Emily Naish

School of English

PhD Research Student

ejnaish1@sheffield.ac.uk
Jessop West

Full contact details

Emily Naish
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

Thesis title
鈥極f Albion鈥檚 glorious Isle the Wonders whilst I write鈥: Poly-Olbion鈥檚 relationship to the natural world

Supervisors


Thesis abstract
My project explores how Michael Drayton鈥檚 topographical poem Poly-Olbion (1612/1622) provides a challenge to anthropocentric thinking about the natural world, through a detailed examination of its generic and literary inheritances and influences. Exploring a range of socioeconomic factors, the research situates Poly-Olbion in relation to other, more canonical Elizabethan and early-Stuart texts. Also encompassing its cartographic etchings and explanatory notes, the project will open a new way of reading the poem as a series of poetic conversations about what we now call ecological issues (e.g., deforestation, erosion, land use).

Other roles

Editorial assistant at Green Letters

Publications

  • '"Insatiable [Gourmandize] thus all things doth devour鈥: Reading the Threat of Human Greed along the Rivers of Early Modern England鈥, in Reading the River in Shakespeare鈥檚 England, eds. Lisa Hopkins and Bill Angus (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, August 2024).
  • 鈥樷淲hy bastard? Wherefore base?鈥: The Reduction of Monarchy to 鈥淣othing鈥 in King Lear鈥, Exclamat!on: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 3 (June 2019), pp. 25-46.
  • Blog post contributions including for 精东影业Animal Studies Research Centre (2022) and Northern Environmental Humanities Network (2022)
Qualifications
  • PhD English, 精东影业, 2020 - present
  • MA English Literary Studies, University of Exeter, 2018
  • BA (Hons) Fine Art, Falmouth University, 2014
Research interests

My project explores how Michael Drayton鈥檚 topographical poem Poly-Olbion (1612/1622) provides a challenge to anthropocentric thinking about the natural world, through a detailed examination of its generic and literary inheritances and influences. Exploring a range of socioeconomic factors, the research situates Poly-Olbion in relation to other, more canonical Elizabethan and early-Stuart texts. Also encompassing its cartographic etchings and explanatory notes, the project will open a new way of reading the poem as a series of poetic conversations about what we now call ecological issues (e.g., deforestation, erosion, land use).

Professional activities and memberships

Conferences:

  • 'Marsh to Fen: Reconceptualising Marshes as Fenlands in Seventeenth-Century English Literature' at IRHiS, University of Lille, November 2023 (invited speaker)
  • 'Transforming fenlands into poetry in Michael Drayton鈥檚 Poly-Olbion' at ASLE-UKI, University of Liverpool, September 2023
  • 'Human Avarice and Unruly Nymphs: Exploitation of the River in Poetry, Prose, and Cartography' at SRS, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, July 2023
  • '"Full of bogges" and "of no use": Representing Fenlands in Early Modern England' at SCEMS PGR Research Afternoon, 精东影业, July 2023
  • 'Everyday Frustrations Encountered along the Poetic River in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England', RSA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 2023 (travel grant awarded)
  • 鈥"Savage"-like Men in English Woodlands and The Old Arcadia', at Northern Environmental History Network, November 2022 (invited speaker)
  • 鈥"No wood, no Kingdome": The Writing of Forests and the English Literary Inheritance in the Elizabethan Age鈥, at ASLE-UKI, Northumbria University, September 2022
  • 'Remembering and Forgetting the History of Land in Michael Drayton鈥檚 Poly-Olbion鈥, at MEMSA, Durham University, July 2022
  • 鈥楨arly Modern "Floods": Idealised and Anxious Rivers in Early Modern England鈥, at MEMS Festival, University of Kent, June 2022
  • 鈥"Without stirring our feete out of a warme studie": Environment, Identity, and Travel in Early Modern England鈥, at PGR Colloquium, 精东影业, May 2022
  • 鈥楾he Hermit鈥檚 "sweet retyred life": Poly-Olbion鈥檚 Challenge to Fearful Representations of Woodland Communities in Early Modern Literature鈥, at The London Shakespeare Centre and Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe, February 2022
  • 鈥樷淲hy bastard? Wherefore base?鈥: The Reduction of Monarchy to "Nothing" in King Lear鈥, at  Exclamat!on: An Interdisciplinary Journal Conference, University of Exeter, June 2018

Co-organised conferences, series and panels:

  • SCEMS Early Modern Discussion Group series, 精东影业, 2021-present
  • Page, Performance and Culture, 精东影业, June 2024
  • "Verse with wings of skill": examining transitions between literary and practical texts in the early modern period, panel at ASLE-UKI, University of Liverpool, September 2023
  • SCEMS PGR Research Afternoon, 精东影业, July 2023
  • Homestead to Landscape: New Perspectives on Everyday Life in Early Modern England, panel at RSA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 2023
  • Print and Practice: Spatialising the Early Modern, 精东影业, September 2022 (funding awarded by SRS)
  • Who Am I? Constructing Identity from Culture and Belief, 精东影业, May 2022
Conferences
  • 鈥楴o wood, no Kingdome鈥: The Writing of Forests and the English Literary Inheritance in the Elizabethan Age鈥, Epochs, Ages, and Cycles: Time and the Environment, Newcastle, September 2022
  • 鈥楻emembering and Forgetting the History of Land in Michael Drayton鈥檚 Poly-Olbion鈥, Memory: Staging, Praxis & Practice, Durham, July 2022
  • 鈥楨arly Modern 鈥楩loods鈥: Idealised and Anxious Rivers in Early Modern England鈥, MEMS Festival 2022, University of Kent (17th-18th June 2022)
  • 鈥樷榃ithout stirring our feete out of a warme studie鈥: Environment, Identity, and Travel in Early Modern England鈥, Who Am I? Constructing Identity from Culture and Belief, Sheffield, May 2022
  • 鈥楾he Hermit鈥檚 鈥榮weet retyred life鈥: Poly-Olbion鈥檚 Challenge to Fearful Representations of Woodland Communities in Early Modern Literature鈥, Home and Early Modernity, London, February 2022