Catherine Archer-Richards: Teaching Shakespeare to girls in Victorian Britain

In this episode, Charles speaks to Catherine Archer-Richards, who is in the final months of her PhD in Children's Literature. Catherine’s thesis, “Shakespeare as the ‘girl’s friend’” investigates the way girls in the Victorian era encountered the works of Shakespeare, at home and at school. She situates the influence of these early literary encounters on the evolving conceptions of girlhood, and the emancipation of women over the Victorian period.  We also hear about Catherine’s path to a PhD, the practicalities of archive research, relationships with supervisor, and the crucial tip to always note down the page number of quotes!  Chapters: 00:09 Introduction 00:55 Shakespeare as the ‘girl’s friend’ ?? 02:24 Catherine’s path to her PhD 04:37 Victorian literature, then and now 05:42 Bowlder and the Lambs: Shakespeare at home 07:31 Archive research 10:03 Organising research materials 12:46 Why no research is wasted effort 14:46 Writing up 16:39 Working with supervisors 17:27 Finding your argument, finding your voice 18:20 Academic writing 19:25 Finishing the PhD, considering the after 20:15 Wrapping up  The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/study/academic-areas/graduate-school Our theme music is by DiamondTunes.  https://pixabay.com/users/diamond_tunes-25553362  Our hosts are two PhDs of Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected]