Pembroke Tutor Granted Prestigious Knowledge Exchange Fellowship

NEWS |

Congratulations to Professor Lynda Mugglestone, Pembroke Fellow & Tutor in English Language and Literature and Professor of the History of English at Oxford, for receiving a prestigious ‘TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellowship.’

Prof Mugglestone’s project, Rethinking Johnson's House of Words, redirects attention to the garret in which Samuel Johnson completed his English Dictionary in 1755 as a writerly and collaborative space, and the birthplace of a book of international cultural significance. A close collaboration between Celine McDaid of Johnson’s House and Prof Mugglestone will reunite physical space and lexicographical practice, drawing on Celine’s expertise in historical environment, alongside a shared interest in rethinking how the dictionary took shape.

Samuel Johnson, a Pembroke alumnus from 1728, was a critic, biographer, essayist, poet and lexicographer, and one of the most significant literary figures of his time. Although a lack of funds had prevented him finishing his degree, he later described his time at Pembroke as influential and formative, laying the groundwork for his career.

Johnson’s desk, which is currently held in the Pembroke College Archival Room, will be returned to the garret where he completed his dictionary. This will underpin the first public event of the project and will take place later this year. The final transformation of the garret will be complete by late spring 2024, accompanied by new interpretative materials and forms of visualization.

Some of the outcomes of the Project include a public blog, a programme of in-person and online
public events and workshops, outreach events to enhance established links with local
schools. Professor Mugglestone’s preliminary research for the Project is, as she says, already revealing some exciting and unexpected directions. The desk, in particular, can now be shown to have a back story which involves Dickens, Ruskin, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Lord Palmerston, among others.

Make sure to follow our website for potential alumni events in London with Prof Mugglestone!

Headshot of Prof Lynda Mugglestone