The Committee

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

I became Chair of the Ruskin Society in 2022. In other capacities, I teach (and write about) English Literature at the University of Cambridge, where I am Professor of Literature and the Applied Arts, and a Fellow of Magdalene College. I have been interested in Ruskin ever since I stumbled across him, at the age of 21, on reading a modern poem (by Geoffrey Hill) inspired by Ruskin’s reimagining of economics in Unto this Last (1861). That chance encounter set me up for two decades (and counting) of interest in, and affection for, Ruskin. I find him inexhaustible, not only because he supplies a critical view on our modern crises (ecological, economic, geo-political), but also because he has this ability to cast new light on a world — whether natural or made-made — that we tend to take for granted. Ruskin, I’m glad to say, tells us what a mountain is, but also what a window is, what a door is, while sparing a thought for ‘the melancholy humour of a root in loving darkness’ (Proserpina).

President: Prof. Jeffrey Richards

My entire academic career (1969-2014) has been spent at Lancaster University, latterly as Professor of Cultural History. One of my principal research subjects has been the Victorian Theatre and I discovered a hitherto unexplored aspect of Ruskin’s influence upon Victorian cultural life, his influence on the stage. I developed this aspect in detail in a major AHRB-funded research project, Ruskin and the Theatre, undertaken between 2004-2007 with Professor Kate Newey. This resulted in several essays, lectures, and published volumes, notably John Ruskin and the Victorian Theatre (with Kate Newey) and Ruskin, the Theatre and Victorian Visual Culture (with Anselm Heinrich and Kate Newey). This involvement in Ruskin research has led to my participation in various Ruskin institutions, serving on the Ruskin Library Board, the Ruskin Foundation Trust and the Ruskin Review and Bulletin Editorial Board. In 2012 I became Companion of the Guild of St. George and, having previously served as Chairman of the Ruskin Society, became the President of the Society in 2013.

Secretary: currently vacant (Prof. Marcus Waithe is Acting Secretary)

Membership Secretary: Jarka H.

Treasurer: Hon. Catherine Edwards

HONORARY NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Honorary Vice-President: Dr Cynthia Gamble

Cynthia Gamble, Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Exeter, writes extensively, and frequently in French, on John Ruskin, Marcel Proust and related subjects. Her most recent book, with co-author Matthieu Pinette, is entitled Ruskin, Proust et la Normandie: Aux sources de la ‘Recherche’ (Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2022). Cynthia is an enthusiastic supporter of the Ruskin Society, of which she has been secretary and chairman.

Graduate Representative: Duarte Bénard da Costa

I came to Ruskin through Proust; I spent some months researching both authors during my Comparative Literature MA at UCL. I am at present a PhD student at the University of Cambridge – the institution at which I previously spent an exchange year during my Liberal Arts BA in Lisbon, Portugal, my hometown. My research interests also include authors such as Paul Ricoeur, Julia Kristeva and Walter Benjamin, and topics such as intertextuality, interpretation, and 19-20^th century literatures (English, French and Portuguese). Other interests include rowing, contemporary dance critique, and opera. I am also preparing the first translation of Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds into Portuguese.