Dr. Alexander Bubb, an Associate Professor of English at the University of Roehampton, has achieved a remarkable double victory by winning both the Rosemary Mitchell Book Prize and the Richard Stein Essay Prize for his pioneering work in Victorian literary studies.
Dr. Bubb received The Rosemary Mitchell Prize for his book, "Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf: Flights of Translation." This prize, awarded by the British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS), recognises the year’s best second monograph in 19th-century historical, literary, or cultural studies. The award honors the late Victorianist Rosemary Mitchell and acknowledges the challenges mid-career academics face in completing major works of scholarship.
His book investigates how popular translations of Asian literature—such as the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, and Confucian Analects—became familiar to British readers between 1845 and 1915. Dr. Bubb highlights the role of amateur translators who made these works accessible to the general public, influencing Victorian cultural life.
The Richard Stein Essay Prize was awarded to Dr. Bubb for his article, "Which Translation?: Identifying the True Source of Patten Wilson’s Shahnameh Illustrations." This prize is given by the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS) association for the best interdisciplinary essay published in a journal or edited collection.
In this article, Dr. Bubb challenges a long-standing assumption about Victorian artist Patten Wilson's illustrations. He proves that Wilson’s drawings were inspired by a translation of the Shahnameh by Jewish writer Helen Zimmern, not Matthew Arnold’s poem Sohrab and Rustum as previously believed. This discovery emphasises the importance of accurately identifying sources in cross-cultural studies.
Reflecting on his achievements, Dr. Bubb said, “It’s tremendously exciting—when the news of the Mitchell Prize arrived in my inbox, I embarrassed myself by fist-pumping the air in the middle of a busy café. This recognition means a lot to me, and I hope it highlights the importance of a multilingual approach to studying 19th-century literature.”
When asked about his advice for aspiring scholars, Dr. Bubb emphasised the importance of self-belief and seizing opportunities: “Don’t underestimate your ideas, especially when others see value in them. I almost didn’t apply for the Stein Prize because I thought my chances were too low. Also, if your work is eligible for a prize, go for it—you never know what might happen!”
Dr. Bubb will receive his awards at conferences in Oxford and Genoa later this year. He continues to explore Victorian cultures of multilingualism for his next book, "Polyglot Century: Victorian Cultures of Multilingualism." He is also continuing his work on AVaTAR (the Archive of Victorian Translations from Asia and their Readerships), a unique collection of book that reveals how Victorian readers engaged with Asian texts.
At Roehampton, Dr. Bubb is based within the School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, where he primarily teaches 19th-century literature in the BA English and MA Children's Literature programmes. To find out more about these programmes please visit our website.