Dr. Sophie Thomas
Biography:
Dr. Thomas joined the English Department at TMU in 2009, after previous posts at the University of Sussex in the UK and the University of Toronto. Her research explores the crosscurrents between visual culture, material culture, and literary texts. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics related to Romanticism, museums, collections and the visual arts, including co-editing the Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts; a special issue of Museum and Society, 鈥淥n the Properties of Things: Collective Knowledge and the Objects of the Museum鈥�; and a forthcoming book, Romanticism and Material Culture: Curiosities, Collections, and the Emergence of the Museum, 1780 - 1830. Her previous book, Romanticism and Visuality: Fragments, History, Spectacle, focused on a variety of 鈥榮ites鈥� of seeing, and on the impact of new visual media on the literary and historical imagination.
Selected Recent Publications:
鈥淧rinting the Land: Bewick, Wordsworth, and the Common Reader,鈥� European Romantic Review 37.3 (September 2026).
鈥溾�楳armoreality:鈥� Re-Animating the Classical Body in the Romantic Present,鈥� Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature and Culture 35:69 (July 2025).
鈥淭he Visual and Plastic Arts,鈥� Percy Shelley in Context, ed. Ross Wilson (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
鈥淢耻蝉别耻尘,鈥� Romanticism on the Net (RoN) #80-81 (Spring-Fall 2023). Special issue: Materialising Romanticism, edited by Nicola Watson and Catriona Seth.
The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts, co-edited with Maureen McCue (EUP, 2023).
鈥淧laying 鈥楢live鈥�: Performing Sculpture on the Romantic Stage,鈥� The Visual Life of Romantic Theatre, ed. Terry Robinson and Diane Piccitto (University of Michigan Press, 2023).
鈥淭he Self-Contained Museum: Romanticism, Collecting, and the Space of Writing,鈥� Museums in Literature: Fictionalising museums, world exhibitions, and private collections, ed. Caroline Marie and Anne Chassagnol (Museums in Literature, Brepols, 2022).
鈥溾�榃ith a master鈥檚 hand and prophet鈥檚 fire鈥�: Blake鈥檚 Illustrations for 鈥楾he Bard,鈥欌�� Romanticism and Illustration, ed. Susan Matthews and Ian Haywood (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
鈥淎 鈥榮trange and mixed assemblage鈥�: Sir John Soane, Archivist of the Self,鈥� Studies in Romanticism 57:1 (Spring, 2018).
鈥淲ord and Image,鈥� The Oxford Handbook of British Romanticism, ed. David Duff (Oxford University Press, 2018).
鈥淧ompeii, the Body, and the Imprint of the Ancient World,鈥� Word & Image 33:3 (September, 2017).
鈥淐ollecting, Cultural Memory, and the Regency Museum,鈥� Regency Revisited, ed. Tim Fulford and Michael E. Sinatra (Palgrave, 2016).
Digital Projects and Exhibits:
The Theatre of the Arts: Thomas Hope鈥檚 Visionary Gallery Remediated.
Inside Out: Representing the Romantic Museum, an online exhibition for Romantic Circles Gallery. Created with the collaboration of Rhys Jeurgensen and Erin McCurdy (March 2024)
鈥淒enon鈥檚 Reliquary,鈥� Romantic Europe: The Virtual Exhibition (R脢VE). Posted 30 August, 2023.
Special Journal Issues:
Museum and Society, Vol. 17:3 (November, 2019). Guest edited, with Janine Rogers: 鈥淥n the Properties of Things: Collective Knowledge and the Objects of the Museum.鈥�
Romanticism on the Net (RoN), Vol. 70 (Spring, 2018). Guest edited issue on the theme of 鈥淩ecollecting the Nineteenth-Century Museum.鈥�