Laura Greene

I am a third-year PhD candidate in the School of English supervised by Dr. Gregory Tate. Informed principally by historicist methodologies but also contemporary feminist theory, my thesis explores the intersections between idealist philosophy and women’s poetry of the Victorian period, arguing that Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Mathilde Blind, and Constance Naden were exposed to and influenced by idealism and responded diversely to this philosophy through their poetry. Before commencing my doctoral research, I received my bachelor’s with honours in English Literature from the University of Florida before completing my MLitt at the University of St Andrews in Romantic and Victorian Studies. My broader research interests concern the presence of philosophical inquiry, methods, and experiments in nineteenth-century women’s writing in its various forms, from letters and unpublished journals to periodical essays, prose, poetry, and translation.  

I have experience teaching outside my research area of Victorian studies, specifically in eighteenth, Romantic, and twentieth-century literature. I have also developed as an educator as an Academic Skills Project Coordinator for the School of English, funded by St Andrew's International Education and Life-Long Learning Institute (IELLI). My responsibilities include budgeting, developing a cohesive program of workshops, recruiting doctoral researchers to deliver them, and marketing the program across various platforms. The first semester (Martinmas 2024) focused on composition and study skills for sub-honours students to help them excel in their first assessments, from close reading poetry and prose to exam preparation. The workshops in the second semester (Candlemas 2025) were designed for postgraduates, covering dissertation writing, managing research, conference attendance, and publication. 

Lecturing: 

EN4364 The Art of Victorian Poetry: 'Aestheticism, Decadence, and Queer Poetics in the Nineteenth Century' (Martinmas 2024)

Teaching/Tutoring:

The Writing Lab: weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions for School of English students (Martinmas 2024; Candlemas 2025)

Workshops: 'Answering the Essay Question' (Martinmas 2024)

EN1003 Culture and Conflict: An Introduction to Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature (Martinmas 2024)

EN1004 Empires and Revolutions: Literature 1680-1830 (Candlemas 2024)