Finding Scotland in the Declaration of Independence
presented by Dr. Nicholas Birns

About the Speaker:

Dr. Nicholas Birns is a literary scholar and faculty member at New York University's School of Professional Studies, with research interests in Anglophone literature and culture from the 18th century onward. He has delivered lectures and seminars at venues including the Smithsonian Associates, the New York Society Library,  the Colony Club, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York. His myriad publications include the books Understanding Anthony Powell (2004), Theory After Theory (2010), Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead (2015), and The Literary Role of History in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien (2023). He is a past president of the Church Club of New York and of the Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church. His work has been reviewed in outlets such as The New York Times Book Review, The Hudson Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Times Literary Supplement. He has contributed reviews to The New York Times Book Review and co-edited The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2023). In 2024, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Though a lifelong New Yorker who was brought up in the East Village, he is now resident in New Jersey.