Megan Coyer
Megan Coyer
Megan Coyer is a second-year doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow in the Department of Scottish Literature and is the recipient of the Faculty Overseas Research Scholarship. She earned an M. Litt. with distinction in Scottish Literature from the University of Glasgow in 2006. In 2005, she earned a B.S. in Neuroscience with Honours from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. During her time at Lafayette, she researched the hormonal mechanisms of aggressive behaviour in male zebra finches under the guidance of Dr. Wendy Hill, Rappolt Professor of Neuroscience, and published an article based on that research in the scientific journal, Hormones and Behaviour. In 2002, she worked as a LEARN Research Scholar under the guidance of Dr. Jay Weiss at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Coyer was the recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier national undergraduate award of its type in math, science, and engineering.
Her current research draws on her scientific background, as she is working to contextualize the writing of James Hogg (1770-1835) within the popular scientific culture of the early nineteenth-century. She has become particularly interested in the popular medical and literary work of the Glasgow physician, Robert MacNish (1802-1837). Coyer is currently a tutor for Level 2 Scottish Literature.
Recent and Upcoming Conference Papers:
‘An Examination of James Hogg’s ‘On the Separate Existence of the Soul’ as a Response to Robert MacNish’s Philosophy of Sleep,’ From Ettrick to Empire: New Perspectives in James Hogg Studies, University of Stirling, 7 August 2007.
‘The Phrenological Dreamer and the Tale of Terror: An Examination of Robert MacNish’s Literary and Popular Medical Work,’ The Apothecary’s Chest: Magic, Art, and Medication, University of Glasgow, 24 November 2007.