phd gothic literature

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Gothic and Science Fiction

Research activity.

Gothic and Science Fiction is a thriving area of teaching and research at Lancaster.

Historically, our work ranges from Liz Oakley-Brown’s work on the Premodern to Catherine Spooner’s on the Post-Millennial. We are particularly strong on media and culture and on the conversations between popular genres. Recent major publications include Post-Millennial Gothic (Catherine Spooner), Apocalyptic Fiction (Andrew Tate) and Transplantation Gothic (Sara Wasson). Within Creative Writing, Gothic and Science Fiction are also flourishing with recent works including Jenn Ashworth’s novel Fell and Curious Tales project, Brian Baker’s short films, Taj Hayer’s play North Country and Conor O’Callaghan’s novel Nothing on Earth . From 2017-2019, Sara Wasson led the AHRC-funded Translating Chronic Pain: A Critical and Creative Research Network , which constructed links between Gothic, Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities.

There is a large and lively Gothic and Science Fiction PhD community at Lancaster with a strong record of NWCDTP funding. The Department hosts the annual international conference and peer-reviewed journal Fantastika , run by PhD students and post-docs. There are regular reading groups and annual study days in both Gothic and Science Fiction; conferences organised by PhD students include Gothic Spectacle and Spectatorship, Glitches and Ghosts and Gothflix .

Group Members

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Professor Jenn Ashworth

Authors and the World, Creative Writing, Creative-Critical Writing, Digital Humanities, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature and Religion, Literature, Space and Place, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance

Dr Brian Baker

Creative-Critical Writing, Digital Humanities, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature, Science and Medicine, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance

Professor Kamilla Elliott

Creative-Critical Writing, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance

Tajinder Hayer

Creative Writing, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature, Science and Medicine, Literature, Space and Place, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance, Transcultural Writing, Practice and Research Network

Dr Oliver Langmead

Creative Writing, Gothic and Science Fiction

Conor O'Callaghan

Professor Catherine Spooner

Creative Writing, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature, Space and Place, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance

Professor Andrew Tate

Gothic and Science Fiction, Institute for Social Futures Fellow, Literature and Religion, Literature, the Arts, Media and Performance

Dr Sara Wasson

Digital Humanities, FASS Health Hub, Gothic and Science Fiction, Literature, Science and Medicine, Literature, Space and Place

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English Literature PhD

Awards: PhD

Study modes: Full-time, Part-time

Funding opportunities

Programme website: English Literature

Introduction to Postgraduate Study

Join us online on 18 December at our live webinar session for an overview of postgraduate study and life at Edinburgh.

Find out more and register

Research profile

Doctorate-level study is an opportunity to expand upon your interests and expertise in a community that really values research, and to make an original, positive contribution to learning in literature and related fields.

As the oldest department of English Literature in the UK, based in one of the largest and most diverse Schools in the University of Edinburgh, we are the ideal place for PhD study.

Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in all periods and genres of literature and literary analysis.

Research excellence

Based on our performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF), over 90 per cent of our research and impact is classed as world-leading and internationally excellent by Research Professional. 69 per cent is graded at the world-leading level – the highest of REF’s four categories.

In Times Higher Education's REF analysis, English at Edinburgh is ranked fifth in the UK (out of more than 90 institutions) for:

• the overall quality of our publications and other outputs
• the impact of our research on people’s lives
• our supportive research environment

Given the breadth and depth of our expertise, we are able to support students wishing to develop research projects in any field of Anglophone literary studies. These include American studies, literary and critical theory, the history of the book, gender and sexuality studies, and global Anglophone literatures - where our specialisms include Pacific, African, South Asian, and African-American writing.

We have particular strengths in each of the main periods of English and Scottish Literature:

• Renaissance/early modern
• Enlightenment
• 21st century
• Contemporary

Emergent research themes in the department include the digital humanities, the economic humanities, the environmental humanities and literature and medicine.

• Explore our range of research centres, networks and projects in English and Scottish Literature

Working with colleagues elsewhere in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, and across the wider University, we are able to support PhD theses crossing boundaries between disciplines and/or languages.

• Be inspired by the range of PhD research in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

Over the course of your PhD, you’ll be expected to complete an original body of work under the expert guidance of your supervisors leading to a dissertation of usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

You will be awarded your doctorate if your thesis is judged to be of an appropriate standard, and your research makes a definite contribution to knowledge.

• Read our pre-application guidance on writing a PhD research proposal

Go beyond the books

Beyond the Books is a podcast from the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at research and the people who make it happen.

Listen to a mix of PhD, early career and established researchers talk about their journey to and through academia and about their current and recent research.

• Browse Beyond the Books episodes and hear our research community talk about their work

Programme structure

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses.

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Training and support

Between the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC), the Careers Service, and the Institute for Academic Development (IAD), you’ll find a range of programmes and resources to help you develop your postgraduate skills.

You will also have access to the University’s fantastic libraries, collections and worldwide strategic partnerships.

Part of a community

As part of our research community, you will be immersed in a world of knowledge exchange, with lots of opportunities to share ideas, learning and creative work.

Activities range from talks by visiting speakers and work-in-progress seminars, to reading groups, conferences, workshops, performances, online journals and forums, many of which are led by PhD candidates.

Highlights include student reading for the James Tait Black Prizes, Britain's oldest literary awards which typically involve reading submissions across fiction and biography and advising the judges on the shortlists.

• Read an interview with 2022 James Tait Black reader, Céleste Callen

Our graduates tell us that they value the friendliness of the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC), the connections they make here and the in-depth guidance they receive from our staff, who are published experts in their field.

A UNESCO World City of Literature, Edinburgh is a remarkable place to study, write, publish, discuss and perform prose, poetry and drama.

Take a PhD with us and you will be based in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) in the historic centre of this world-leading festival city.

You will have access to the University’s many literary treasures. These include the libraries of:

• William Drummond
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon
• Hugh MacDiarmid
• Norman MacCaig

The Centre for Research Collections holds the W.H. Auden collection, the Corson Collection of works by and about Sir Walter Scott, and the Ramage collection of poetry pamphlets.

It also holds a truly exceptional collection of early Shakespeare quartos and other early modern printed plays put together by the 19th century Shakespearean scholar James Halliwell-Phillipps, the correspondence of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (the focus of one of the major editorial projects in Victorian studies of the last half-century), and the extensive Laing collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts, as well as letters and papers by, and relating to, authors including:

• Christopher Isherwood
• Rudyard Kipling
• John Middleton Murry
• Walter de la Mare
• George Mackay Brown
• Compton Mackenzie

Many of the University's Special Collections are digitised and available online from our excellent Resource Centre, computing labs, and dedicated PhD study space in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC).

Look inside the PhD study space in LLC

In the city

Our buildings are close to the National Library of Scotland (where collections include the Bute Collection of early modern English drama and the John Murray Archive), Edinburgh Central Library, Scottish Poetry Library, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Writers’ Museum and a fantastic range of publishing houses, bookshops, and theatres.

We have strong links with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which annually welcomes around 1,000 authors to our literary city.

• Pre-application guidance

Before you formally apply for this PhD, you should look at the pre-application information and guidance on the programme website.

This will help you decide if this programme is right for you, and help us gain a clearer picture of what you hope to achieve.

The guidance will also give you practical advice for writing your research proposal – one of the most important parts of your application.

Entry requirements

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

A UK masters, or its international equivalent, with a mark of at least 65% in your English literature dissertation of at least 10,000 words.

If your masters programme did not include a dissertation or included a dissertation that was unmarked or less than 10,000 words, you will be expected to produce an exceptional research proposal and personal statement to show your ability to undertake research at the level required by this programme.

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country
• English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 65 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT : 8 overall with at least 7 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

Fees and costs

Scholarships and funding.

Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.

Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:

borrowing money

taking out a loan

family support

personal savings

income from work

employer sponsorship

• scholarships

Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study

Featured funding

There are a number of scholarship schemes available to eligible candidates on this PhD programme, including awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Please be advised that many scholarships have more than one application stage, and early deadlines.

• Find out more about scholarships in literatures, languages and cultures

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Further information

• Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
• Contact: [email protected]
• School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• 50 George Square
• Central Campus
• Programme: English Literature
• School: Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Select your programme and preferred start date to begin your application.

PhD English Literature - 3 Years (Full-time)

Phd english literature - 6 years (part-time), application deadlines.

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through a competitive process. There are two windows (Application Rounds) for applying to English Literature; we will let you know the outcome of your application at the end of the Round you apply in.

• How to apply

You must submit two references with your application.

The online application process involves the completion of a web form and the submission of supporting documents.

For a PhD programme, you should include:

• a sample of written work of about 3,000 words (this can be a previous piece of work from an undergraduate or masters degree)
• a research proposal - a detailed description of what you hope to achieve and how

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

• Admitted Graduate Students
• Current Graduate Students
• Current Undergraduate Students

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Doctoral Program

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Boston College’s Ph.D. in English offers the opportunity to study with nationally recognized faculty in many periods, authors, and critical and theoretical streams. Candidates design their course of study from a wide range of courses, proceeding through a series of exams that culminate in a prospectus exam and the writing of the dissertation.

Online Application

Program Guidelines

Digital Humanities Certificate

The small size of our doctoral program allows for an unusual level of access to faculty and flexibility in designing programs. Only four doctoral seminars, a course in Composition Theory, and an Advanced Research Colloquium are required; the rest of the Ph.D. candidate's work is built around graduate courses, tutorials, and directed research. Each candidate shapes his or her own program to prepare for three sequential oral examinations and a doctoral dissertation.

Learning Outcomes

The Ph.D. in English offers candidates the opportunity to study with nationally recognized faculty specializing in various periods, authors, and critical and theoretical traditions. Candidates choose from a wide range of courses and proceed through a streamlined series of exams, culminating in a dissertation prospectus exam and the writing of the dissertation. We prepare our students to teach, do research, and engage in service in a college or university setting. Given the challenging nature of the academic job market, we now also give our students opportunities to learn about and prepare for other kinds of careers, such as publishing, public humanities, and arts administration.

Upon completing the degree, students should be able to:

• Write academic articles and reviews at the scholarly level in informed, intelligible prose.
• Research, design and be examined on two long readings lists in major and minor fields of literary study of their choosing.
• Demonstrate mastery of an individual chronological and/or national literary field of their choosing.
• Choose or define a question in their chosen field of literary study, and write an effective dissertation on it.
• Teach courses in English effectively, at introductory and advanced levels, in the community college, 4-year college or university setting.
• Publish their research in peer-reviewed journals and present papers at conferences.
• Secure an academic or teaching position.

Graduate Courses

Program Highlights

Full funding.

All Ph.D. candidates are guaranteed to receive full-tuition scholarships and competitive stipends for five years. The stipend for 2023-24 is $30,000.

Individual Attention

We intentionally keep each entering class to four to five candidates to encourage extensive faculty/student interaction and mentoring.

Personalized Study

Candidates design their own field exams in consultation with their faculty advisors, and choose from a full range of graduate electives each year.

Our Faculty

Christina Klein

Ph.d. program director.

[email protected]

Dedicated to Teaching, Mentoring, and Research

The scholars who make up our graduate faculty have published prize-winning novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry; contributed articles to leading journals such as  PMLA ,  American Literature ,  Studies in English Literature ,  Victorian Studies , Composition Studies ,  ELH , and  GLQ ; and been anthologized in  Best American Essays  and  Best American Short Stories. They have won national awards from the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Humanities Center; edited anthologies, collections, editions, and series in feminist theory, religion and literature, post-colonial studies, and psychoanalysis; and served as officers for professional organizations such as the MLA and the American Studies Association. 

The faculty provide close mentoring at all stages including advising candidates on selecting courses, helping them publish their work, collaboratively designing exams, serving as teaching mentors, and acting as dissertation supervisors and readers.

Advanced Research Colloquium

Every two years we offer an Advanced Research Colloquium, which trains candidates in conference submissions, article publication, job market preparation, and dissertation writing.

Faculty Directory

Program Details

Language requirements.

• Examinations & Dissertation

Academic Standing and Evaluation of Progress

While the students' programs are planned to meet their own needs and interests, the following descriptions suggest what students' programs have looked liked in recent years. In the first and second years of the program every student takes a Ph.D. seminar each semester ("World Literature" in the Age of Globalization, Queer Theory and the Novel, Issues and Methods in American Studies, and Victorian Inequality to name some recent examples). In addition, students take other graduate electives, or enroll in a tutorial "readings and research" course directed by a faculty member while preparing for an examination. Students may also take graduate courses at Boston University, Tufts University, and Brandeis University. As the dissertation prospectus exam goes forward many students begin their dissertation work during their fifth year.

Candidates must demonstrate an ability to read two foreign languages or a working knowledge and application of one foreign language and its literature. They may demonstrate reading ability through successful performance on two translation examinations in which a short text must be translated adequately (with use of a dictionary) in two hours. They may show more extensive knowledge of one language and its literature by writing a graduate-level critical paper using original texts, or by producing a formal translation of a literary text or essay previously unavailable in English. Language tests from earlier graduate work are commonly accepted for one language.

In the second year candidates serve as teaching assistants in a course in British or American literature. In the third year, students usually teach First-Year Writing Seminar and Literature Core. In the fourth year candidates teach one English Core course and one elective in their own chosen field that they design.

Examinations and the Dissertation

Candidates proceed through a sequence of three examinations: a minor field examination completed before the end of the second year; a major field examination completed before the end of the third year; a dissertation prospectus examination. In collaboration with faculty members, candidates design examinations that will prepare them to work in a variety of periods, genres and literary approaches. Examinations can take a variety of forms: they may focus on teaching, literary theory, a single author or group of authors, a literary genre, or a literary period. Recent exam topics include Medieval Women Writers, Ecocritical Theory, The American Renaissance, Romanticism and Colonialism in the Caribbean Atlantic, The Gothic, a theory exam on the body, and a teaching exam on English Romanticism. The dissertation prospectus exam serves as the official approval process for the dissertation prospectus.

An informal and celebratory defense follows submission and acceptance of the dissertation.

Doctoral candidates are subject to annual review of academic progress toward their degrees. Each candidate is assigned an academic advisor with whom they will meet regularly and at the end of each academic year, the candidate is reviewed by both the advisor and the Ph.D. Director to assess and evaluate their performance in coursework, oral exams, and dissertation, as appropriate. All candidates are required to take their minor field exam by the spring of their second year, and will normally take their major field exam by the spring of their third year.

All graduate students are also governed by the  Graduate School of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Policies and Procedures .

Resources in the Boston Area

Ph.D. candidates have access to the rich offerings for graduate students in the Boston area. Aside from the wealth of local archival resources, candidates participate in seminars at The Humanities Center at Harvard University and in BC’s own Lowell Humanities Series, which brings internationally renowned writers and thinkers to campus. They can also take part in a wealth of courses, lectures, workshops, conferences, and symposia offered at area colleges and universities.

Consortiums

Boston College is also part of a Boston-area consortium that allows students to take graduate courses at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Tufts University. Our students can also take courses at the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies at MIT, an interdisciplinary effort to advance research in women's studies. Faculty and students of GCWS are drawn from nine Boston-area colleges and universities.

Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies

BC Irish Studies

The BC English department is (with History) the most active contributor to our thriving Irish Studies Program which publishes the Irish Literary Supplement and offers institutional support to the refereed journal‚ Éire-Ireland .

Irish Studies

Religion and the Arts

Many members of the English department contribute to the BC-based journal  Religion and the Arts , edited by our own colleague, Professor James Najarian.

How to Apply

The application deadline for the Ph.D. program is January 2. The GRE is not required. Application forms should be accompanied by a personal statement, a critical writing sample of not more than 20 pages, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation, ideally from teachers who have recently evaluated the applicant's current work in the proposed field or area of focus.

English Department Stokes Hall South, 4th floor

617-552-3708

PhD students

Current phd students.

Current PhD Students

Past PhD Students

Student awards

Title: Judaism and the Gothic, 1790-1820

My research centres around representations of Judaism within Gothic literature of the 1790s and the early nineteenth century. I am particularly interested in constructions of national and religious identities, or portrayals of the religious ‘other’, within Gothic fiction, as well as how this affects depictions of Jewish identities and communities. Key figures of interest include the mythical figure of the Wandering Jew and Shakespeare’s Shylock, who is consistently portrayed as an implicit inspiration for Jewish characters within the Gothic. By looking at the novels of traditional Gothic authors such as Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, and Charles Maturin alongside authors such as Charlotte Smith and George Walker, my research questions whether such portrayals are intrinsically anti-Semitic, or whether the Gothic instead allows for a more sympathetic perspective.

Carly Stevenson

Title: Gothic Keats

As the title suggests, my research examines the influence of the Gothic on John Keats. I am particularly interested in the ways in which Keats’s engagement with the Gothic was informed by his medical knowledge of the body. As such, my thesis is loosely structured around the senses.

Evangeline R Payne

Title: The Gothic Castle Space: Nineteenth Century British Gothic to Twentieth and Twenty First Century Nordic Noir

Rosalind Crocker

Title: Modernity and the ‘Medical Man’: Neo-Victorian Doctor Figures at the Turn of the Millennium

This project looks at the figure of the ‘medical man’ in neo-Victorian fiction written around the turn of the millennium, examining the reciprocal relationship between the Nineteenth and Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries in the depictions of these doctors. I will interrogate the ways in which recent developments in clinical practice are transposed onto our reimaginations of the Nineteenth Century, and also which Victorian mythologies inform modern narratives about clinicians. My thesis explores a range of sources, including fiction, legislation, theory, and news media, to look at the complex relationships between past and present in this medical context.

Catherine Greenwood

Title: Gothicising a Poetics of Displacement: Immigrants/Effects My practice-based project takes its title from the steamer trunk my parents brought from Scotland to Canada, and ‘effects’ as belongings bearing traces of hame provide entry into a poetic narrative about the Scots diaspora and the unheimlich. An eco-horror subtext gestures toward the impact of climate change on our earthly home – ‘effects’ in the sense of consequence. ‘Effects’ as aesthetic result is the touchstone for an inquiry into how Gothic poetry functions and by what literary heritage such works are haunted. A key aim is to identify a Gothic poetics and develop new forms in my own practice.

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International Centre for Gothic Studies

Since 1988, the University of Stirling has been a world-leading research hub for the study of Gothic literature and culture. For thirty years, Stirling has been hosting major conferences such as the International Gothic Association; Globalgothic: Technology, Media, Horror; Scottish Gothic, 1764-Present, as well as the Patrick McGrath Symposium. Since 2008, Stirling has also been home to several international AHRC-funded research projects, including Global Gothic, Writing Britain’s Ruins, and Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947.  

In 2017, Stirling consolidated this research by founding the International Centre for Gothic Studies. This multi-disciplinary research centre brings together leading scholars in Gothic Studies working in and across a range of disciplines at the University of Stirling.

For queries about the Centre or about postgraduate study in Gothic Studies please contact  [email protected]  

Colleagues in the Division of Literature and Languages were very sad to hear of the sudden and tragic death of Professor Justin Edwards. Justin had been Chair of Gothic Studies in our Division  since September 2016. He was highly regarded by students and was always generous with colleagues. He will be sorely missed.

A full list of affiliated colleagues is provided below and gives some sense of the diverse areas in which we can offer expert postgraduate supervision at both taught and research levels.

News and Calendar

Gothic Reading Group

The International Centre for Gothic Studies at Stirling runs a staff/student Gothic Reading Group. It is intended to provide a space for staff and postgraduate students reading Gothic fiction, theory and criticism in different disciplinary contexts to get together and discuss ideas and issues of shared concern. If you’d like to suggest a text for us to consider please get in touch ( [email protected] ).

The following events will feature in the Gothic REF ICS:

• Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination Exhibition at the British Library
• Gothic Pasts, Gothic Futures: A Symposium, University of Stirling
• Gothic Realities Conference, University of Stirling
• Politics and Horror: PGR and ECR Colloquium, University of Stirling