Alexander Dick is Associate Professor in the Department of English, where he teaches courses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literatures and critical theory. His first book, Romanticism and the Gold Standard: Money, Literature, and Economic Debate in Britain 1790-1830 was published by Palgrave in 2013. Although he continues to work in the field of literature and economics, he has recently expanded his research interests to include environmental humanities, agricultural improvement, and the history of science, especially in Scotland. His new project examines the way ideas and debates about land possession, soil chemistry, statistical surveying, rural labour, and agricultural technology circulated in Scottish literature and print culture in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries and especially how these debates affected changing concepts of nationalism, education, religious belief, and social class.
Recent Publications:
Books
- Romanticism and the Gold Standard: Money, Literature, and Economic Debate in Britain 1790-1830. Houndsmills: Palgrave, 2013.
- Spheres of Action: Speech and Performance in Romantic Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. 353 pages. Co-edited with Angela Esterhammer.
- Practice in the Eighteenth Century: Writing Between Philosophy and Literature. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008. 313 pages. Co-edited with Christina Lupton.
Selected Recent Articles and Chapters
- “‘A good deal of Trash’: Reading Societies, Religious Controversy, and Networks of Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Scotland.” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies38 (2015): 585-598.
- “Frye, Derrida, and the University (to come)” in Educating the Imagination: A Centenary Edition in Honour of Northrop Frye Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
- “On Lecturing and Being Beautiful: Zadie Smith, Elaine Scarry, and the Liberal Aesthetic” (co-authored with Christina Lupton) English Studies in Canada 39 (2013): 115-137.
- “British Romanticism and Paper Money” Literature Compass 10 (2013): 696-704.
- “Scott and Political Economy” in The Edinburgh Companion to Walter Scott Fiona Robertson. Edinburgh UP, 2012. 118-129.\
- “Walter Scott and the Financial Crash of 1825: Fiction, Speculation, and the Standard of Value” in Ian Haywood, ed. Romanticism, Forgery and the Credit Crunch. Romantic Circles Praxis Series, 2012.
Alexander Dick
Associate Professor, Department of English (Chair, Majors Program)
Office: BuTo 615
Phone: 604–822–4225
Email: alex.dick@ubc.ca
Website: http://blogs.ubc.ca/alexdick/
