Charlotte O'Neill

Entitled 'Edward Carpenter: Beyond the Human,' my thesis explores a critically underexamined interest of the notable late Victorian socialist and LGBT+ rights pioneer: his interest in nonhuman animality. My research interrogates Carpenter's animal advocacy, including his opposition to meat-eating and vivisection. I also unpick the ways in which the more-than-human manifests in his writing more broadly. I am especially interested in Carpenter’s esoteric philosophical output: I argue that, influenced by Hinduism and vitalism, his philosophy of cosmic unity challenges the boundaries of the 'human.'

I first studied Carpenter as part of a SURE Scheme funded research project during the second year of my undergraduate degree, proceeding to write about him in my undergraduate dissertation, 'Concentric Circles: Understanding Edward Carpenter's Philosophy of Unity.'

I am interested in fin de siècle radicalism and animal rights, particularly antivivisection, vegetarianism, and the work of the Humanitarian League/Henry Stephens Salt. I work within Animal Studies and ecocriticism.