The Eighteenth Century Ireland Society has awarded two Marsh’s Library Postgraduate bursaries to Jessica White (University College Cork) and Scott Macfie (University of Glasgow).
Jessica’s research explores the intersections of children’s literature, political economy, and Enlightenment science in women’s writing in eighteenth-century and Romantic-era Britain and Ireland. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on prominent educationalists, including Maria Edgeworth, Anna Letitia Barbauld and Jane Marcet, considering the underacknowledged contributions of children’s writers to the history of political economy and tracing their attempts to use children’s literature as a technology to increase individual and national happiness. Her PhD is funded by the Research Ireland Pathway Programme.
When asked about how the bursary will impact her research, Jessica said: “The bursary is allowing me to attend and present my research at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society. My paper is titled Economies of Intimacy in Maria Edgeworth’s Juvenile Fiction, and explores the interactions between commerce and community in The Parent’s Assistant (1796), a set of economically realistic children’s short stories by Anglo-Irish writer Maria Edgeworth. This bursary will be hugely helpful in enabling me to share my research and gain feedback from the expert community of eighteenth-century scholars.”
Scott’s research focuses on the management of landed estates and agricultural improvement in central-west Scotland between 1750 and 1850, with a particular focus on the islands of Arran and Bute. A key focus of this research involves situating this rural part of Scotland within its broader Atlantic context, encompassing how connections with Ireland, North America and the Caribbean shaped its economic development. He will be presenting new research on coal and limestone trade across the North Channel during the second half of the eighteenth century.
Speaking about the benefits of attending the conference with the aid of the bursary, Scott said: “I am most familiar with the Scottish side of this relationship so I look forward to learning more about the eighteenth-century Irish context at the conference in Belfast. I am based at a Scottish institution, where it is rare have such an opportunity to engage with Irish specialists, so I am grateful to the ECIS and the financial support of a postgraduate bursary in enabling me to attend.”
These bursaries, valued at €250, were donated by Marsh’s Library to provide financial support to scholars looking to present a paper at the 2026 annual ECIS conference in QUB, Belfast. We are grateful for the Library’s support and their buttressing of the next generation of scholars of the eighteenth century.