Centre for the History of the Gothic

11/06/2026

Hot on the heels of the announcement about the Radcliffe conference in June 2027 next year, we also have the very exciting Sheffield Gothic conference Dark Enchantments happening at the end of October 2026, with a keynote by the wonderful Dr Sam George, and a creative workshop too! Congratulations to the wonderful Sheffield Gothic team on the organistion of this.

08/06/2026

BIG NEWS about an international conference happening next year at the University of Sheffield!

The CFP for the Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now conference is now live - please submit proposals for 20 minute papers by clicking here. AHRC-funded bursaries are available for unwaged, undergraduate, postgraduate, and ECR participants (see below).

Please direct all queries to [email protected]
The Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now team are delighted to welcome you to Sheffield for our international Radcliffe conference. In addition to papers and keynote lectures from world-leading experts, expect a range of exciting events which we’ll be unveiling month by month from July! Please keep an eye on our website and social media pages to stay up to date – and click here to submit your paper proposal.

WHEN? 24th-26th June, 2027

WHERE? INOX, Level 5, Students’ Union Building, Durham Road, Sheffield, S10 2TG

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Tom Duggett, Michael Gamer, Robert Miles, Katrina O’Loughlin, Dale Townshend, and Angela Wright

CONFERENCE FEE: £180 (£120 for unwaged, undergraduate, postgraduate, and ECR participants; £60 for online-only audience members).

CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline 15th September (we will aim to get back to you by 30th September)

A pioneer of Gothic fiction, poetry, and travel writing, Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) was one of the most influential and widely read authors of her day. Her published works dominated the Romantic literary landscape, anticipating later psychological fiction and inspiring writers from Byron to the Brontës, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Shelley. But Radcliffe’s influence extended far beyond her Romantic and Victorian successors: her unique and innovative Gothic mode impacts upon the way we understand and experience art, media, and literature today. Since 2024, the Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now project, funded by the AHRC, has sought to reintroduce Ann Radcliffe to 21st-century readers by exploring both her contemporary influence and her lasting legacies. To celebrate the project and the accompanying Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ann Radcliffe, we invite you to our conference, held at The University of Sheffield: an opportunity for Radcliffe readers and scholars to come together and celebrate her incredible and lasting contribution to literature.

We welcome paper proposals on any and all aspects of Radcliffe’s life and writing. Topics can include, but are not limited to, Radcliffe’s

~ novels and poetry

~ literary influences

~ imitators and emulators

~ contemporary reception and adaptation

~ Gothic mode

~ Gothic and Romantic contemporaries

~ Travel and Travel Imaginary

~ Preternatural, Supernatural, Nature, the Numinous

~ Circulating Objects

~ Publishing Networks

~ Form and style

~ Aesthetics

~ Political commitments

~ 21st-century reception, revival, and adaptation

Click here to submit your paper proposals.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdk0l5GEwhVpn1q0Ob6WvYKoXjvT79ER-ZotQwQ0j10Yqr3SA/viewform
Deadline: 15.09.26.

We are pleased to announce that we are able to offer AHRC-funded bursaries to undergraduate, PGR, ECR, and unwaged participants: x4 £500 bursaries s and x2 £1000 bursaries. These bursaries are designed to cover the conference fee, accommodation, and travel. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please provide the relevant information as outlined on the Google Form, and feel free to get in touch at [email protected] with any questions.

https://www.annradcliffe.org/conference/

01/05/2026

Delighted to announce that the most recent podcast of the AHRC-funded project Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now is live: Dr Rosie Whitcombe speaks with Professor Robert Miles about the importance of Ann Radcliffe's second novel A Sicilian Romance (1790), and the task of editing it:

Ann Radcliffe A Sicilian Romance explained. Gothic novel analysis, themes, and the rise of the Gothic heroine by Robert Miles.

15/04/2026

The Ann Radcliffe, Then and Now project is pleased to announce that tickets are available for our next free public lecture, 'Women in White and the New Gothic Cinema: Reinventing the Gothic Heroine', with Professor Catherine Spooner. The lecture will be followed by a screening of Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (2015). This takes place at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, UK.

Get your tickets here and please share with anyone you think might be interested!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-in-white-and-the-new-gothic-cinema-reinventing-the-gothic-heroine-tickets-1987308781061?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1*15g3gpw*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjI1MTYzNjI0LjE3NzYwNzgzNzU.*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3NzYwNzgzNzQkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzYwNzg0MTEkajIzJGwwJGgw&keep_tld=true

About the lecture

There has been a revival of interest in the Gothic heroine in the twenty-first century, in big budget films such as Crimson Peak, Poor Things, Nosferatu, Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. This talk traces the history of the Gothic heroine back to the eighteenth-century novels of Ann Radcliffe, the highest paid author of her day. Paying particular attention to costume and the iconic image of the woman in white running from a dark house, Professor Catherine Spooner explores the ways in which contemporary writers and film-makers have positioned the Gothic heroine as embodying feminist resistance and dark romance.

About the speaker

Catherine Spooner is Professor of Literature and Culture at Lancaster University, where she researches Gothic in literature, fashion and popular culture from the late-eighteenth century to the present. She is the author of Fashioning Gothic Bodies, Contemporary Gothic and Post-Millennial Gothic and the co-editor of four books including, most recently, The Cambridge History of the Gothic Volume 3: The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries. She has been a guest on a variety of TV and radio shows including BBC Breakfast and The Steve Lamacq Show on BBC Radio 6 Music and is interviewed regularly in the press when Gothic is deemed to be back in fashion. She is also a prize-winning writer of poetry and fiction with a Gothic slant.

About the film

Set in Victorian England, Crimson Peak tells the Gothic tale of a young woman who marries a mysterious bachelor and goes to live with him in his house. But as she quickly finds out, nothing is quite what it seems...

View the trailer here

Please note that Crimson Peak has a 15 age rating and contains strong violence, horror, and s*x. More information can be found here

Free public lecture on the Gothic heroine in the 21st century by Professor Catherine Spooner + screening of del Toro's 'Crimson Peak'

20/02/2026

A lovely time on Wednesday evening celebrating the career of Professor Andy Smith as he takes retirement. Some of Andy’s many PhD students came along and spoke very movingly of the considerable support and inspiration that he offered to them during their studies. Andy is now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield. Congratulations, Andy, and enjoy your well-earned retirement!

18/02/2026

Episode Four of our podcast series 'Ann Radcliffe' features Dale Townshend and Elizabeth Bobbitt discussing the exciting but still-understudied posthumous works of Ann Radcliffe, including her historical romance Gaston de Blondeville and a broad range of her poetry (including St Alban's Abbey). It's a fabulous episode. With thanks to the AHRC for their support of this activity.
https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/events/editing-radcliffes-posthumous-works
Editing Radcliffe's Posthumous Works | The University of Sheffield Player
player.sheffield.ac.uk

Discover Ann Radcliffe’s lesser known Gothic works, from Gaston de Blondeville to her poetry, edited for the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ann Radcliffe.

14/01/2026

Prof Michael Gamer’s wonderful lecture ‘Ann Radcliffe and Romantic Culture’, delivered first at the University of Sheffield and then at Keats House, London, is now available as a special episode of our free podcast series: https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/events/ann-radcliffe-and-romantic-culture-lecture-professor-michael-gamer .bsky.social bsky.social

Discover Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic novels and lasting influence on Romantic literature in this podcast episode with Professor Michael Gamer.

14/01/2026

Interested in Feminism and Women's Gothic Literature? Check out this upcoming lecture from one of the Centre's Associates and former co-directors.

Gothic Fiction & The Female Writer: Women who shaped gothic horror

How have horror and ghost stories challenged gender norms? Explore the feminist side of Gothic literature. With Q&A.

13/01/2026

Congratulations to Dr Carly Stevenson upon her wonderful graduation today. A member of the Sheffield Centre for the History of the Gothic, Carly defended her PhD upon John Keats and the Gothic Imagination in 2025. 🎉🎉🎉

11/11/2025

I am so excited to be returning to the University where I studied for my Phd, to give the final public talk in the library's special exhibition 'Fear and Fascination: a Gothic exhibition', based upon Aberdeen University library's extensive and rare collection of early Gothic fiction. My talk will be upon my current project, editing The Mysteries of Udolpho for Cambridge University Press, and will address what makes Udolpho so distinctive amongst Radcliffe's works.
Aberdeen is the place where I became an academic: I have not returned since I came to Sheffield, so I'm very excited about this return visit, and grateful for the opportunity to visit this wonderful exhibition and to revisit the city.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Angela Wright for the final event as part of the Fear and Fascination Gothic Exhibition programme. This talk is a collaboration with the Centre for the Novel and University Collections.