Susan Manning

Susan Manning FRSE FRSA (24 December 1953 – 15 January 2013) was a Scottish academic specialising in Scottish studies and English literature. Before her death in 2013 at the age of 59, she was the Grierson Professor in English literature at the University of Edinburgh and the Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. Prof. Manning's work on Scottish Enlightenment and transatlantic literature led to international acclaim. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, Edinburgh. She later attended John Mason High School in Abingdon.

She earned a BA degree from Newnham College, University of Cambridge, graduating in 1976. It was at Cambridge that she met her future husband, physicist Howard Manning and got married. She was equally attracted towards studying Scottish and American literature and the overlap between the two. Her main mode of inquiry involved discovering similarities between Scottish and American literary style, subjects and preoccupations, distinguishing these from English literature. This quest took the shape of defining what provincialism meant and its relation to any 'Centre'.

Professional contribution

It took Manning 10 years to complete her PhD, during which time she was bringing up a young family. She would often joke that it had taken three children Laura, Lindsay and Sophie to complete her PhD.