Joanna Yates

Biography

On completion of her BA English Literature at the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1998, Jo returned to the UK to work in both private and public sectors. In 2020, she returned to academia to undertake an MA English Literature at Keele. Her academic interests lie in the long eighteenth century generally, but specifically with the women poets of that period.

Jo also works as a sessional teacher in the School of Humanities.

Research and scholarship

Jo’s MA dissertation,  A Courteous Corrective: Emily Dickinson on Ralph Waldo Emerson, examines Dickinson’s measured and delicate rebuttal of Emerson’s androcentric philosophy within the realm of their literary works.

Her PhD research project, Medicine, Reason and Sympathy: the philosophy of Erasmus Darwin’s ‘Temple of Nature’, is an AHRC-funded PhD studentship in collaboration with the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and the Erasmus Darwin House. Through close examination of the social and intellectual contexts of the philosophical poem ‘The Temple of Nature’ (1803), she aims to offer a revaluation of Darwin’s literary and cultural legacy.

Jo’s supervisors are Professor David Amigoni and Professor Nicholas Seager.

Teaching

In the 2024/2025 academic year, Jo is a sessional teacher on ENG-20088 – Ways of Reading.

Further information

Academic service

• Convener of the HUMSS Reading Group since 2023
• Finance Officer, Editor and Reviewer for UnderConstruction

Affiliations

• EDI Student Representative for Keele, NWCDTP
• British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies - www.bsecs.org.uk

Collaborations and grants awards

• Currently delivering an NWCDTP-funded engagement project with Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield: EDD August 2025
• Thomas Keymer Award, BSECS
• MA Contemporary Literature and Film Dissertation Prize 2020/21, Keele
• Best Overall Student on an English PGT Programme 2020/21, Keele

Collaborations and grants awards

• Thomas Keymer Award, BSECS
• MA Contemporary Literature and Film Dissertation Prize 2020/21, Keele
• Best Overall Student on an English PGT Programme 2020/21, Keele