Dr Aileen Fyfe
Dr Aileen Fyfe
MA MPhil PhD (Cantab.), FHEA
Contact Details
E-mail - akf@st-andrews.ac.uk
Telephone - (0)1334 462996
Fax - +44 (0)1334 462914
Teaching and Research Interests
Aileen's teaching and research focus upon British cultural history in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with particular emphases on science and technology, religion, the book trade and children's literature. She has just finished Steam-Powered Knowledge, a book about the connections between technology and instructive publishing in the mid-19th-century, which focuses on the Edinburgh publishers W. & R. Chambers. She is embarking on a new project on the history of scientific communication and publishing.
For a taster of Aileen's research interests, see the YouTube video of her recent TEDx talk on the Victorian Information Revolution.
Main Publications
Books and edited volumes
- Steam-Powered Knowledge: William Chambers and the business of publishing, 1820-1860 (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
- (ed. with B. Lightman) Science in the Marketplace: nineteenth-century sites and experiences (University of Chicago Press, 2007)
- Science and Salvation: evangelicals and popular science publishing in Victorian Britain (University of Chicago Press, 2004) (ed.)
- Science for Children, 7 facsimile vols with introductions (Thoemmes Press, 2003)
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
- ‘Steam and the landscape of knowledge’, in M. Ogborn and C. Withers, eds., Geographies of the Book (Ashgate, 2010)
- ‘The information revolution’, in D. McKitterick, ed., The History of the Book in Britain, vol. 6: 1830-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
- ‘Tracts, classics and brands: science for children in the nineteenth century’ in J. Briggs, D. Butts and M.O. Grenby, eds.,Popular Children’s Literature in Britain, 1700-1900 (Ashgate, 2008)
- ‘Reading natural history at the British Museum and the Pictorial Museum’ in A. Fyfe and B. Lightman (eds.), Science in the Marketplace: nineteenth-century sites and experiences (University of Chicago Press, 2007)
- ‘Conscientious workmen or booksellers’ hacks? the professional identities of science writers in the mid-nineteenth century’, Isis 96 (2005): 192-223
- ‘Societies as publishers: the Religious Tract Society in the mid-nineteenth century’ Publishing History 58 (2005): 5-42
- ‘Commerce and philanthropy: the Religious Tract Society and the business of publishing’ Journal of Victorian Culture 9 (2004): 164-188
- ‘Reading children’s books in eighteenth-century dissenting families’ Historical Journal 43 (2000): 453-74
Administration Duties
Coordinates MO2008: Scotland, Britain and Empire, 1500-2000
External Administrative Duties
Aileen is currently co-chair of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.
She was Treasurer of the British Society for the History of Science from 2002-2007; and Chair of the Royal Irish Academy's subcommittee on the History of Science until 2010.
Teaching Duties
Teaches on the MO1008, HI2001, ID1004, MO2008 sub-honours courses.
Offers the following Honours courses:
- Print Culture in Britain, 1750-1900
- The Victorians: Religion and Respectability
- The Technologies of Victorian Britain
Research Students
Aileen is currently supervising:
Caroline Gillan, 'Scientific patronage in 18th-century Britain: the third earl of Bute' (based at NUI Galway)
She would like to hear from students interested in working on: - the history of science, technology or medicine, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - British social and cultural history, c.1750-1900 - the history of authorship, journalism, editing, printing, publishing and reading, particularly as they relate to 'non-literary' topics (e.g. non-fiction, popular science, textbooks).
Completed Doctorates
- Juliana Adelman, ‘Communities of science: the Queen’s Colleges and scientific culture in provincial Ireland, 1845-1875’ (NUI Galway, 2007
- Laura Kelly, ‘Irish medical women, c.1880s-1920s: the origins, education and carers of early women medical graduates from Irish institutions’ (NUI Galway, 2011)
