Bridget Bennett

Professor Bridget Bennett is Professor of American Literature and Culture at the School of English, University of Leeds, where she serves as Director of Research and Innovation. An active member of the British Association for American Studies (BAAS), British Association for Nineteenth-Century Americanists (BrANCA), and Society for Nineteenth-Century Americanists (C19), she previously held leadership roles including BAAS Vice Chair and REF 2021 Sub-Panel 27 membership.

Her educational background includes a BA (Hons) and DPhil.

Professor Bennett's research centers on transatlantic antislavery networks (particularly Quaker activism between Yorkshire and Pennsylvania), representations of home in crisis, and spiritualism's cultural impact. Her work bridges literary analysis with public history, examining how dissenting religious movements shaped abolitionist discourse and how domestic spaces reflect broader social conflicts. She employs archival methodologies to recover marginalized narratives, connecting early American literature to transnational cultural exchanges.

Recent publications reveal a cohesive trajectory: monographs like Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic (2025) and journal articles analyze intersections of print culture, spiritualism, and spatial politics in 19th-century America. This scholarship consistently demonstrates how marginalized voices—enslaved people, indigenous communities, and dissenting religious groups—navigated power structures through cultural production.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• 2019 Arthur Miller Prize for seminal work on slavery representation
• Leverhulme Major Fellowship (2020) supporting her groundbreaking monograph

Professor Bennett supervises PhD candidates like Yishi and has mentored researchers through projects such as 'Transatlantic Abolition: Nineteenth-Century Yorkshire.' She secures major funding including AHRC grants for 'Imagining the Place of Home' and Leverhulme fellowships. Her public engagement spans BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time,' community exhibitions at Leeds' Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, and Being Human Festival events exploring 'US Slavery and Yorkshire Anti-Slavery.'

She leads collaborative initiatives including the 'Shh! Encounters in the Unquiet Library' seminar series (2017-2018) and co-developed educational resources like the 'Transatlantic Abolition' public website with school-focused content.