Abigail Spencer

Thesis: Virgins, Warriors, Mothers: Appropriation of the Female Body in Representations of the British Empire in Architectural Culture c.1750-1815

Supervised by Dr Kyle Leyden and advised by Dr Esther Chadwick

Funded by the Manton Scholarship for Doctoral Research on British and Irish Art

My research investigates the role of female bodies in the visual language of British imperialism in the second half of the eighteenth century, with particular focus on the built environment as a site of communicative meaning. Examining the different archetypes of female identity which underpin shifting allegorical representation of the British Empire, my project counters the prevailing view of the eighteenth-century as an age of masculine, patriarchal heroism throughout which female embodiments such as Britannia became a weakened symbol, entrapped in propriety (Colley, 1984; Major, 2011). The thesis will suggest that realities of imperial exploitation and military conquest were disguised through deliberate appropriations of female bodies and related constructed ideas about gender. I am interested in tracking narratives of civilizing improvement and nurture across entangled sites of imperialism, including London, Liverpool, Dublin, and Jamaica.

Before starting the PhD, I completed both a BA and MA at the Courtauld, receiving the Courtauld Award for Outstanding Achievement for my MA specialising in the Architectural Legacies of Empire and her dissertation exploring sympathy and the maternal image in the visual culture of abolitionism. Outside of academic research, I work for the Athena Art Foundation as an Events Co-Ordinator, interviewing artists and curators on the continued relevance of pre-twentieth century art history.