Stephen Bernard

Stephen Jarrod Bernard (born 1975) is an Academic Visitor at the Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford[1] and a member of University College there.[2] A prize-winning essayist, editor, and bibliographer, he is known mostly for his memoir about the sustained serial, clerical childhood sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton in the 1980s and 90s, his consequent mental illness, and the experimental psychiatric treatment he has received. In 2019 he was a Core Participant at the statutory Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.[3]

Stephen Bernard on the Isis, Oxford - 1995

Career and education

He studied English literature at Christ Church, Oxford, and Brasenose College, Oxford. In 2007, he won the international Review of English Studies essay prize for his first article in an academic journal.[4][5] In 2012, he won a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, which he held in conjunction with a Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford; whilst there he wrote The Literary Correspondences of the Tonsons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015),[6] an edition based on his doctoral thesis,[7] for which he won the international biennial MLA Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters (2015–17).[8][9] He was general editor, textual editor, and editor of English and Latin poems of The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe, five vols. (London: Pickering Masters, 2017).[10] In 2018, he published Paper Cuts, a memoir (London: Jonathan Cape, 2018),[11][12] which revealed that he had been the victim of sustained serial, clerical sexual abuse as a child, which had caused him severe mental illness which was treated with experimental ketamine infusions. After a concerted campaign by Bernard's abuser's last surviving relative, Deidre McCormack,[13] Canon Dermod Fogarty's headstone and memorial were destroyed with the consent of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on 24 May 2018.[14] The Catholic Herald published an editorial on his treatment by that Diocese and its wider implications for the Roman Catholic Church in England's response to clerical child sexual abuse as a result of this damnatio memoriae and his memoir.[15]

Bernard specialises in the History of the Book and late 17th- and early 18th-century English literature, particularly letters and legal and financial records concerning booksellers.

Personal life

Bernard was diagnosed with mental illness as a result of his childhood experiences, recounted in his memoir. He resides in Oxford.[16]

References

1. "Dr Stephen Bernard | Faculty of English". www.english.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
2. "Dr Stephen Bernard | Faculty of English". www.english.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
3. "IICSA CP determination" (PDF). IICSA. 5 December 2019.
4. Hood, Sir John (8 October 2008). ""Oration of the Vice-Chancellor", Oxford Gazette" (PDF). University of Oxford. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
5. "Faculty of English | Language & Literature". www.english.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
6. Reviews of The Literary Correspondences of the Tonsons:
   • Calvert, Ian (October 2015), The Review of English Studies, 67 (278): 179–181, doi:10.1093/res/hgv095CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Clarke, Norma (January 2016), "Sherry and proofs", The Times Literary Supplement
   • Keymer, Thomas (May 2016), "Mastering the Art of Understating Your Wealth", London Review of Books, 38 (9): 21–22
   • Wilkinson, Hazel (July 2016), Critical Quarterly, 58 (2): 123–126, doi:10.1111/criq.12243CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Brown, Meaghan J. (2017), The Modern Language Review, 112 (1 ed.), p. 235, doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.112.1.0235
   • Alff, David (2017), The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats, 50 (1): 88–90, doi:10.1353/scb.2017.0114, S2CID 165405481CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
7. Bernard, Stephen (2011). The correspondence of Jacob Tonson the elder (Thesis). Thesis DPhil--University of Oxford.
8. Murphy, Kara. "International prize rankings". National Academy of Sciences and the Humanities. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
9. "MLA press release" (PDF). 5 December 2017.
10. Reviews of The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe:
    • Marsden, Jean I (July 2017), The Review of English Studies, 69 (288): 171–173, doi:10.1093/res/hgx078CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Rogers, Pat (31 October 2018), "Inheritor of unfufilled renown: An extensive treatment of a sometimes overlooked writer", The Times Literary Supplement
11. Reviews of Paper Cuts a memoir:
    • Parkinson, Hannah Jane (11 February 2018), "Fire on All Sides by James Rhodes and Paper Cuts by Stephen Bernard review – surviving child rape", The Guardian
    • Womersley, Kate (10 March 2018), "Why I now find listening to Beethoven nauseating: Stephen Bernard describes how much of literature and classical music are soiled pleasures for him, as a result of his local priest's abuse", The Spectator
    • Turner, Jenny (2018-02-16). "Paper Cuts by Stephen Bernard review – a powerful memoir of sexual abuse". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
12. "The best books of 2018". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
13. Campbell, Colin (2018-03-01). "Clergyman's headstone 'should be smashed'". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
14. "Church destroys accused priest's headstone". BBC News. 2018-06-05. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
15. "Britain: Abuse crisis – buried memories | Catholic Herald". Catholic Herald. 2018-06-28. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
16. Turner, Jenny (2018-02-16). "Paper Cuts by Stephen Bernard review – a powerful memoir of sexual abuse". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-16.