Research

I am a doctoral researcher exploring nineteenth-century literature, neo-Victorian literature, death and mourning, and cultural memory. My work is grounded in interdisciplinary approaches, drawing on critical discourse analysis, close reading, and archival research. This page offers an overview of my current research project, related outputs, and thematic interests.

Current Research Project

‘To render present that which is absent’: Representations of Mourning and Memorialising through Hair in Anglo-American Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Literature and Culture

Research Image
My doctoral research explores how mourning practices involving hair — particularly hairwork — are represented and reimagined in both nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and popular culture, and contemporary neo-Victorian texts and culture. Hairwork, the crafting of jewellery or keepsakes from human hair, was once a widely accepted and emotionally resonant form of memorialisation. Though often dismissed today as macabre and morbid, it was historically viewed as a tangible link to the body and a means of sustaining presence beyond death.

This project examines how such bodily artefacts achieve an afterlife through literature and culture. I investigate how neo-Victorian fiction, culture, and contemporary art engage with and reconstruct these mourning practices, and how they intersect with broader themes of grief, memory, and material culture.

My research contributes to ongoing conversations about the role of the body in mourning, the cultural work of memory, and the ways in which Victorian practices are reinterpreted in the present.

Research Poster

Below is my current research poster – giving a visual summary of my doctoral research project.

Research Poster

Click here to download a copy of my current research poster (PDF)

Works in Progress

I’m currently developing several strands of work alongside my thesis:

  • A talk for the Historic City of Jefferson Education Committee (Winter 2025/6, subject: TBC)
  • Planning the continuation of the PGR seminar series I previously organised and presented at (University of Wolverhampton)

Case Study in Progress: The Cherryvale Hair Wreath
As part of my broader research into mourning practices and material culture, I’m currently developing a case study on a hair wreath held at the Cherryvale Museum in Kansas. Allegedly crafted from the hair of victims of the Bender family — a notorious group of serial killers active in the 1870s — the wreath is a compelling example of how folklore, violence, and memorialisation intersect.

This piece will explore the object’s contested provenance, its representation in local and national memory, and its potential as a site of cultural myth-making. It will form part of my thesis and may also appear in public-facing formats elsewhere.

I’m also continuing to explore the intersections between neo-Victorianism and crime, particularly through the lens of sensation fiction and its cultural afterlives. A recent presentation on this topic is now being developed further.

Research Themes

My research is shaped by an interest in how literature and culture respond to loss, memory, and materiality — particularly in the long nineteenth century and its afterlives. I’m especially drawn to interdisciplinary approaches that bring together literary analysis, cultural history, and archival work. These themes continue to evolve through my engagement with Sensation fiction, mourning culture, and the intersections between Victorian and neo-Victorian narratives.