Toni Bowers

Toni Bowers is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences, specializing in British literature and culture from Charles II's restoration in 1660 to the French Revolution. Her research focuses on how representations of intimate relations shaped public and private distributions of power during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and on the ongoing discursive construction of 'Great Britain.'

Professor Bowers' research interests center on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British writing by and about women, ideologically driven political writing, the discursive construction of 'Great Britain' between 1600 and 1800, and early prose fiction from England and Scotland. Her work examines how literary representations shaped cultural and political understandings of gender, power, and national identity during a period of significant social transformation.

Her publications demonstrate a consistent focus on gender dynamics in eighteenth-century literature, particularly examining how seduction narratives, maternal representations, and political discourse intersected with emerging concepts of national identity. The articles reveal her expertise in Atlantic World studies, with particular attention to how gendered narratives crossed cultural boundaries.

• NEH fellowship
• British Academy fellowship
• Newberry Library fellowship
• Huntington Library fellowship
• William Andrews Clark Memorial Library fellowship
• Harry Ransom Center fellowship

Professor Bowers directs and advises doctoral dissertations at Penn and other institutions worldwide, supervises undergraduate and graduate independent studies, and serves on committees for the English Department, School of Arts and Sciences, and University. She co-founded Penn's Atlantic Studies Seminar, served as Faculty-in-Residence at Kings Court-English House College House, founded the undergraduate humanities society Perspectives in Humanities, and inaugurated the Penn Authors' Forum. She serves on the Advisory Board to the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and on the MLA's Executive Committee for Scottish Literature.