Katherine Halsey

Professor Katherine Halsey is affiliated with the University of Stirling, serving in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities within the Department of English Studies. She co-directs the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies and acts as Principal Investigator for the £1 million Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers' Registers, 1750-1830 project.

Her educational background includes a BA, M.Phil., and PhD from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a PGCE from King's College, London. She has held visiting fellowships at Chawton House Library, the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Professor Halsey’s research focuses on eighteenth-century and Romantic-period literature and print culture, with specific emphasis on Jane Austen, the history of reading, and eighteenth- to nineteenth-century library history. She also explores contemporary reading practices and leads initiatives like the AHRC-funded Institutions of Literature 1700-1900 network and the Digital Reading Network.

Scientific Awards & Grants:

• Landmark Trust Futures Award (2019)
• AHRC Standard Route Grant (£1 million, 2023)
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

She contributes to academic communities as a co-director of Stirling’s Eighteenth-Century Studies Centre and a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s The 1820s: Innovation and Diffusion network. Her work also involves managing the Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945 and organizing doctoral workshops like the 21st Century Book Historian (2018).