Projects per year
Personal profile
Qualifications
PhD (King's College London), MA (King's College London), PGCE (Institute of Education), BA (Hons) (Cambridge)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Research interests
I research and write about Regency and Victorian popular culture, fiction, plays, images, and the press. I'm fascinated by the literary world of nineteenth-century London and its teeming history: the places, the people, and the streets. My book on the 1820s African-American London busker Billy Waters, Billy Waters is Dancing: How One Black Sailor Found Fame In Regency and Victorian Britain will be published by Yale in late 2024. This work is funded by grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. I speak on the Radio and TV about nineteenth-century culture and I do historical consultancy work.
Events for Bicentenary of Billy Waters' death (21 March 2023):
podcast: https://tinyurl.com/y7xjtyrm
magazine article: https://200livinghistory.info
BBC Radio 3/BBC Sounds 'Busking and Billy Waters': https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fb2ppm
I'm always delighted to hear from students wishing to pursue PhDs in any of these areas:
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periodicals, popular culture and book history
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cultural geography and literary London
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nineteenth-century literature including Charles Dickens and G.W.M. Reynolds
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nineteenth-century print culture and visual culture
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Victorian drama and theatre
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nineteenth-century adventure fiction
- nineteenth-century Black British history
Research projects
Sept. 2021 - Dec. 2021: Linda H. Peterson Fellow, Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
‘Billy Waters, Periodicals, and Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture’
Jan. 2022 - April 2023: Leverhulme Research Fellowship
‘The Celebrated Billy Waters and the circulation of popular culture 1800-1860’
Upcoming projects:
Reynolds Reimagined: New Directions in GWM Reynolds Studies (2023)
Adventures in Ageing (under development)
I was awarded the 2016 Colby Prize for my monograph, 'Dickens, Reynolds and Mayhew on Wellington Street: The Print Culture of a Victorian Street'.
Consultancy work
Research Consultant to nineteenth-century historical fiction writers:
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Anthony Horowitz, Moriarty (Orion: 2014) and Foyle’s War, Eleventh Hour Films;
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Sam Christer House of Smoke (Sphere: 2015);
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Jess Kidd, Things in Jars (Canongate: 2019)
TV and Radio credits:
- BBC 2 'Villages by the Sea'
- BBC Radio Coventry
- BBC Radio Bristol
- BBC Radio Ulster
- Foyles' War season 9 ep. 2 and 3
Teaching
Victorian Literature
Children's Literature
Popular fiction
Print culture
Professional affiliations
GWM Reynolds Society (founding President)
Romantic Illustration Network (original facilitator)
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (Executive Board Member)
British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS): Executive Committee member 2010-14
North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA)
British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS)
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
Links
Watch my Colby Lecture at the 2016 Research Society for Victorian Periodicals international conference in Kansas City.
View Romantic Illustration Network website
View GWM Reynolds Society website
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‘The Celebrated Billy Waters and the circulation of popular culture 1800-1860’
1/01/22 → 30/09/23
Project: Research
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‘Billy Waters, Periodicals, and Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture’
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
1/09/21 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
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The 1850s Sustainability Novel: Manufacturers, Serials, and (Eco)systems in Dickens and Gaskell
Gail Marshall, 2023, (Submitted) Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition vol. 5: Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: the 1850s. Marshall, G. (ed.). Cambridge University PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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'Artists' Street: Thomas Stothard, R.H. Cromek, and literary illustration on London's Newman Street
Shannon, M. L., 1 May 2019, Romanticism and Illustration. Haywood, I., Matthews, S. & Shannon, M. L. (eds.). CUP, p. 243-266Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
19 Downloads (Pure) -
The Multiple Lives of Billy Waters: Dangerous Theatricality and Networked Illustrations in Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture
Shannon, M. L., 1 Nov 2019, In: Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film. 46, 2, p. 161-189Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1110 Downloads (Pure) -
Dickens in Byron's Chair: Authenticity, Author Portraits, and Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture
Shannon, M., 26 Mar 2018, (E-pub ahead of print) In: VICTORIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE. 46, 1, p. 57-81Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile235 Downloads (Pure) -
Colonial Networks and the Periodical Marketplace
Shannon, M., Mar 2017, Journalism and the Periodical Press in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Shattock, J. (ed.). Cambridge: CUP, p. 203-223 20 p. 12Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Prizes
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Nineteenth-Century Studies Association essay prize: Honourable Mention
Shannon, Mary L. (Recipient), 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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The Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize: Winner
Shannon, Mary L. (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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University English Early Career book prize: Shortlisted
Shannon, Mary L. (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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London Nineteenth-Century Studies Graduate Conference 2023: – 11 February 2023
Mary L. Shannon (Keynote/plenary speaker)
11 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an academic event › Participation in academic conference
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Public-facing media article on Billy Waters
Mary L. Shannon (Contributor)
Mar 2023Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Media Article or Participation
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Broadside Day
Mary L. Shannon (Invited speaker)
11 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an academic event › Participation in academic conference
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'Free Thinking': BBC Radio 3 Programme and BBC Sounds podcast
Mary L. Shannon (Contributor)
21 Mar 2023Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Media Article or Participation
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Contribution to online teaching resource 'Teaching Transatlanticism'
Mary L. Shannon (Contributor)
2023 → …Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Schools engagement