Research Interests

My researches focuses on the intersections between literature, theology and aesthetics. I have two primary historical interests: nineteenth-century writing and its relationship with theological debates and contemporary fiction in relation to the sacred. Recent published work in this field includes journal articles on Ruskin and the Psalms and a book chapter on Decadence and the Bible. I co-chair the Ruskin Research Seminar and contribute to the Gladstone Centre's regular colloquia and conference programme. My next Victorian project will develop my previous work on the Psalms with reference to Hopkins, Tennyson and Dickens.

Two of my books, Contemporary Fiction and Christianity (Continuum, 2008) and, co-authored with Arthur Bradley, The New Atheist Novel (Continuum, 2010) have focused on late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century narratives. I edited a special double issue of The Year Book of English Studies on religion and literature (2009) and co-edited Literature and the Bible: a Reader (Routledge, 2013). I am currently working on two book-length projects, one on Twenty-First Century Apocalyptic Fiction and another on the figure of Jesus/Christ in post-millennial narrative.

Career Details

BA, MA, PhD, Lancaster

I Convened MA Programmes in English (English Literary Studies and pathways in Contemporary Literary Studies; Literary and Cultural Studies; Romantic and Victorian Literature; Early Modern Studies) from 2007-2012

Undergraduate: Convenor of American Literature to 1900; Contemporary Literature (from 2013)

Undergraduate Teaching: Lecture contributions to From Decadence to Modernism, 1890-1945; American Literature to 1900; Victorian Literature; American Literature from 1900; The Theory and Practice of Criticism; Contemporary Literature

Specialist final year courses: Literature and the Visual Arts; Twenty-First Century Fiction

Postgraduate Teaching: Contemporary American Fiction; Ruskin and Religion; The Brantwood Module: Understanding and Interpreting Ruskin's Experimental Landscape

Current and recent doctoral students have worked on Nostalgia, Douglas Coupland and J G Ballard; the Harlem Renaissance; the figure of the graduate in contemporary narrative; nineteenth-century Transatlantic fiction; American Gothic; Ruskin and Aesthetics

I am interested in supervising research on Douglas Coupland; Ruskin; nineteenth-century religious thought and its relationship with literature; contemporary fiction and spirituality.

PhD Supervision Interests

I welcome proposals on contemporary fiction (British and American); literature and theology; Douglas Coupland; nineteenth-century religion.