
Key Research Areas
Gothic History, Tradition and Heritage
One of our research strengths is in English literature, especially the history of the Gothic literary aesthetic from the early modern period, through the eighteenth century to the present day.

We are interested in all aspects of Gothic writing from novels, drama, short stories, chap books, poetry, and romance.
We spend their time exploring themes such as ghosts, sex, sin, dismemberment, occult rituals, gendered identities, transgression, devils, degradation, the grotesque, death, the auditory experience of gothic writing and more! Our researchers have published on topics that range from the architectural imagination to the question of slavery in eighteenth-century Gothic writing. They have published on Victorian ghost stories written by women and explored the ghostly aesthetics of modernism.
Our interests also extend beyond the page, to explore the role of Gothic in the history and practice of heritage making and tourism. We have administered a number of projects exploring the nature of Gothic heritage, and how the meanings and political and economic functions of Gothic cultural production, such as artefacts, artworks and buildings, change over time and in different contexts.
Recognising that the Gothic is rooted in empire and colonialism, our researchers are also interested in exploring, challenging, and dismantling the Gothic’s dominant views of colonised peoples, as well as exploring the post-colonial imagination as it manifests in Gothic and horror writing, heritage and the arts.
Partnerships include the Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies (MAPS), English Heritage and numerous Yorkshire Abbeys, MMU Special Collections, John Rylands Library, Manchester Cathedral, Cheetham’s Library, The Portico Library, Manchester Museum and Art Gallery, The Whitworth, The Whitaker Museum.
Death Studies
Death is a significant human anxiety and features across Gothic and horror texts, often in explicitly dramatic, violent, and tragic manifestations, or as undeath and return.

Our researchers seek to develop understanding of the significance and evolving practices in relation to death, working on the social context, rituals and customs of death and disposal.
We are interested in ethnographic approaches to burial and disposal, theological and non-theistic perspectives on death and the dead body, radical approaches to death studies including the decolonisation of death, the ethics of dark tourism and displaying human remains, Victorian mourning, the relationship between readers/audiences and fictional death, evolving myths and imaginings of purgatory and the afterlife, and the significance of memorialisation and sacred place in Gothic texts and Manchester cemeteries.
Our partnerships include the collective for Radical Death Studies, the Long Nineteenth Century Network, the Encountering Corpses research group and The Association for the Study of Death and Society, Visit Manchester, the Chorlton Death Café, Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage and numerous Manchester churches and cemeteries.
You can find the culmination of some of our research in our impact and public engagement page, showcasing our impact case studies on HAUNT Manchester and Encountering Corpses.
Gothic Screens and Sounds
We also specialise in horror film and investigate the aesthetics, affects and experiences of horror through screens and sounds.

Our researchers have contributed to major critical debates in the field of horror studies.
They have discussed the Gothic on screen in publications and in public engagement work with film festivals and other cultural organisations.
Research interests encompass all periods from the earliest horror to the 21st century and themes include body horror, technologies of horror, horror and science, horror serialisation and periodisation, vampiric horror, folk horror on screen, horror and American myth, capitalist horror, horror viewership, and international and global horror film.
Our partners include Manchester Grimmfest, HOME, The Deaf Institute.