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Reading the Room: Prof Abigail Williams leads Oxford and National Trust research project
13 November 2024
Professor Abigail Williams is leading a new project that will contribute to a newly expanded social history of reading and book ownership. Reading the Room: Books, Access and Community in Heritage Spaces is a John Fell-funded collaborative project between the National Trust and the University of Oxford announced in June 2024, focusing on the libraries at three National Trust properties, 575 Wandsworth Road, Erddig in Wales, and Springhill in Northern Ireland. The project will examine the libraries at the three houses, exploring the ways in which the collections were developed and engaged by diverse readers over time.
Digging into the history of readership and challenging given views on textual reception is nothing new for Prof Williams. In her most recent book, Reading It Wrong: An Alternative History of Early Eighteenth-Century Literature (Princeton University Press, 2023), Prof Williams uncovers an alternative reception history of major English literary works from the golden age of satire, including works by Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. Prof Williams carefully examines archival materials, marginal annotations in original copies, and readers’ diaries and letters, emphasising how readers were puzzled by elusive and novel concepts. These stories of imperfect interpretation, she argues, bear a unique historical influence and significance, and might be compared to contemporary internet parody and digital culture.
In Reading the Room, Prof Williams is joined by co-investigators Tim Pye, National Curator for Libraries at the National Trust and Dr Alice Leonard, an expert in book history in physical spaces at Coventry University. The project is further supported by postdoctoral research assistant Dr Amy Solomons.
Learn more about the project here.
About Prof Williams
Prof Williams is the Lord White Fellow and Tutor in English at St Peter’s College, Professor of English Literature and currently serves as the Associate Head of Research and Innovation in the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. She is an expert in eighteenth-century literature whose research ranges from politics and textual criticism to the history of readership. Beyond her significant academic profile, Prof Williams is also passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and bridging the space between her academic subject and contemporary popular audiences. Her BBC radio series and appearances include ‘I Feel Therefore I Am’, ‘The Pedant's Progress’ and ‘Pride or Prejudice: How We Read Now’. In 2017, she co-wrote an ‘eighteenth-century grime’ song with the musician Jonny Berliner called ‘Understanding Misunderstanding’. She also recently completed a two-year collaborative innovation project exploring the potential of interactive digital learning experiences for English teaching in UK schools, Conversational Learning. This project grew out of a partnership with a local tech company with which she developed an AI-driven message-based learning prototype called WillPlay – a retelling of Romeo and Juliet using the language and imagery of social media.