My research analyses the determinants of the Virago Press’ publishing decisions, investigating their networks of institutional, interpersonal, and intertextual relationships. I work with archival materials from the British Library, Reading, Feminist Archive South, and The Women’s Library, in order to source and chart these networks across the late twentieth century.

My thesis argues that the study of Virago as a feminist and commercial publishing press is greatly advanced by investigating them as the site of a myriad of networks: as the nexus which draws cultural institutions, contemporary writers, activists, texts, and political ideologies together. Moreover, as Virago was built upon the foundation of recovering women’s lost narratives as political praxis, I believe that my network focus allows me to participate in acts of recovery ideologically aligned with Virago’s project. 

My research focuses on Virago’s creation of, and interactions with, four networks:

• Women’s Liberation Networks, including the feminist Magazine Spare Rib, Mary Stott, and the Women in Media Collective
  
• Publishing Networks, including commercial presses such as Penguin and other feminist presses and radical bookshops
  
• Contemporary Literary Networks, including the authors Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, and Maya Angelou
  
• The Virago Modern Classics Network, including the intertextual relationships between VMC titles, the contemporary writers commissioned to introduce the books, and the academic interventions of Elaine Showalter which formed the cornerstone of the series.