York St John University Critical Editions is an ongoing in-house project directed by Dr Adam James Smith, Associate Professor of English Literature.
The project sees undergraduate students from the York St John University English Literature degree and postgraduate students from the York St John University Masters in Publishing working under Dr Smith’s supervision to produce totally accessible modern editions of eighteenth-century texts by diverse and lesser known authors.
Working from facsimiles of the original eighteenth-century materials, the students carefully transcribe, annotate and represent these texts so that they can be used for university teaching, scholarly research and so that they can be freely accessed by the public for the very first time.
Whilst this project gives our students an opportunity to develop a range of transferable skills and rehearse the various ways in which the skills they acquire during their studies are applicable to a wide range of career contexts, we also hope that the editions themselves will make it easier to diversify our understanding of eighteenth-century print culture.