Dr Lucy-Anne Katgely

I came to my current post at St John’s College by way of a winding (and wonderfully multilingual) path through English departments in France and Modern Languages in the UK. During my PhD, I taught English and American literature at the University of Strasbourg, then held lectrice positions in Bath and Oxford. A permanent lectureship in English literature at Université Clermont Auvergne followed, but I was ultimately tempted back to Britain for personal reasons and, perhaps, a lingering fondness for Georgian terraces.

Teaching

At Oxford, I focus on French language and translation, guiding students through the glorious chaos of bilingual thought. I teach French across all year groups, covering Essay and Prose translation, Oral, Summary, and Grammar.
For me, teaching is a lively conversation that moves between languages, cultures, and centuries. Over the years, I’ve taught English and American literature (primarily eighteenth-century and later), translation both from and into French, year-abroad preparation, and language at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Teaching students who share a love of literature and languages is one of the greatest joys of my work. I’m committed to supporting them through every challenge along the way, always happy to offer an empathetic ear or a well-timed dose of perspective. I have a particular fondness for students who don’t always feel entirely “at home” in academic spaces, and I value creating a classroom where curiosity, kindness, and individuality thrive.

I work at the intersection of late eighteenth-century British women’s writing, gender studies, and literary obscurity--a space where forgotten voices often whisper the loudest. My research investigates how women navigated the constraints of authorship, exploring the cultural significance of literary anonymity and, in particular, the curious persistence of the signature “by a lady” in fiction of the 1780s and beyond. My PhD examined a constellation of novels united under this pseudonym and modelled on the works of Frances Burney, tracing how anonymity could function both as a shield and a subtle form of resistance. It also uncovered an early network of women authors, a kind of literary sorority whose collective endeavours helped shape the artistic voice of Sarah Harriet Burney (Frances’s half-sister).
More broadly, my work engages with the gendered politics of literary memory: who is remembered, who is forgotten, and how cultural authority continues to be negotiated along gendered lines. I aim to bring these neglected voices back into view, ideally with empathy, curiosity, and the occasional raised eyebrow at the paradoxes of literary fame.

Recent Publications

• “Proies et prédateurs: Témoignages de harcèlements sexuels dans la littérature sentimentale britannique de la fin du XVIIIe siècle.” Écrire l’histoire du harcèlement sexuel sur la longue durée, ed. A. Dubois-Nayt and R. Hamus-Vallée, L’Harmattan, 2024.
• “Sanitising the Novel: Ambivalence and Continuity in Eighteenth-Century Feminocentric Fictions.” In Charlotte Lennox: The Female Quixote, ed. C. Bertonèche and A. Braida, Ellipses, 2023.
• “Héritage des romans ‘by a lady’: de l’école Burney à l’idéologie romantique.” Hypothèses, 2022.
• “Treading in Camilla’s Footsteps? Oneiric Experience and Women’s Voices in Julia de Vienne (by a lady, 1811) and Tales of Fancy (Sarah Harriet Burney, 1816–1820).” In Dream and Literary Creation in Women’s Writings in the 18th–19th Centuries, ed. I. Hervouet and A. Rouhette, Anthem Press, 2021.

Awards and Distinctions

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, 2024)
• Conference Prize, Burney Society UK Conference, University of Greenwich (June 2024), for the paper “Gender-Bending Heroism: Sarah Harriet Burney’s Narrative Exploration.”
• Early-Career Bursary, BSECS Annual Conference, St Hugh’s College, Oxford (January 2023), for “‘These Deep-Rooted Prejudices Should Not Be Cherished’: Virtuous, Wicked, and Vulgar (N)ever-Married Women in Sarah Harriet Burney’s Fiction.”