Grad Studies: Bringing to Light Popular Writing of the 19th Century

The first course Mercedes Sheldon took as a graduate student in English launched her into “a previously unimaginable journey.” A high school English teacher at the time, Sheldon was beginning a master’s at the University of St. Thomas. “My final project in that class was a critical introduction to a short work of illustrated detective fiction from 1899, one written by Grant Allen,” she says. Now a PhD candidate here, Sheldon’s dissertation in progress is entitled “‘The Vast Majority of Women’: Representations of Womanhood for the Mass Market Reader in Grant Allen’s Periodical Prose, 1879-1900.” This year she received the Errett W. McDiarmid Graduate Fellowship from the College of Liberal Arts to support her completion of the dissertation. Sheldon also was awarded the 2025 William and Mary Burgan Prize for Outstanding Presentation by a Graduate Student from the Midwest Victorian Studies Association, as well as a Hella Mears Research Fellowship for summer 2025. She graciously responded to questions via email. 

Would you describe your dissertation topic?

My dissertation brings critical attention to the impact of prolific authors overlooked in the canonization of British literature during the 20th century. I focus on Grant Allen, who positioned his work within the commercial marketplace such that his eugenics-driven beliefs could reach a wide audience. My comprehensive interrogation of Allen’s work and its influence exposes how popular entertainment participates in the process of cultural change, illuminating a critical relationship between class, gender, and media.

Did certain professors significantly nurture the project?

Michael Hancher’s research on 19th-century illustration informs my own work, for most of Allen’s oeuvre was published in illustrated periodicals. Hancher’s seminar in 19th-century British literature and culture, “Illustrated Periodicals, Material and Digital,” taught me about the changing modes of literary, visual, and cultural production and reproduction across the century. Professor Emeritus Hancher has generously continued to serve the department in retirement by being on my committee.

Professor Amit Yahav serves as my committee chair. Her seminar “The Rise of the Public Sphere: Criticism and Taste” taught me about how periodical culture emerged in the 18th century and the ways in which discourses around taste inform my own work on popular fiction as a space for the construction of gender and class. During the two courses that I took with her, I came to appreciate her pedogeological commitment to concise, short-form writing as a means of focusing one’s engagement with a text; this helped me navigate my preliminary written exam and continues to guide me as I write my dissertation. Her feedback and advice have been instrumental in my success. 

What work are you planning to accomplish during your fellowship? What did you accomplish with last summer’s Hella Mears Research Fellowship?

As a Hella Mears fellow, I finished drafting two chapters of my dissertation. One started as a seminar paper from Mark Borrello’s History of Science course “Navigating a Darwinian World”; I revised that paper into a chapter that situates Allen’s nonfiction within Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and Herbert Spenser’s theory of sociology. The second chapter draws together several conference papers on Allen’s commercial success and my own past archival work in the U’s special collections and in the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds. The Mears fellowship also funded my trip to the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals conference, allowing me to share my emerging argument with colleagues whose expertise compliments that of the faculty here at the U.

Last fall, I turned my attention to the least developed portion of my dissertation, which takes up the parts of Allen’s oeuvre that—to be rather informal—pissed off both the feminists and conservatives of his day. Allen was a member of what contemporary writer Margaret Oliphant called derisively the “Anti-Marriage League,” for he believed that rational reproduction did not need to happen within marriage, and he was also a hack writer who capitulated to middle class tastes by ending almost every work of fiction with a marriage. The McDiarmid fellowship has provided me with time and funding to undertake analysis of these dissonant aspects of his writing. 

How has being a teacher enhanced your scholarship?

Over the course of my career, I’ve learned to view teaching as an opportunity to think alongside my students as scholars and writers. The connections that students see as a result of their own studies and experiences offer me new perspectives, whether we are discussing contemporary nonfiction in “First Year Writing” or George Eliot’s review of novels by her female contemporaries in “British Literature II.” Students’ observations about several 19th-century texts helped me think through my own analysis of how literature constructs class and gender.

As my own expertise deepens, I've learned that my teaching needs to shift as well. Teaching material as a specialist is quite different than doing so as a generalist. Several times in the classroom, I had a predetermined avenue of thought that students perceived, leading to more stilted conversation than in previous discussions. Like reading and writing, teaching is iterative and generative; it is also relational in profound ways. As I teach this spring, I am practicing more open-ended listening as we discuss the materials that I know deeply, just as I have done for years with material that is not a part of my particular research interest. 

What have you appreciated most about your studies here at the U?

The breadth of opportunities! Prior to taking a course in the history of science, I had no idea that such a field of study existed; now, a significant component of my dissertation centers around scientific discourse. I also love working alongside graduate students with such varied interests: law and literature, 20th-century film, disability studies, embodiment in early modern drama, plus all of the folks working on MFA projects.

Finally, I deeply appreciate that the department values teaching as a skill in its own right. In my role as a department teaching fellow last fall, I had the privilege to work alongside Senior Lecturer Eric Daigre, MFA student Sandra Del Rio Madrigal, and MFA alum Ciara Alfaro in the department’s teaching practicum. The folks teaching as graduate instructors in the department for the first time were full of creative energy and brought such verve to our class discussions. It was wonderful to spend time thinking alongside them!

If you are not from Minnesota what has been your favorite discovery, living here?

Although I grew up in western Montana in a ranching community, I have now lived in Minnesota for 25 years. One of my favorite discoveries over the years has been the artistic creativity fostered within this imperfect, wonderful place. Last fall, I attended a concert of hip-hop and pop music paired with philosophical narrative, hosted by the Minnesota Orchestra and Dessa. How cool is that?!