Jaclyn Geller, PhD
I research Restoration and eighteenth-century studies, work to recover nonmarital history, and advocate for nonmarital rights.
Welcome to my website. I'm a scholar and professor of Restoration and eighteenth-century studies, committed to exploring British literary culture between the 1640s and the 1830s. Here, my primary interests are satire, the novel's development, and relationships between literary genres.
I'm also dedicated to studying history through a nonmarital lens. I eschew the word "single," because my research includes children born outside wedlock, bachelors, spinsters, celibate clergy, concubines, amorous LAT (living apart together) partners, amorous LTP (living together part-time) partners, singletons (people committed to living alone), adults with friend-centered lives, communal chosen families, and many others. Defying the pressure to wed, such people have often sustained meaningful, life-structuring relationships that render the term "single" incongruous. Marriage fundamentalists disparage these individuals and groupings as newfangled and dangerous: symptomatic of declining values. Actually, each has a legacy that spans back to antiquity and beyond. Nonmarital history is vast in scope. Nonmarital contributions to culture are vital, multifaceted, and inspiring. I try to honor this legacy by advocating for relationship-status equality.