I am Professor of Writing and Popular Culture based in the York Centre for Writing in the School of Humanities.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor. I am School of Humanities Research and Knowledge Transfer Lead
I specialise in scriptwriting, adaptation, music memoir, hauntology, folk horror and genre fiction. I have published widely on folk horror, hauntology, music memoir, music venues, arena concerts, music documentary, science-fiction, adaptation, screenwriting and film language. I addition to a wide range of ongoing research projects I am one of the series editors for the Bloomsbury Academic series, Spectres, Hauntings and Horrors.
I teach on the Creative Writing and Publishing programmes. I have also contributed to Literature, American Studies, Media, and Theatre and Film and Television Production. I supervise PhD students and am currently supervising in the areas of folk horror, hauntology, landscape, weird fiction, memoir, music memoir, screenwriting, and music genres. I supervise critical and practice-led work.
I lead the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group and co-lead the Music, Memory and Narrative Research Group. I am a member of the York Centre for Writing and the York Unit for the Study of Satire.
I served as a staff governor for 6 years and have worked on a number of University committees, including Academic Board and Research Ethics committee. I have served as an external examiner at the University of Leeds, the University of Leicester, Salford University and Leeds Beckett University.
I teach on the following courses:
- BA Creative Writing
- BA English Literature
- MA Creative Writing
- MA Publishing
- MFA Creative Writing
- PhD Supervision
I teach modules on genre fiction, scriptwriting, adaptation, and principles of creative writing. In addition to teaching on the Creative Writing programme, I have contributed to English Literature, American Studies, Media, Theatre, Film, and Television Production. I have acted as a Head of Programme, Course Leader, and as Postgraduate Coordinator. I supervise MA dissertations and MFA projects.
I supervise a number of PhD students in literature, cinema, prose fiction, scriptwriting and adaptation. I am currently supervising a number of critical and practice-based PGRs covering a range of topics, including, folk horror, spectrality, weird fiction, music memoir, music documentary and nostalgia, noir screenwriting and historical fiction. I am always interested in discussing ideas for postgraduate research.
I examine PhDs at Universities in the UK and internationally.
As a member of the York Centre for Writing I have published a number of text books on practical and theoretical praxis, including books on screenwriting, directing fiction, film language and adaptation.
I established the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group in 2022. The first project to develop from this group was 'Horrifying Children', examining weird and eerie children's fiction and television. The first part of this project was the publication of Horrifying Tales (2021) in collaboration with Greenteeth Press and was followed by a conference held in York in 2022. An edited collection, Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children's Television, was published in 2024. I have co-written and co-edited a number of books on this topic, including The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror (2023) and Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition (Bloomsbury 2023). I am currently co-authoring a book on Eighteenth Century Folk Horror, a collected edition 'Haunting Lives' and a collected edition on the work of Alan Garner. I am one of the editors of the Bloomsbury Academic series, Spectres, Hauntings and Horrors. I have presented at a number of conferences including Haunted Landscapes and the annual Thomas Hardy Society conference. I have co-organised a folk horror specific day at the York Literature Festival and have led writing workshops on folk horror for external partners. I supervised MFA and PhD students in working in this area.
I am a founder member of the Music Memoir Research Group and have published extensively on popular music, including on music documentary, arena concerts and music and memory. The co-edited collection Music, Memory and Memoir (2019) was the first collection published on the subject and has led to other publications and a conference. Our second collection, Venue Stories, celebrating small music venues, was published in 2023 and our next book, Turntable Stories is currently in development. I have written chapters on indie music and punk. I am working on the York Music Stories project and am currently collaborating with a major museum on an exhibition to celebrate music venues. I have presented on music memoir and autoethnographic research approaches at national and international conferences. I supervise a number of PhD students in this area. I am a member of the York Research Unit for the Study of Satire and have presented on this aspect of my work at various conferences.
I have edited two anthologies of creative work. The first, Horrifying Tales, with Greenteeth Press and the second with my colleague Dr Liesl King on her Terra Two project, published by Valley Press in 2019. My novel, The Wandspringer, was published in 2025.
I regularly peer review for publishers and academic journals and am happy to be contacted about further peer reviewing work. I regularly speak on popular television and literature on local media and have featured on international podcasts and television.
Recent publications
I am a member of the Society of Authors, the Screenwriters Research Network, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, the Dark Economies Scholarly Association, and the Research Supervisors Network.
I regularly peer review for a range of journals and academic publishers.
I have provided lectures and writing workshops for a number of external partners. I have hosted a number of events, public talks and Q&As, including Spring Haunts, York Explore, and the Ghost Story Festival. I co-organise regular events at the York Literature Festival including special events on uncanny fiction, folk horror, hauntology and music memoir.
I have worked with writers to help develop story concepts and series ideas and am available for further professional consultancy.
