Research Area(s)
- 18th Century women authors
- The works of Jane Austen, works by and about people with disabilities in Eighteenth-century Britain
- Disability culture in Eighteenth-century British literature
- Literature and Theology in Eighteenth-century British literature
- Critical disability theory, feminist theory
About me
Kathleen James-Cavan has published editions of William Hay's Deformity: An Essay (1754), and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. She has published articles in Prose Studies, Studies in the Novel, and Persuasions: The Journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She has given conference papers on the disabled MP and memoirist, William Hay; Jane Austen; Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea; and Edmund Spenser. Her research concerns primarily disability in eighteenth-century literature and writing by women of the later 18th century.
Publications
“Deformity: An Essay William Hay.” In Couser, G. Thomas, and Susannah B. Mintz, (eds.). Disability Experiences: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives. Vol. 1. Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference. 172-176.
“‘Cruel Comfort’: A Reading of the Theological Critique in Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal On-Line 32.2 (2012). n. pag. Web (4,660 words)
"'[A]ll in me in Nature': The Values of Deformity in William Hay's Deformity: An Essay." reprinted in Brueggemann, Brenda Jo and Marian E. Lupo, eds. Disability and/in Prose. London: Routledge, 2008. pp. 17-28.
Research
18th Century England Jane Austen disability literature women
Awards & Honours
- Provost's Award for Outstanding Teaching, awarded by College of Arts and Science, Division of Humanities & Fine Arts July 2012