Charlotte Roberts

Charlotte Roberts is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at University College London (UCL), specializing in eighteenth-century literature and historical writing. Appointed as a lecturer in 2013 following a Junior Research Fellowship at Cambridge, she has established herself as a leading scholar on Edward Gibbon and Enlightenment historiography through sustained publication and research supervision.

Her educational foundation includes:

• BA in English from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (2006), awarded with Senior Academic Scholarship and Austin Dobson Prize
• Henry Fellowship year at Harvard University (2007)
• MPhil in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies (2008) and PhD in English Literature (2012) from Cambridge, supported by St John's College Benefactors' Scholarship and AHRC doctoral award

Roberts' research interrogates the relationship between narrative form and historical consciousness in Enlightenment prose. Her monograph Edward Gibbon and the Shape of History (2014) revolutionized understanding of Gibbon's Decline and Fall by demonstrating how stylistic choices construct historical argument. Current work explores the conceptualization of 'the prosaic' across eighteenth-century writing, examining authors from Richardson to George Eliot through frameworks of ethics, character, and historical methodology. She employs interdisciplinary approaches bridging literary analysis, intellectual history, and classical reception studies, particularly evident in her investigations of Herculaneum/Pompeii excavations.

Analysis of her 11 publications (2011-2024) reveals consistent engagement with historiographical theory, religious heterodoxy, and narrative innovation. Key trajectories include the materiality of historical evidence (ruins, manuscripts), tensions between private belief and public discourse, and the evolution of historical methodology from conjectural history to empirical scholarship. Her recent shift toward reviewing contemporary Gibbon scholarship demonstrates active participation in current debates.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• Senior Academic Scholarship
• Austin Dobson Prize
• Henry Fellowship
• St John's College Benefactors' Scholarship
• AHRC doctoral award

Roberts supervises PhD candidates specializing in eighteenth-century English literature at UCL, emphasizing methodological rigor in analyzing historical context and textual form. While specific grant details aren't publicized, her sustained publication record indicates successful research funding. She contributes to academic discourse through peer review (e.g., 2024 Journal of British Studies review) and collaborative projects like The Cambridge Companion to Edward Gibbon. Her teaching portfolio spans undergraduate modules from Renaissance to Post-Colonial literature, with particular focus on eighteenth-century texts and Homosexuality/Queerness in Literary History.

Though no formal research lab exists, Roberts operates within UCL's vibrant intellectual ecosystem through departmental seminars, the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and international conference networks focused on Enlightenment scholarship and classical reception.