BARS Blog

We received a number of very high quality applications for the BARS Communications Fellow 2025-26 position. The Executive Committee are delighted to announce that there will be a new Fellow working on the BARS Blog and social media in the next academic year:

Chloe Wilcox

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Chloe is a third-year undergraduate in English Language and Literature at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford. Her dissertation research explores the poetry and poetics of Thomas Bakewell. She is also working on self-injury in Romantic-period literature. 

Chloe will be assisting Comms Officer, Amy Wilcockson, with the social media (Facebook, BlueSky, TikTok), plus facilitating the creation of original content for the BARS Blog and TikTok accounts.

More on our plans for this academic year very soon! Keep an eye on our social media pages for how you can be involved and contribute to the BARS Blog.

With huge thanks to Dr Adam Neikirk, our outstanding Communications Fellow for 2024-5. Adam will be continuing his wonderful work on Romantic Poets in the Wild with BARS!

The BARS 2025 Executive Elections will run online between Monday 1st September and Monday 15th September (11:59pm); a voting link with instructions will be circulated to members.

There are four candidates for the role of International Officer; their expressions of interest can be read below. To ensure that members’ views are taken into account as fully as possible, the International Officer will be elected using a ranked choice system. If you are a voter, please read all four of the statements below so that you can rank the candidates in order of preference on the voting form.

Serena Qihui Pei

Silvia Riccardi

Millie Schurch

Patrick Vincent

Candidate Statement: Serena Qihui Pei

Dear BARS Members,

I am writing to kindly ask for your consideration in supporting my candidacy for the position of BARS International Officer.

From the outset, I bring an international perspective rooted in my own background. By way of self-introduction, I often say that––I am a Coleridgean, and I come from the real Xanadu (!)—I grew up in Inner Mongolia, where the historic Xanadu was located. After completing my BA in Beijing, I moved to London to pursue postgraduate study at UCL, where I continued into doctoral research and have recently submitted my PhD thesis: British Romanticism and Daoism: Conceptual Affinities and Historical Encounters, 1770s–1820s, which aligns with, and extends, current critical trends in global Romanticism. Through this project, I have deepened cross-cultural understanding and advanced public engagement with global intellectual heritage. With my doctoral work now complete, I am eager to devote my full energy and commitment to serving in this role.

I have been an active participant in BARS activities and other events within Romantic Studies since the beginning of my PhD, regularly attending the London–Paris Romanticism Seminar and presenting my research at major conferences, including BARS 2024 (Glasgow), for which I received bursary support from the Charles Lamb Society, as well as the Coleridge Conference 2024 (Grasmere), and the Transnational Romanticism Conference (Göttingen). I also look forward to contributing to the upcoming BARS 2025 Early Career and Postgraduate Researcher Conference (Cambridge).

Beyond participation, I also have hands-on experience in organising international academic events. In May 2024, I served as the lead organiser of the international conference Traversing Beyond Borders: Intermediality and Cross-Cultural Communication funded by UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies (Event Link). In this role, I oversaw the entire process—from developing the original concept and securing funding, to coordinating logistics and administrative details, and now editing the proceedings for publication. This experience has given me strong organisational and leadership skills, which I am eager to apply in supporting and expanding BARS’s international collaborations.

My research career has been shaped by cross-cultural exchange and grounded in a strong understanding of the international contexts of Romantic Studies. In 2023, I received the Stephen Copley Research Award, which supported my archival research trips hosted by Peking University and Fudan University. This project focused on Thomas Manning, a close friend of Charles Lamb and the only person known to have met both Napoleon and the Dalai Lama. I have also studied and presented internationally, including as an exchange scholar in the English Department at Yale (2022), a participant in the International Summer School of Romanticism in Prague (2023), and the Environmental Humanities Summer School in Rome (2022). These opportunities have deepened my conviction that British Romantic Studies must be pursued within a truly global and interdisciplinary framework.

Drawing on my experience and skills, I would pursue three core priorities if elected as International Officer:

1. International Collaboration

• Based on my established and continually expanding international networks, I would strengthen BARS’s collaborations with international organisations—for example, Romantic Studies research groups at leading Chinese universities—and enhance connections with wider scholarly networks to create new (joint) funding opportunities for members.
• I would be committed to develop new outreach activities, such as global reading groups, to foster dialogue and collaboration across borders.
• I would work closely with the President, Vice President, and the Executive team to foster global partnerships to enhance the international profile of Romantic Studies. For example, I would explore collaborations with international summer schools to increase opportunities for mobility and cross-cultural research.

2. International Representation

• I am keen to contribute actively to BARS conferences, events, and initiatives to ensure that international members are fully represented and supported, for example, through hybrid formats, multilingual CFPs, or online workshops. Drawing on my experience of organising the international conferenceat UCL, where I introduced hybrid formats and digital outreach that enabled colleagues from the UK, EU, US, China, and Iran to participate fully, I would support BARS in planning events that foster genuine global engagement.
• I would support the translation of selected BARS events (or event materials such as abstracts and programmes) to make them more accessible for non-native English-speaking audiences.
• I would also act as a principal point of contact for international members, ensuring that their perspectives and needs are heard within BARS. For example, I would set up regular feedback channels for postgraduate and early-career members based outside the UK and bring their concerns directly to Executive meetings.

3. International Promotion/ Outreach

I am committed to expanding BARS’s international visibility by developing outreach strategies that support the association in articulating and celebrating the global diversity of Romantic Studies.

• I would strengthen BARS’s outreach by promoting calls for papers, events, and initiatives across diverse platforms, including social media channels widely used in Asia such as WeChat and RedNote, thereby encouraging new membership, particularly among postgraduate and early-career researchers in China and beyond, who may not yet be connected with BARS.
• I would continue to maintain and strengthen BARS’s ties with long-standing international partners in Europe and North America, for instance NASSR, while also working to expand into underrepresented regions. To support this, I would promote BARS’s international reach through spotlight features, for example, highlighting international research projects, member profiles, and cross-border collaborations.
• I would share and support the translation of international job advertisements and funding opportunities from other countries, enabling BARS members to access a wider range of career pathways and resources. For example, this could include translating research fellowships advertised in Asia and circulating early-career opportunities through European networks.

In all these priorities, I would be guided by BARS’s core mission to cultivate a vibrant, inclusive, and globally engaged scholarly community.

If you have any questions about my proposals, please feel free to contact me at serena.qihui.pei@ucl.ac.uk.

Thank you very much for considering my candidacy.

With my very best wishes,
Serena Qihui Pei

Candidate Statement: Silvia Riccardi

I am a postdoctoral fellow at Umeå University, having previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at Uppsala University. As a literary scholar with research interests in book history, material culture, word and image, reception studies, and digital humanities, I approach Romanticism from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines historical, visual, and textual analysis. I also serve on the advisory board of Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly. My first monograph, Dark Romanticism: Literature, Art, and the Body (2025), with chapters on William Blake, Henry Fuseli, and Mary Shelley, reflects my commitment to situating Romantic-period texts and images within broader cultural and critical frameworks.

Over the past six years, I have been an active member of BARS, valuing the association not only as a central forum for Romantic Studies in the UK but also as a hub connecting an international network of scholars. My engagement with BARS, alongside participation in conferences hosted by GER and NASSR, has given me a broad perspective on how Romantic Studies is practiced and promoted in different national and institutional contexts. Through my academic appointments in Germany and Sweden, I have gained valuable experience in organizing conferences, collaborating with colleagues across institutions, and building international networks.

As a member of the executive committee of NARS, the Nordic Association for Romantic Studies, a particular highlight was co-organizing the 2024 symposium in Umeå, where we welcomed former BARS president Ian Haywood as a keynote speaker. The event exemplified the value of connecting participants from different backgrounds and creating spaces for dialogue within this vibrant field: https://romantikstudier.dk/en/news-and-events/translate-to-english-vis/artikel/the-international-symposium.

If elected, I would work toward fostering a dialogue with other Romantic Studies organizations and strengthening globally inclusive collaborations through joint events, shared initiatives, and informal networks of support. A key priority would be to represent the interests of international colleagues and to help plan conferences and programs that provide meaningful opportunities for participation. My aim would be to ensure that members at all career stages feel both represented and fully integrated into the life of the association, while also promoting BARS within the wider international community of Romantic Studies.

Candidate Statement: Millie Schurch

I am writing to express my interest in the role of BARS International Officer.

My vision for the role of International Officer has three core elements: to support and promote the work of BARS members who live outside of the UK; to facilitate and make smooth the experience of British-based scholars conducting research or moving abroad for work; and to develop BARS’ relationship with its cousin organisations within Europe and beyond. I am familiar with the challenges and possibilities involved in international research and networks, and I am excited about how BARS’ conferences, online symposium programme, blog and online resources, and bursary opportunities uphold our intellectual exchanges on an international scale.

I would pursue my vision for BARS’ internationalisation through the following actions:

1. I would represent the interests of international members at Executive meetings and in organising BARS conferences and events. I would initiate regular email contact with international members to ensure that their events, activities, and publications are circulated amongst the BARS membership.
2. I would establish an “ambassador” scheme – a network whereby BARS members with experience living and working abroad are matched as mentors to scholars seeking international opportunities. This scheme would increase the accessibility of international research by pooling and sharing information on funding, fellowships, archives and collections, and on the practical dimensions of international research, such as visas and accommodation.
3. I would grow BARS’ existing partnerships with, for example, the Société d’Études du Romantisme Anglais (SERA) and the Gesellschaft für Englische Romantik (GER), and I would seek new ones with the Nordic Association for Romantic Studies (NARS) and the Inter-University Centre for the Study of Romanticism (CISR). I would promote partners’ events within BARS’ network, and I would publicise and facilitate opportunities for collaboration and exchange.

My experience as a British Romanticist working abroad has prepared me well to deliver these aims and to represent the interests of BARS’ international members. After completing my PhD in the UK in 2020, I have spent my early career undertaking postdoctoral research and teaching at the universities of Uppsala and Stockholm, and I currently work in both Britain and Sweden. I have gained sensitivity to the national, regional and institutional diversity that can characterise research and teaching in Romantic Studies on an international scale, and I have balanced the practical challenges of living abroad with the intellectual advantages of international research. I cannot emphasise enough the value of my BARS membership as a friendly, consistent, and anchoring presence throughout these experiences. I would be delighted to continue, and develop, the warm support and opportunities for involvement that BARS offers its international members, and I believe that my experience of international research and teaching in Romanticism equips me with the knowledge and understanding that will enable me to do so.

Thank you for considering my expression of interest.

Candidate Statement: Patrick Vincent

My name is Patrick Vincent, and I have been teaching at the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, since 2004.  A longtime member of BARS, I would be thrilled to help our association continue honing its international outreach. My research has always sought to go beyond national literatures, with two monographs on transnational themes, a CUP history of European Romanticism, and a soon to be published ERR special edition on British Romanticism and Europe. I have also helped encourage transnational scholarship through conferences, including the 20^th annual NASSR conference, which was particularly international, and the British Romanticism and Europe conference in 2022. As a member of the ERR international advisory board, finally I have been promoting reviews of non-English scholarship.

As International Officer, I would liaise with different national associations and transnational research forums to try to better coordinate conference themes and dates (including online talks), to facilitate dual memberships, and to help disseminate different associations’ activities. A dynamic association with a wide offering of activities,  I am convinced that BARS can serve as a worldwide hub for Romantic scholarship.  

The BARS 2025 Executive Elections will run online between Monday 1st September and Monday 15th September (11:59pm); a voting link with instructions will be circulated to members.

There are five roles for which current incumbents are standing for re-election unopposed. Their statements can be read below.

Vice President: Jennifer Orr

Secretary: Andrew McInnes

Membership Secretary: Yimon Lo

Communications Officer: Amy Wilcockson

Bursaries Officer: Gerard McKeever

Vice President: Jennifer Orr

I have been a member of the BARS Exec since 2019 and a member of BARS since 2013 when I was a partially-funded PGR student. Two Stephen Copley awards supported me to undertake critical research for my thesis. I have benefitted greatly from the mentorship of the BARS community, particularly from other scholars working beyond the ‘Big Six’. Serving on the Executive has allowed me to see the true extent of the organization’s support for a diverse range of scholars and, better still, I have gained friends for life.

I was initially co-opted, and subsequently elected, to the post of Secretary. During this time I worked closely with two previous Presidents (Ian Haywood and Anthony Mandal) and Vice President Gillian Dow, developing the Secretary position from an administrative to a more active role within the Executive, particularly supporting the work of the President and VP. 

I stood for Vice President in 2023. The role supports the President but has tended to be a bit nebulous and undefined. As well as supporting all members of the Executive where required, I have shaped the role to maintain a strong focus on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion practices. We endeavour to ensure that this runs throughout all of our decision- and policy-making in consultation with the wider Exec and membership.

All of our members will be aware that this has been an unprecedented year for Higher Education on both sides of the Atlantic in terms of challenges to job security and freedom of speech within the sector. From January until May of this year, I was one of thousands of colleagues in the UK who were waiting to hear if they would have a job going forward from September due to the threat of redundancies. Many colleagues in Romantic Studies are enjoying far less financial support and security from their institutions, regardless of career stage.  Within BARS, we have worked hard to put our ECR and PGR scholars the centre of everything that we do and we will continue to do this. In addition to this, we need to think about what more we can do for independent and academic-adjacent colleagues, particularly those who fall outside the support of an institution. I am pleased that we will be considering some initiatives in this area over the next year.

With that in mind, one of the activities I hope to take forward is an informal mentoring scheme – it’s clear now that we can’t necessarily rely on institutional support to make this happen and so I’m hoping that this is one of the EDI activities that might be enabled by our modest fee increase in the Autumn. 

In the spirit of making BARS a welcoming institution with equality of opportunity, we’ve tried hard on the Exec to balance institutional knowledge with opportunity for new contributions. As many of you know, Matt Sangster (BARS President), Andy McInnes (Secretary) and I have done the work of rewriting the BARS Constitution in order to reflect more accurately the shape, mission and practice of the organization. At the centre of this piece of work was a desire for greater transparency and a desire to keep BARS as open to new talent as possible. The revised constitution will keep us accountable to our members going forward.

Finally, in support of this, if re-elected to Vice President, I will be following on from the practice of our previous Vice President: that is to serve a second term and then step back from the Executive to allow new blood to come on board.

Secretary: Andrew McInnes

I would like to extend my term as BARS Secretary as BARS continues to feel like my intellectual home, when intellectual homes are under attack everywhere. I have been a BARS member since 2014 and have sat on the committee since 2018, originally acting as Conference Lead for the ‘New Romanticisms’, the joint BARS/NASSR Conference 2022, held at Edge Hill University. As Secretary, I have arranged Exec Meetings, including our new annual General Meeting held online on off-years from the conference; taken minutes; fielded requests for support from BARS members; and sat on various sub-committees, including one to rework the BARS Constitution to reflect current practice. In my next term, I am planning to work with the Vice-President Jennie Orr to develop BARS mentoring provision and with the Research and Innovation Officer Carmen Casaliggi to offer a BARS workshop on developing funding bids. I look forward to continuing with the duties of Secretary, with a not-so-secret aim to get through all the items on any given agenda inside of the 2 hours scheduled for the meeting!

Membership Secretary: Yimon Lo

I am a UK-based literary scholar specialising in the poetry and poetics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I currently serve as Membership Secretary for BARS (2023–2025), during which I have overseen the smooth transition to a new membership rate, ensured the accuracy of the membership database, and maintained clear and responsive communication with members. I have liaised closely with the Executive Committee to process subscriptions and renewals, circulate calls and announcements, and provide regular reports on membership trends. I have also supported elections, bursary applications, and other initiatives requiring membership oversight. Having gained detailed knowledge of the role and its responsibilities, I am seeking re-election to ensure continuity and stability while introducing new strategies to grow and diversify the membership base, both in the UK and internationally.

I have been a long-standing member of BARS since 2017 and have participated regularly in its conferences and events, including the International Conference (‘Romantic Making & Unmaking’, 2024; ‘Romantic Facts and Fantasies’, 2019), the International Digital Conference (‘Romantic Disconnections/Reconnections’, 2021), and the Early Career and Postgraduate Conference (‘Romantic Exchanges’, 2018). Between 2019 and 2020, I also served as Editorial Assistant of The BARS Review and facilitated the operation of the journal through a wide range of administrative tasks.

If entrusted with a further term, I will continue to bring my international network and organisational experience to the role. I aim to expand the reach of BARS by promoting inclusivity and diversity across the wider academic and professional community, working closely with colleagues on the Executive Committee to strengthen engagement at every career stage. Drawing on my connections across the UK, continental Europe, and Asia, I will engage with regional communities, research groups, and partner organisations abroad to provide BARS members with enhanced opportunities for collaboration, access to international resources, invited talks and lectures, awards, and funding schemes, so that both new and existing members could benefit from a vibrant and supportive global network.

Communications Officer: Amy Wilcockson

I am excited to stand for re-election as Communications Officer for BARS.

Since taking the role in 2023, I have worked to ensure that communications from different branches of the Association are circulated to members promptly and smoothly. I have also ensured that all communications submitted from our members are circulated via the Mailbase and social media, providing a clear route to promoting Romanticism-related activities for our members and followers. I aim to have a weekly turnaround, with most Mailbase notices circulated within a week of their submission to the BARS inbox.

The two years I have spent as Communications Officer have also seen a change in the way in which social media is used to disseminate information. In response to this and to the needs of our members, I suspended our BARS Twitter/X account, set up our successful BlueSky account (now with 2500 followers), and continue to manage our Facebook group (2226 members). In order to boost engagement and appeal to younger audiences, I also launched a BARS TikTok page. Our videos are well-received, with many receiving upwards of 900-1000 views per video. Alongside the Communications Fellow, I oversee and create content for these accounts, plus for the popular BARS Blog. Communications is a consistent job which requires attending to every week, but one which I feel is vital to the promotion of the Association and for Romanticism in general, and a role which I feel I perform well in.

Alongside the aspects of the role which I undertake weekly, I attend the BARS Executive Committee meetings and am a frequent panellist attending sub-committees overseeing bursaries and BARS funds. As an Early-Career Researcher currently working on fixed-term contracts, I feel my experience of this precarious career stage and of the experiences of my fellow ECRs is an important voice to have heard on the BARS Executive.

Additionally, I have overseen three Communications Assistants/Fellows during my time as Communications Officer, Rosie Whitcombe, Isabelle Murray and Adam Neikirk. Currently, I am leading the recruitment for the 2025/26 Fellow. I thoroughly enjoy working alongside fellow Early-Career Researchers, and find this a very valuable and exciting aspect of the role. We work together using the Comms Fellow’s strengths in order to ensure they get the most out of their time working with BARS as possible, e.g. Adam’s focus on creative writing and the implementation of his new ‘Romantic Poets in the Wild’ blog series.

I am a long-standing member of BARS since the beginning of my PhD. During this time, I assisted with the organisation of the 2019 BARS Conference at the University of Nottingham, alongside co-curating the accompanying exhibition. I also co-organised the recent in-person BARS 2024 Conference in Glasgow, whilst lead-organising the two-day online portion of the conference. Previous to this post as Communications Officer, I served as one of BARS’s Communications Assistants and on the Digital Events Committee. My affiliation with and commitment to the Association is second-to-none.

For the next term, I will continue to convey news, reports, opportunities and notices to the membership as speedily as possible, whilst continuing to oversee the social media and ‘public face’ of BARS. I wish to work further with Postgraduate and Early-Career researchers, alongside our PGR and ECR reps, to allow increased contributions to the blog and to Comms. I would like to revitalise more varied blog series and work closely with future Communications Fellows and the rest of the Executive to consider the ways in which BARS can continue to promote Romanticism-related activities. I wish to continue posting innovative and exciting short-form content on TikTok and open an Instagram page in order to share this content there too. Working with the Website Officer and Education and Schools Liaison to promote BARS and its aims further to educational audiences is another aim of mine for the coming term.

I feel my experience serving as Communications Officer for the past two years, alongside my commitment to BARS and its principles make me a strong candidate for this role. I hope to continue to work alongside the BARS Executive and membership for the next term.

Bursaries Officer: Gerard McKeever

The BARS bursaries and fellowships remain a key area of the society’s activities in which it can tangibly support emerging and early-career research, encourage intellectual risk-taking, and foster diversity in the community of Romantic Studies. I am standing for re-election as BARS Bursaries Officer to continue helping the society in this area.

I was elected to the post in 2023 and since then have overseen a review and update of the bursaries and fellowships schemes – including organising a BARS funding working group in early 2024. The Stephen Copley Awards, our primary channel of support for postgraduate and early-career scholars, have seen a significant increase in applications during my tenure, thanks (at least in part) to wider promotion on the BARS Blog and various social media channels, in collaboration with our brilliant Communications Officer, Amy Wilcockson. It’s a real privilege of this position to get to read about the exciting new research being done by postgraduates and early-career scholars. I’ve also established a new, formal set of procedures for our judging processes, including organising a three-person judging panel for each round, drawn from the BARS Executive, and always featuring an early-career representative.

I’ve also worked on a range of new fellowships schemes, including administering the President’s Fellowship, which was first awarded in 2023 and supports research by scholars from Black, Indigenous and other minority ethnic backgrounds. I worked with former BARS President Anthony Mandal in 2024 on launching the BARS Open Fellowship, which is open to the entire BARS community. And I’ve been really pleased to be able to re-start our former collaboration with Chawton House through their residential fellowships scheme, creating new opportunities for BARS members to spend time at Chawton developing their work.

Aside from these core duties I’ve tried to be an active member of the BARS Executive more generally, never missing meetings and making myself available to help with other work (including ongoing edits to our website).

If re-elected, I’d continue doing my best to administer our funding schemes as fairly, openly and collegially as possible. It hardly needs to be said that the sector is not in a good place just now: that’s likely to make small grant awards such as those offered by BARS even more important. I’d like to ensure we continue to review what we offer over the next few years. For example, we’ve had a proposal recently of external funding that would allow us to do more for independent scholars – that’s a category of the membership I think we need to be thinking about more closely and consistently in these difficult times.