Staff Profile
Professor Robert Edgar
Professor of Writing and Popular Culture
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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 Postgraduate Research Lead.
I specialise in scriptwriting, adaptation, music memoir 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 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 comedy, film archiving, documentary and practice-led work in screenwriting.
I am a member of the York Centre for Writing and the York Unit for the Study of Satire. I lead the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group
and co-lead the Music, Memory and Narrative Research Group.
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.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – r.edgar@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 958
- Research - View my work in RaY
- Postgraduate Research Supervisor
Further information
Teaching
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 and 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.
Research
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 work with my colleague Dr Liesl King on her Terra Two project, and we collaborated on a publication with Valley Press in 2019.
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 and am available for further media work.
Publications
Book series
Series Editor: Spectres, Hauntings and Horrors: A Bloomsbury Academic Series, with Professor Dawn Keetley and Dr Adam J. Smith
Books
Pleasance, H & Edgar, R (under review) Haunting Lives, Bloomsbury: London
Edgar, R & Smith, A J, (under contract, 2026) Eighteenth Century Folk Horror, Bloomsbury: London
Edgar, R, Johnson, W & Marland, J, (under contract, 2026) Alan Garner: A Work of Time, Manchester University Press, Manchester
Mann, F, Edgar, R, & Pleasance, H, (under contract, 2025) Turntable Stories, Equinox: Sheffield
Stephenson, L, Edgar, R, & Marland, J (eds.) (2024) Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children’s Television Bloomsbury: New York
Edgar, R & Johnson, W, (eds.) (2023) The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror, Routledge: London
Mann, F, Edgar, R, & Pleasance, H, (eds.) (2023) Venue Stories, Equinox Books: Sheffield
Smith, A G, Edgar, R, & Marland, J (2023) Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition Bloomsbury: New York
Edgar, R & Peniston, I. (eds.) (2020) Horrifying Tales, Greenteeth Press: Oxford
Edgar, R & Marland, J (2019) Adaptation for Screenwriters, Bloomsbury: New York (Shortlisted for best monograph, Screenwriters Research Network Awards, 2021)
Edgar, R, Mann, F, Pleasance, H. (eds.) (2019) Music, Memory and Memoir, Bloomsbury: New York
King, L. & Edgar, R. (eds.) (2019) Science Fiction for Survival: An Archive for Mars, Valley Press: Scarborough
Edgar, R, Fairclough, K, Halligan, B, Spelman, N. (eds.) (2015) The Arena Concert, Bloomsbury: New York
Edgar, R, Marland, J, Rawle, S (2015) The Language of Film 2nd edition (2015), Bloomsbury: London, September
Edgar, R, Fairclough, K, Halligan, B, (eds.) (2013) Music Documentary: From Acid Rock to Electro-Pop, Routledge: New York, March
Edgar, R, Marland, J, Rawle, S, (2010) The Language of Film (2010), Fairchild Press: London
Edgar, R (2009) Directing Fiction, (2009) AVA Publishing: Switzerland
Edgar, R & Marland, J, (2009) Screenwriting, AVA Publishing: Switzerland
Book chapters
Narrative Aporias and Lost Futures, in Pleasance, H. and Edgar, R. (under review) Haunting Lives, Bloomsbury: London
‘Beneath the Soil: Hardy, Hurley and Starve Acre’, (with Alan G Smith), in Edney, S. (under review) Georgic Gothic: EcoGothic, Antipastoral and Global Horror, Manchester University Press: Manchester
‘Strandloper, Treacle Walker: Garner and Unified Field Theory’, in Edgar, R., Johnson, W. and Marland, J. (under contract, 2026) Alan Garner and the Work of Time, Manchester University Press: Manchester
Chipboard and Smoked Glass, in Mann, F, Edgar, R and Pleasance, H. (under contract, 2025) Turntable Stories, Equinox: Sheffield
Keeping Doctoral Research on Track, in Polkinghorne, M, Taylor, J, and Knight, F, (in press, 2025) Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Supervision: Selected Case Studies, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham
‘If a bunch of ‘em tell you, it must be true.’: Lonely Boy, The Sex Pistols and Adaption in Dines, M., Graves-Brown, P., Gabriela, C.G. & Schofield, J. (in press 2026) The Routledge Companion to the Sex Pistols, Routledge: London
‘Mohawk this Guy’: New York Wyrd in Keetley, D, (in press, 2026) American Folk Horror, University of Wales Press: Cardiff
Graphically Speaking: CUD, Graphic Memoir and Artistic Authority in Attah, T., Fairclough, K., and Lloyd, C. (in press, 2025) Popular Music Autobiographies: Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences, Bloomsbury: London
Hinterlands: Neo-Liberal Desolation in Edgar, R & Johnson, W, (eds.) (2024) The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror, Routledge: London
Chatting with Jarvis in Edgar, R, Mann, F, & Pleasance, H, (eds.) (2023) Venue Stories, Equinox Books: Sheffield
Hiatus: Music, Memory and Liminal Authenticity in Edgar, R, Mann, F, Pleasance, H. (2019) Music, Memory and Memoir, Bloomsbury: New York
The Aesthetics of the Arena: Live and Recorded in Monteiro, S. (2017) The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory and Practice, Bloomsbury, New York, 421-434
The Aesthetics of the Arena: Live and Recorded in Edgar, R. Fairclough, K. Halligan, B. Spelman, N. (2016) The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment, Bloomsbury, New York, 195-206
Rocking around Watford: Trying to Find What I Was Looking For. (with Julia and Evan Shelton) (2016) in Edgar, R. Fairclough, K. Halligan, B. Spelman, N. (2016) The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment, Bloomsbury, New York, 181-192
Mel Brooks and Sidney Lumet in Allon, Y. & Patterson, H. (2001) The Wallflower Critical Guide to Contemporary North American Directors (1st edition), Columbia University Press: New York
Journals
Edgar, Robert (2022) ‘British folk horror, hauntology and the terrifying nature of the ordinary’. The Conversation 28th October 2022
Edgar, Robert, Mann, Fraser and Pleasance, Helen (2019) ‘Music, Memory and Memoir: Critical and creative engagement with an emerging genre’. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 12 (1-2). pp. 181-199
'If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.' Oren Stern, Bill Shankly and Funeral at Parc de France. O.V. Number 15 March 2003
‘The Nature of Survival in the 21st Century: The Survival of Concern in 1995’. (John Brunner’s The Long Result (1965) and Stand on Zanzibar (1968)). Vector (The Critical Journal of the BSFA), No. 185, September/October 1995.
Conferences
‘Teaching Satire’, Humour, Satire and Play in Researching and Teaching History, Northampton University, June 2024
Keeping the Wicker Man Waiting: 300 Years of Folk Horror, Lancaster University/Dukes Cinema, October 2023
Unsuitable for Miners, Haunted Landscapes Conference, Falmouth University July 2023
‘Supporting Local Music Venues through Narrative and Memory’, NAWE (National Association of Writers in Education), Online, 11th March, 2023
Venue Stories – a developing archive, Telling Stories: An International Conference on Music Archives and Heritage Narratives, Manchester Metropolitan University, 17th-19th November 2022
Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition, Hardy and Gothic Wessex: Thomas Hardy Society Conference, Dorchester, 28th-30th October 2022
Teaching Satire: Death of Stalin (Research Unit for Satire Panel), English Shared Futures Conference, Manchester 7-8th July 2022
Venue Stories/Music Memoir Research Group Paper, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, University of Michigan, Detroit, 26-28 May 2022
Co-Convener. Horrifying Children: Hauntology and Children’s Fiction, York St John University, 21st May 2022
Chatting to Jarvis - Venue Stories – International Conference of Autoethnography, July 2021
Music, Memory and Memoir – an emerging genre, Writing the noise, the politics and history of subcultural music, Subculture Network, Reading University, September 2018
Co-Convener. ‘You’re Twisting My Memory Man’: Music, Memory and Memoir, York St John University, July 2018
The Convent During Conflict: Stories from the Home Front in WW1 – with Dr Christopher Price and Joanna Starzynski, the Bar Covent, York, May 2018
Woody Allen Schlemiel: Programmed for Subjugation, Men Writing Women: Women in the Work of Woody Allen and Beyond, York St John University, January 2018
Hiatus: Music, Memory and Liminal Authenticity, Storying the Self, Brighton University, June 2017
Chair, Speculative Futures, Creative Writing Conference, York St John University, June 2017
Creativity, Practice and Praxis, IASPM Conference, BIMM and the University of Brighton, September 2016
The Arena Concert, Live and Recorded, Keynote Presentation, Salford University, June 2016
‘Creative Writing in the World’: conference to promote Creative Writing at York St John, June 2015
Theorising Practice and Writing for Education, Salford University, April 2014
Narrative Tropes in Hitchcock, Partners in Suspense: Hitchcock and Hermann, York St John University March 2011
Co-Convener. ‘Partners in Suspense, Hitchcock and Herman’, York St John University March 2011. Paper presented, ‘Narrative Tropes in Hitchcock.’
‘Will Hay – Ealing Originator’, Ealing Conference, Hull University, November 2006
‘Go, Baby, Go: The Primal Scream of the American Underground’ A paper co-presented with Dr Glyn Davis at the ‘Faces of Conference’, The Bar Convent and The University of Ripon and York St John, June 1998
‘The Schlemiel as Contemporary Icon’, A paper presented at The Open University Research Conference, Trevelyan Square Centre, Leeds, November 1997
Chair and contributor at the ‘Fantastic’ Conference, Hull University, December 1995
Professional activities
I am a member of the Society of Authors, the Screenwriters Research Network, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music 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. I have published a number of short stories and am currently working on a middle grade novel and a folk horror novella.
I have worked with writers to help develop story concepts and series ideas and am available for further professional consultancy.