Andrew (Andy) Chang

Andrew Chang is a third year PhD Candidate in the Department of English. His SSHRC-funded dissertation explores metaphors of sight and visuality in 19th-century literary texts as tool for consolidating and reimagining Victorian subjecthood in an age widely characterized by innovations in visual technology. His project argues that while critical accounts of the Victorian subject circulate around an ability to observe one's surroundings, the constant presence of observation actually constitutes the subject as a figure who is constantly being observed - a state of being which finds a distinct corollary in being read or written on the page. His recent works have focused on the reader-writer relationship in Thomas De Quincey's writing as subtended by invocations of visual impression, and his upcoming works examine syphilis and one of its more harrowing symptoms - blindness - as a site of terror in late 19th-century Gothic Invasion novels. Andrew also works extensively with the Communications team in the Department of English to develop strategies for promoting courses and programs both internally and externally.