Contact
My role
I am the Deputy Programme Manager for the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year, where I lead and teach modules across the programme. My role combines programme management with interdisciplinary teaching across a range of humanities subjects.
Alongside my teaching on the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year, I contribute to the Lifelong Learning Centre’s JumpStart taster course for adult learners and outreach activities that support access to university study.
Professional experience
I joined the Lifelong Learning Centre in 2018. I studied Anthropology, Archaeology and English Literature at Durham University before completing an MA in Victorian Literature and then a PhD at the University of Leeds. My doctoral research examined the work of the writer and humourist Jerome K. Jerome.
Research interests
My research interests focus on fin de siècle fiction, Victorian and Edwardian masculinities, representations of clerks and office work, adventure and empire, and comedy and humour. I have also published work on the Newgate criminal literature of the early Victorian period, as well as on fin de siècle Gothic fiction and ghost stories, including the works of M. R. James. My work on Gothic literature features in The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic (2021).
Publications
My book, New Humour and Masculinity at the Fin de Siècle, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in January 2026. It explores the work of Jerome K. Jerome, Israel Zangwill, Barry Pain and Robert Barr. My current project is a monograph provisionally titled Deadlines: A Cultural History of Office Gothic.
External activities
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have an interest in pedagogical practice, interdisciplinary learning and teaching, and widening participation in higher education.