vice Chair of SUP's Editorial Board. Rhona is a member of the Discipline+ Catalyst for Literature in the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities. She completed the Aurora Programme for women in Higher Education leadership in 2015, and was the recipient of a University of Glasgow Teaching Excellence Award in 2012. Rhona is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Research interests
Research interests
- Eighteenth-century Scottish literature
- The eighteenth-century Scottish periodical press
- Textual Editing
- Eighteenth-century Scottish poetry, journalism and politics
- Scottish club culture in the eighteenth century
- Eighteenth-century Scottish literary networks
- Scottish Romanticism
- Allan Ramsay
- Robert Fergusson
- Robert Burns
Research groups
- Romanticism/18th Century
- Scots & English in Scotland
Grants
- Principal Investigator, The Works of Robert Fergusson: Reconstructing Textual and Cultural Legacies (Leverhulme Trust Project Grant, 2023-25)
- Co-Investigator, Editing Robert Burns for the Twenty-First Century: Poetry and Correspondence (AHRC Major Research Grant, 2017-22; PI: Prof Gerard Carruthers)
- Co-Investigator, The Edinburgh Allan Ramsay (AHRC Major Research Grant, 2018-23; PI: Prof Murray Pittock)
- Principal Investigator, The Edinburgh Gazetteer: Radical Networks and Journalism in 1790s Scotland (Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2016-17)
- Principal Investigator, Eighteenth-Century Scottish Authors and the Periodical Press, c.1720-c.1820 (Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2015-16)
- Principal Investigator, Robert Fergusson and the Contemporary Periodical Press (Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2008-09)
- Principal Investigator, British Academy Overseas Conference Grant (2006)
Supervision
Rhona has supervised MPhil and doctoral research on the work of Allan Ramsay, James Thomson, Thomas Carlyle, nineteenth-century Scottish women’s poetry, Ulster-Scots poetry, the work of Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, Susan Ferrier, Mary Brunton, Catherine Cockburn Trotter, Edwin Muir, Mary Queen of Scots, Robert Burns and his contemporaries and studies of publisher and book history.
She is available to supervise postgraduate research on the wide range of eighteenth-century Scottish poetry, its relationship with politics, the Scottish periodical press and Scottish literary networks in the long eighteenth century. She is also interested in supervising textual editing projects and new research on Edinburgh poet Robert Fergusson (1750-74).
- Hay, Emily
Quenis awne hand’: the literary agency of Mary Queen of Scots in shaping her own public image, 1567-1587
Teaching
Convener:
- Honours Scottish Literature
- Memorialising Scottish Culture and Literature (Hons)
- Popular Literary Enlightenment (Hons)
Lecturer:
- Level 1 Scottish Literature
- Level 2 Scottish Literature
- Dissertation (Hons Scottish Literature)
- Memorialising Scottish Culture and Literature (Hons Scottish Literature)
- Popular Literary Enlightenment (Hons Scottish Literature)
- Robert Burns (Hons Scottish Literature)
- Robert Burns Online (Online and Distance Taught)
- Robert Burns: Poems, Songs and Legacy (MOOC) - Online via FutureLearn
- Scottish Journeys (Hons Scottish Literature)
- Textual Editing (Hons Scottish Literature)
Additional information
- Fellow, Royal Historical Society (2022-present)
- Co-Editor, Scottish Literary Review (2020-present)
- Member, Discipline+ Catalyst in Literature, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities (2022-present)
- Vice Chair, Editorial Board for the Scottish Universities Press (2023-present)
- Trustee, International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures (2014-present)
- External Examiner, University of Aberdeen (2020-present)
- President, John Galt Society (2019-23)
- Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2016-present)
- Council Member, Association of Scottish Literary Studies (2007-present)
- General Editor, Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature (SCROLL) series, published by Brill (2009-present)
- Co-Director, Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow (April 2022-December 2023)
- Assistant Director, Centre for Robert Burns Studies, University of Glasgow (2017-22)
- Treasurer, Universities Committee for Scottish Literature (2015-18)
- External Examiner, University of the Highlands and Islands (2014-18)
- Secretary, International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures (2014-17)
- Head of Subject Area, Scottish Literature (2014-17)
- Convener, Burns Scotland's Research Sub-Group (2015-20)
- Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies, College of Arts (2015-17)
- Secretary, International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures (2014-17)
- Reviews Editor, Scottish Literary Review (2008-2013)
