The Sally Wainwright PhD Scholarship for the Study of Anne Lister

The Sally Wainwright PhD scholarship is generously funded by screenwriter, producer and director Dr Sally Wainwright, an alumna and Honorary Doctor of the University.

The scholarship, like the Anne Lister Society, is intended ‘to foster sustained research and scholarly conversation about Anne Lister, in order to establish her permanent place in the historical and literary record and to interpret the rich legacies of her life and writing for the future’.

The successful candidate will undertake research on any aspect of the life and writings of Anne Lister (1791-1840), including research that provides context for better understanding Lister’s biography and literary production. We particularly welcome proposals which attend to Lister as a writer and engage closely with Lister’s diaries, housed in the West Yorkshire Archive Service. Topics of study may include but need not be limited to Lister's writing style, her writing about sexuality, friendship, family relationships, property and estate development, politics, religious faith, fashion and sociability, her communication networks, and/or her travel writing about the world she knew (e.g. Yorkshire, London, Europe). Consideration could also be given to Lister’s range of reading and knowledge e.g. of classical literature, theology, Romantic era writing, and her engagement with innovations in science and technology.

The inaugural Sally Wainwright PhD Scholarship will be awarded to one PhD candidate studying within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The successful candidate can be affiliated with any department in the Faculty, including the Centre for Women’s Studies, and will be a member of the lively community of students and scholars in York’s world-leading Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, based in the beautiful and historic King’s Manor, the site of the boarding school which Lister attended as a teenager.

The scholarship will provide full tuition fees at the UK home rate, along with a stipend of £20,000 per annum for three years, and a small fund for research expenses. The scholarship is open to international applicants, and the University of York will provide a fee waiver to cover the difference in cost between home and international fees should the best candidate for this award be an international student.