Stephen Turton

I have particular interests in the histories of English dictionaries, gender, sexuality, World Englishes, slang, and print censorship.

During the 2024–25 academic year, I am tutoring English undergraduates at Trinity on Prelims Paper 1A (Introduction to English Language). At the English Faculty, I lecture on this paper as well as FHS Course II Paper 4 (The History of English Language 1400– 1800).

My current research projects are on:

(1) The articulation of sexuality in 18th-century and Romantic literature, especially in the writings of Anne Lister and Byron.

(2) The manuscript revisions of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) by Francis Grose, one of the first standalone dictionaries of English slang.

(3) The making of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With Prof Charlotte Brewer, I am co-editing a digital edition of the correspondence of Sir James A. H. Murray, the first editor-in-chief of the OED (www.MurrayScriptorium.org).