Armstrong Browning Library & Museum Announces Dr. Kristen Pond as New Browning Chair
The Armstrong Browning Library & Museum selected Dr. Kristen Pond, Associate Professor of English at Baylor University, as its new Margarett Root Browning Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies. During her three-year term, Pond will maintain an office in the library so that she may readily access research resources, engage students and other Browning scholars, and promote the libraries and the university through publications, presentations, and conferences. Her appointment is effective August 1, 2023.
“We are excited that Dr. Kristen Pond will serve as the next holder of the Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies,” said Jennifer Borderud, Director of the Armstrong Browning Library & Museum. “Dr. Pond has worked closely with the library for many years, regularly bringing her classes and introducing colleagues from across the academy to our collections. We look forward to continuing to work alongside Dr. Pond to strengthen the ABL’s standing as a world center for Victorian studies.”
Pond earned her doctorate at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in 2010. Her dissertation and subsequent research explore Victorian social dynamics and epistemology through novels by Harriet Martineau, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, William Thackeray, Elizabeth Gaskell, and others. She has contributed articles for Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Victorian Literature and Culture, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and Victorian Review. Her latest publication, Strangers and the Enchantment of Space in Victorian Fiction (1830–1865) will be released by Routledge in October 2023.
“I am honored and excited to be the new Browning Chair,” said Pond. “My ties to the library have developed over many years working alongside the ABL staff on research and teaching projects, so in some ways this position feels like a natural next step. I look forward to helping others on campus learn more about this wonderful resource that can enhance their research and their pedagogy, and to build the ABL’s reputation as a research hub for nineteenth-century studies among an international audience of scholars and students.”
The Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies was established in 1970 through the generosity of the Brown Foundation. Each scholar-in-residence can elect to serve for up to two, consecutive three-year terms. Past scholars include Dr. Jack W. Herring (1971-1984), Dr. Roger L. Brooks (1987-1994), Dr. Mairi Rennie (1996-2002), Dr. Stephen Prickett (2003-2008), Dr. Kirstie Blair (2012), and Dr. Joshua King (2014-2021).