Stephen Donovan

Stephen Donovan serves as Associate Professor in English Literature at Uppsala University's Department of English within the Faculty of Languages. His academic profile demonstrates significant expertise in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century British literature with particular specialization in Victorian and Modernist periods.

Donovan earned his BA in English at Oxford University in 1991 and completed his PhD in English at Gothenburg University in 2001. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral work at Royal Holloway College, Blekinge Institute of Technology, and NYU before joining Uppsala University in 2005. His international experience includes visiting lectureships at the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Indonesia, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, as well as research associate positions at Queen Mary University London (2021-2022) and Leeds Beckett University (2023).

His research focuses on the intersections of literature, media history, and imperial culture, with particular emphasis on investigative journalism, periodicals, early film, and British imperial history. Donovan has established himself as a leading scholar on Joseph Conrad, creating the significant digital resource Conrad First: The Joseph Conrad Periodical Archive, which documents Conrad's works as they originally appeared in over two hundred periodicals. His recent scholarship demonstrates consistent productivity with major publications including the 2025 monograph Undercover: Victorian Investigative Journalism in Fact and Fiction (co-authored with Matthew Rubery) and his ongoing study Charterland: Rhodesia in British Culture 1889-1930.

Donovan has secured multiple research grants including The Congo Free State and European Culture project (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2014-17), Investigative Journalism and the Novel in Britain 1860-1930 (Vetenskaprådet 2018-21), and Rhodesia in British Culture 1889-1939 (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2022). His international scholarly engagement is evident through service on evaluative boards for national research bodies in Sweden, Poland, and Portugal, and as a PhD examiner in Australia, South Africa, and the UK.

His scholarly output reveals a consistent pattern of engagement with periodical culture, serialization practices, and the relationship between journalism and literary production. Donovan's work on Conrad extends beyond traditional literary analysis to encompass media history, demonstrating how Conrad's works functioned within contemporary journalistic ecosystems. His recent focus on Rhodesia in British culture represents a continuation of his longstanding interest in imperial discourse and colonial representation in literature.