Stuart McWilliams

Biography and/or project

Stuart McWilliams is Senior Lecturer in English Literature, American and British Studies at the University of Oslo. Previously, he was Lecturer in English Literature at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. He gained his PhD from Queen’s University Belfast in 2010.

Stuart’s research is principally concerned with the theorization of premodern “magic” in modern historiography, especially in relation to narratives of secularization and reenchantment. Stuart also works on the literary and intellectual history of enchantment more broadly. These interests inform his first monograph, Magical Thinking: History, Possibility and the Idea of the Occult (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Forthcoming articles deal with the question of historiographic “authenticity”, confessional approaches to history, and the relation between magic and technology in 19th and 20th century historiographic thought.