Dr Johanna Harris

Dr Harris's teaching and research focus on the literature, religion, and politics of the early modern period, with particular interest in non-fictional prose, especially letters, and in devotional writing. Her publications have focused on well-known writers such as Andrew Marvell, Richard Baxter, and Thomas Traherne, and lesser-known writers such as Brilliana Harley and Lucy Robartes. She is currently working on two major editing projects for Oxford University Press: the correspondence of the prolific puritan writer Richard Baxter (1615-1691), and a volume of the meditational prose and poetry of Thomas Traherne for The Oxford Traherne. Both projects involve extensive work with manuscripts and early modern printed books. She is completing a monograph on puritan epistolary communities, Godly Letters. She is also working on a scholarly edition of the writings of Lady Brilliana Harley.

Johanna was born in Oxford, England, raised in the Blue Mountains, and went to the University of Sydney where she studied for a Bachelor of Arts, with Honours in English and Ancient History. On a Clarendon Scholarship, she went to the University of Oxford where she was awarded the MSt in English in 2004 and DPhil in 2008. She spent one year at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, on a postdoctoral research fellowship ('Shakespeare and the Book Trade'), before returning to Oxford as a stipendiary lecturer (Lincoln College, Oxford). In 2011 she moved to the University of Exeter as Lecturer (2011-15) and then Senior Lecturer (2016-2022).

In 2011 Dr Harris pioneered the Exeter Care Homes Reading Project, a volunteer initiative that trained and sent English students into local care homes to read with residents. The project attracted local and national press and TV coverage, and external funding awards from the Headley Trust (Sainsbury Foundation) and the UPP Foundation. In 2015 she was awarded the 350th 'Points of Light' by Prime Minister David Cameron. Related to these initiatives, she is also interested in the ethical value of literature, particularly human dignity, bibliotherapy and the medical humanities, and the role of literature in enhancing intergenerational cohesion.

Selected Publications

Essay Collections

The Puritan Literary Tradition, 1560-1720 (Oxford: Oxford UP), co-edited with Alison Searle, forthcoming, 2023.  

Dignity in Literary and Medical Ethics, guest editor, special issue of the journal Literature and Medicine 38:2 (Fall 2020).   

The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women, 1558&ndash1680, co-edited with Elizabeth Scott-Baumann (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). 

Recent Articles and Book Chapters

'The Letters of the Martyrs: remembering and reclaiming the apostolic form', in Remembering the English Reformation, ed. Alexandra Walsham and Brian Cummings (Cambridge: CUP, 2020), pp.286-302. 

'Andrew Marvell's Letters', The Oxford Handbook to Andrew Marvell, ed. Edward Holberton and Martin Dzelzainis (Oxford: OUP, 2019), pp.499-516. 

'Andrew Marvell and Nonconformity' (with N. H. Keeble), The Oxford Handbook to Andrew Marvell, ed. Edward Holberton and Martin Dzelzainis (Oxford: OUP, 2019), pp.144-63. 

'Heroick virtue': Joseph Alleine's Letters and Protestant Martyrology', Bunyan Studies 23 (2019), 24&ndash44. 

'Sectarian Groups', The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion, ed. Andrew Hiscock and Helen Wilcox (Oxford: OUP, 2017), pp.431-47. 

'Be plyeabell to all good Counsell': Lady Brilliana Harley's advice letter to her son', Women and Epistolary Agency in Early Modern Culture, 1450-1690, ed. James Daybell and Andrew Gordon (London: Routledge, 2016), pp.128-147.  

Scholarly Editions in progress

Co-General Editor (with Dr Alison Searle), The Correspondence of Richard Baxter: a 9-volume edition (Oxford: OUP), scheduled for staggered publication, 202428. Volume editor, Vol.1 (1635-53)

Volume editor, The Oxford Traherne, Volume 3: The Osborn Manuscript (Select Meditations) and 'The Ceremonial Law' (Oxford: OUP). [General editor: Dr Julia Smith]

Early modern literature, religion, politics letter writing and epistolary culture manuscript culture and archives book history literature and ethics, medical humanities.

Education

D.Phil. University of Oxford (2008)

M.St. University of Oxford (2004)

B.A. (Hons) University of Sydney (2002)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2014)

Employment

Australian Catholic University, Associate Professor (2023)

University of Exeter, Senior Lecturer (2016-2022)

University of Exeter, Lecturer (2011-2016)

Lincoln College, University of Oxford, Stipendiary Lecturer (2010)

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Geneva (2009-10)