A fascinating day at the College of Psychic Studies (the London Spiritualist Alliance in 1884). I met the current College president who is said to have been seen with the spirit of Arthur Conan Doyle (the College’s president in 1926) surrounding her. So many incredible spiritualism books too! 👻

Looking forward to presenting on ‘Scriptotherapy and Spiritualism’ from my forthcoming CUP monograph at the ESHS/HSS History of Science conference in Edinburgh. We’re on at 9.15am tomorrow on a #ESHS spiritualism panel with @dreframss.bsky.social @emmamerkling.bsky.social @irmorus.bsky.social 👻 ✍️ 📚

Here’s my review essay for the BMJ Medical Humanities on the @psioxford.bsky.social International Pandemic Science Conference. Focusing on the power of memory, #literature & storytelling, I ask how #medhums can learn from historic diseases to prepare for future #pandemics: mh.bmj.com/content/earl...

A fun 2 months ahead as I’ll be teaching study skills lectures to the students on the LMH Oxford Summer Programme @ox.ac.uk 📚 ✍️ 👩🏻‍🏫

🎉I’ve submitted my monograph manuscript for the ‘Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture’ series! 🎉 Spiritualism and Maternal Grief in Late Nineteenth-Century Literature examines how maternal mourning was shaped by women’s literary responses to an era of séances & spirits #C19

Last week I gave my first Seed Talk public lecture on ‘The History of Women in Spiritualism’ to a lovely audience in London & online. We explored female artists, authors & entrepreneurs who shaped séances, with a reading from my @blpublishing.bsky.social collection & Q&A. Thanks to all attendees! 👻

Join me this Thursday from 7pm for my Seed Talk at 21 Soho in London (& online)! Though we won’t be summoning spirits…we will be talking about vibrant female spiritualist authors like Florence Marryat and artists like Anna Mary Howitt! Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-histor...

For all fans of #spiritualism and #occult history 👻 you can join my public Seed Talk at 21 Soho, London (& online) on Thursday 21st May 7pm. We will focus on how powerful female mediums, authors & artists were foundational in forming the séance movement. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-histor...

Today was my first day teaching the ‘Ghosts Across Time’ course I’ve designed for the wonderful Astrophoria Foundation Year students at Oxford @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk 👻 We looked at Early Spectres and the ghosts in Hamlet, Macbeth, and The Castle of Otranto 📚 👩🏻‍🏫 👻

Spiritualism talk! If you like all things #spiritualism and #occult you can join my public Seed Talk at 21 Soho, London (& online) on Thursday 21st May 7pm. We will uncover the powerful women whose contact with the dead stirred a new way of living. Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-histor...

Exciting news! If you like all things #spiritualism and #occult you can join my public Seed Talk at 21 Soho, London (& online) on Thursday 21st May 7pm. We will uncover the powerful women whose contact with the dead stirred a new way of living. Get tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-histor...

Exciting! 🎉My latest article is now live in ‘Advances in Nineteenth-Century Research’ @incsa.bsky.social. You can read all about influenza epidemics, alternative healing, and occult periodicals in the late 19C as part of the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

You can also read the first spooky Forums section on ‘Playing the Victorians: Occult Re-imaginings’ from 6 fantastic contributors - Emma Mary Kirby, Lin Young & Elizabeth Grice, @dreframss.bsky.social, @kristofsmeyers.bsky.social & Robert Rix: www.tandfonline.com/action/showA...

It was a pleasure to teach such keen students and we ended with a tutorial on #Gothic #Vampires, looking at Florence Marryat’s ‘The Blood of the Vampire’ (1897) and Ryan Coogler’s film Sinners (2025) 🦇 🧛‍♀️ 🧛

Monday was my last set of 1:1 tutorials teaching on the 8-week ‘Gothic Nature' course I designed for the Middlebury-CMRS Oxford Humanities Program in association with @kebleoxford.bsky.social!

I'm halfway through teaching the 'Gothic Nature' course I designed for the Middlebury-CMRS Oxford Humanities Program associated with @kebleoxford.bsky.social. Enjoying 1:1 tuition with enthusiastic study-abroad students on landscapes distorted by industry, resource extraction & colonial expansion🪾🍂

It feels extra special that I graduated from my MSt in English @engfac.bsky.social @somervillecollege.bsky.social 10 years ago (!) and now I’m returning as teaching staff @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social 📚🎉

Exciting news! I’m now a Teaching Associate in English @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social on the Astrophoria Foundation Year - a FANTASTIC access scheme for students. I’ll be teaching & assessing a ‘Ghosts Across Time’ course I’ve designed and supervising an extended project 👻 foundationyear.ox.ac.uk

An exciting conclusion to my time as Research Fellow on the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project! Dr Melissa Dickson & I are co-writing a book ‘A British Literary Contagion: ‘Russian Flu’ and Popular Culture at the Fin de Siècle’ for the @manchesterup.bsky.social @sshmedicine.bsky.social series🦠

Had an exciting invitation on Sunday for a book reading, Q&A, and book signing for my @blpublishing.bsky.social ‘Summoned to the Séance’ #TalesOfTheWeird collection at Hestia Books in Wirksworth! Thanks to everyone who attended and hope you enjoy your spooky tales 👻

Delighted with my copy of Peter Lang ‘Where Love Happens: Changing Social Practices of Love in the Long Nineteenth-Century. My chapter is on #love, loss, and #spiritualism in texts by Florence Marryat, Oliver Lodge & the Brownings. Thanks to Helene Grøn, Lene Østermark-Johansen & Victoria de Rijke!

Lovely autumnal views from my office on campus @unibirmingham.bsky.social 🍁

Our @cncsi.bsky.social C19 Gothic Afterlives programme! 🌴Sonja Lawrenson on Melmoth in Latin America 📖 @romgothsam.bsky.social Adapting Heathcliff 📻 Richard Hand haunted airwaves 🎮 @marijkevalk.bsky.social occult gaming 📺 @drdjohnston.bsky.social Gothic TV Register ➡️ cn-csi.com/event/hallow...

Tis the #Halloween séance season 👻 and a great time to read the #TalesOfTheWeird @britishlibrary.bsky.social collections! Summoned to the Séance features 14 lesser-known stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Florence Marryat, F. Scott Fitzgerald and more. Really enjoyed editing this! 👻

The #Gothic haunting season is upon us! Free online events⬇️ 👾👹 Thurs 23rd Oct (5-6.30pm, UK) @gothicauob.bsky.social with @dreframss.bsky.social - email Gothica for link. 🎥📖 Fri 31st Oct, Halloween (10.45-5pm, CET) @cncsi.bsky.social Nineteenth-Century Gothic Afterlives: cn-csi.com/event/hallow...

Exciting news! Join @gothicauob.bsky.social for 👾 Video Game Gothic 👾 with our special guest speaker @dreframss.bsky.social on Zoom on Thursday 23rd October 5.00pm - 6.30pm (UK). As an expert in occulture, Efram's talk will explore issues of video game censorship during the 1980s ‘Satanic Panic’ ⬇️

Me and Melissa Dickson will be co-presenting research from our forthcoming @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social book to the Sydney Uni Interdisciplinary 19C Study Group on Thursday 21st on Zoom. I’ll be looking at how influenza epidemics were represented in spiritualist fiction and periodicals 📰 📖 👻

Visited the UK’s official book town Hay-on-Wye and was pleasantly surprised to find this excellent selection of @britishlibrary.bsky.social #TalesoftheWeird! Thanks to the bookseller at Addyman Books for my 5 minutes of fame with my collection, Summoned to the Seance: shop.bl.uk/products/sum...

A summery day on campus @unibirmingham.bsky.social for yesterday’s group writing day in the Arts building ✍️ 💻

A special moment and throwback to my MSt presenting @engfac.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk on Wilde, ‘moral pestilence’ and epidemic influenza in the 1890s (at Wilde’s university) as part of @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project for @bavs-uk.bsky.social #BAVS2025