I have a BA in Joint Honours English and Philosophy from Birmingham and a PhD from the University of Manchester.
I contribute to a wide range of undergraduate literature modules, focusing particularly on the period from the sixteenth century to the Romantics and a final-year course on women's writing of the eighteenth century called Viragos, Coquettes and Prudes. I contribute to the MA in Text and Book and have supervised successful PhD theses and M.Phil dissertations in both language and literature.
My research interests are primarily in the areas of eighteenth-century language and literature. My research grew initially out of an interest in the ideas and writings of Samuel Johnson. Having written a Ph.D. dissertation on the logic of the arguments in Johnson's work, in 1989 I started at the University of Birmingham on a project to edit Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. The project has been awarded nine research grants by the AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy and the Modern Humanities Research Association. As well as completing the various stages of the Johnson Dictionary Project, I have research interests mainly in the late seventeenth and in the eighteenth century, especially the work of Samuel Johnson. Other active interests include the history of language; lexicography; textual editing; the history of the book; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophical issues; and women's writing of the eighteenth century.
I am a member of the advisory board of the Lexicons of Early Modern English [LEME] project based in Toronto, of the editorial board of The Age of Johnson, a scholarly annual, and of the board of c18: Le dix-huitième siècle éléctronique, based in Switzerland at the Centre of Ferney-Voltaire to provide the means to publish research electronically and to co-ordinate by a global index all eighteenth-century research online. I also sit on the boards of research projects in both language and literature.
I co-organised a five-day conference held in Birmingham 24-25 August and Pembroke College, Oxford 26-28 August 2005 on Johnson's Dictionary to celebrate the sestercentenary of its first publication.
I am Director of the Johnson Centre at the University of Birmingham. My major administrative roles within the university in recent years have included: convening some modules and being the department's admissions tutor for single honours. Currently I serve on various committees and run the Research Funding Group as a sub-group of the School's Research Strategy Group.
Anne is interested in supervising MA and doctoral research in the areas of:
