Dr. Rita J. Dashwood
2014-2019: PhD, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK (Minor corrections). Examiners: Jennie Batchelor (University of Kent) and Emma Mason (University of Warwick). Supervisors: Christina Lupton and David Francis Taylor.
2012-2013: MA, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK (Merit)
2009-2012: BA, Department of Modern Languages, University of Coimbra, Portugal (Hons.)
I am a writer, as well as an early career researcher on women and property in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain.
I'm currently working on the publication of my first book project, Women and Property Ownership in Jane Austen. Based on my PhD thesis, this is the first full-length project to consider the portrayal of gendered relationships towards non-portable property in Austen’s novels, and to analyse gendered relationships to such property that were not recognised by the law in literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It investigates the centrality of non-portable property – the house and the estate – in Austen’s fictional landscapes, particularly her depiction of how her female characters establish feelings of ownership towards houses they are not legally entitled to own. This project contributes to the fields of literature and social history, drawing on the dialogue on women and property, management, education and accomplishments present in such non-fictional sources as conduct books, diary entries and letters, as well as other fictional works of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Work History
2019-: Associate Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), University of Warwick
Tutor, Department of History, University of Warwick
2019-2020: Tutor, Department of English, University of Warwick
2014-2020: Resident Tutor, Residential Life Team, University of Warwick
2018-2019: Early Career Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick
2014: Digitisation Officer, Modern Records Centre (MRC), University of Warwick
Public Engagement:
Personal Website: https://rjdashwood.wixsite.com/mycv
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv9uY6dbOQyMax_Q_0BbxWg
Blog: https://humourforwriting.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @rjdashwood
Creative Writing
I am a writer, currently working on publishing my first novel, which will fall under the genre of young adult fantasy.
I have written for Daily Touch as well as several publications at the University of Warwick, including The Boar, INK, the magazine of the Writing Society, and the PhD Life blog. See Creative Work for more details.
Publications
Journal Articles
“‘An Office in Which She Had Always Depended’: Surrogate Managers in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion.” Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, 2018, 373-389
“Was Mary Wroth Shakespeare’s Dark Lady?” Op. Cit.: A Journal of Anglo-American Studies, 2nd series, no. 3 (2014). Document 4, online since November 29, 2014. [Under "Rita Oliveira"]
Book Chapters
“Women Owning Property: The Great Lady in Jane Austen” in Jane Austen and Philosophy. Ed. Mimi Marinucci. Rowman and Littlefield. November 2016, 107-119
Reviews
Review of Briony McDonagh, Elite Women and the Agricultural Landscape, 1700-1830 for Women’s Studies Group, 1558-1837
Review of Joe Bray, The Language of Jane Austen, in The Jane Austen Society Newsletter, Spring 2019
Review of Jocelyn Harris, Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen, in The Jane Austen Society Newsletter, Spring 2018, 16-17
Review of Jessica A. Volz, Visuality in the Novels of Austen, Radcliffe, Edgeworth and Burney, in The Jane Austen Society Newsletter, Autumn 2017, 14-15
Media
“‘My Dear Bess’ — The Relationship Between Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Lady Elizabeth Foster.” History Matters. 14 September 2017
Forthcoming
2020: “The Penalties of Greatness”: Money in Susan Ferrier’s The Inheritance, Nineteenth-Century Studies
2020: Review of Tom Keymer’s Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics for The Jane Austen Society Newsletter
2020: Review of Joanna Wharton’s Material Enlightenment: Women Writers and the Science of Mind, 1770-1830, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
2021: Special edition of Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, “Women and Property in the long Eighteenth Century,” with Karen Lipsedge
2021: “The Triumph of the Estate? — Fanny Price and Immoral Ownership of Property in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
2022: “Property,” A Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts, edited by Joe Bray and Hannah Moss, Edinburgh University Press
In Preparation
Women and Property Ownership in Jane Austen
“The Objectification of Lady Delacour in Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda
Peer Reviewing
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Wilkie Collins Journal
Awards
2017: Winner of the BSECS President’s Prize of 2017, awarded to the best paper at the annual conference presented by a postgraduate student, for "'An Office in Which She Had Always Depended': Surrogate Managers in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion" (£100)
2016: Nomination for the BSECS President’s Prize of 2016, awarded to the best paper at the annual conference presented by a postgraduate student, for "Women Owning Property: The Great Lady in Jane Austen"
2012: Feijó Curricular Award, presented to the best student graduating from the Modern Languages department of the University of Coimbra (£500)
2012, 2011, 2010: Award for the top 3% students of the degree in Modern Languages of the University of Coimbra (£1500 in total)
Funding
2018- 2019: £7310 (Early Career Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick)
2018: £250 (presentation at the BSECS 47th Annual Conference, “Truths and Lies,” Oxford, January of 2018, from the Warwick English department)
2017: £130 (presentation at the BARS 15th Annual International Conference, “Romantic Improvement,” University of York, July of 2017, from the Warwick English Department)
2017: £50 (presentation at the “Women, Money and Markets (1750-1850)” Conference, King’s College London, May of 2017, from the Warwick English Department)
2017: £90 (presentation at the BSECS 46th Annual Conference, “Friends, Allies and Enemies,” January of 2017, from the Warwick English Department)
2016: £1050 (presentation at the international conference “Deslocamentos, Descentramentos: Romances Sem Fronteiras," University of São Paulo, Brazil, April of 2016, from the Warwick English Department)
2016: £250 (presentation at the BSECS 45th Annual Conference, “Growth, Expansion and Contraction" in January of 2016, from the Warwick English Department)
2015-2016: £250 (Arts Faculty Seminar Series from the HRC, Warwick University)
2015-2016: £100 (Arts Faculty Seminar Series from CADRE, Warwick University)
2015: £100 (attendance at the “Women, Land and the Making of the British Landscape, 1300-1900” Conference, June of 2015, from the University of Hull)
Conference Presentations
January 2020: “And of this place…I might have been mistress!” — The prospective husband’s house in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Oxford
December 2019: “Challenges of Teaching Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Feminisms,” Research in Action Conference, University of Warwick
July 2019: “And of this place…I might have been mistress!” — The Prospective Husband’s House in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, International Congress on the Enlightenment, Edinburgh
May 2019: “‘Every neighbourhood should have a great Lady”: Propertied Women in Jane Austen’s Novels,’ University of Warwick
April 2019: “'Prettier than any pleasure-garden she had ever been in before’: The Prospective Husband’s Garden in Jane Austen, Warwickshire Gardens Trust, Leamington Spa
January 2018: "'Working herself into' a home: Fanny Price’s East Room in Mansfield Park," as part of the "Pots and Pans; Back Stairs and Hallways; Bachelors and Milk Maids: Uncovering the Hidden Eighteenth-Century Home and Its Inhabitants" roundtable at BSECS 47th Annual Conference, "Truths and Lies" Conference, Oxford
July 2017: "Creators of Spaces: Single Women and Decoration in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility" at BARS 2017 Annual Conference, “Romantic Improvement," University of York
May 2017: "'Abilities, as well as affections': The Surrogate Manager in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion" at "Women, Money and Markets (1750-1850)" Conference, King’s College London
January 2017: "'An office in which she had always depended': Surrogate Managers in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion" at BSECS 46th Annual Conference, "Friends, Allies and Enemies," University of Oxford
November 2016: "'An office in which she had always depended': Surrogate Managers in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion" at Centre for the Study of Women and Gender Seminar Series, University of Warwick
May 2016: "'An office in which she had always depended': Surrogate Managers in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Persuasion" at English Department Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick
April 2016: "Women Owning Property: The Great Lady in Jane Austen" at International Conference, “Deslocamentos, Descentramentos: Romances Sem Fronteiras," at University of São Paulo, Brazil
April 2016: "'Method, moderation, and economy': The Female Household Manager in Jane Austen" at Jane Austen Society South-West Branch Meeting, Exeter
January 2016: "Women Owning Property: The Great Lady in Jane Austen," at BSECS 45th Annual Conference, "Growth, Expansion and Contraction," University of Oxford
May 2015: “Women Owning Property: The Great Lady in Jane Austen," at English Department Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick
May 2013: "Was Mary Wroth Shakespeare’s Dark Lady?" at English Department Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick
Teaching
2019-: Private A-level tutor (English and History)
2020: Tutor for HI153 Making of the Modern World, Department of History, University of Warwick
2019-2020: Tutor for EN334 Crime Fiction, Nation and Empire: Britain 1850-1947, University of Warwick
Tutor for HI174 The Enlightenment, University of Warwick
2018-2019: Tutor for self-created WEA module, "Women at Home: Gender and Place in the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Novel," Kenilworth
2018, 2016: Guest lecturer for the EN201 The European Novel, University of Warwick
2016-2017: Seminar tutor for EN328 English Literature and Feminisms, 1790-1899, University of Warwick
2016-2017: Recipient of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice by the Learning and Development Centre (LDC), University of Warwick
2013-2014: Tutor for Transformations Widening Participation programme (A-level), University of Warwick
2013: Guest tutor for the postgraduate taught module EN958 Shakespeare and His Sister, University of Warwick
Conference Organisation
2019: Organiser of "Women in the long Eighteenth Century" Workshop, University of Warwick
2015-2016: Co-organiser of the Arts Faculty Seminar Series, University of Warwick
2011: Co-organiser of the 32nd Annual Conference of the APEAA (Portuguese Association of Anglo-American Studies)
Memberships
Foreign Languages
Associate Fellow -
Institute of Advanced Study
Tutor -
Department of English
Department of History
University of Warwick
Mentor: