Dr Sam Hirst
School of English
Teaching Associate
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
91Ö±²¥
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I studied Russian and Spanish at undergrad, specialising in Russian Romantic literature. After living in Spain, Russia and South Africa for some years, I returned to the UK to undertake a Masters Course in 'The Gothic Imagination' at Stirling University. I then went on to do a PhD in 'The Theology of the Early British Gothic, 174-1833' at Manchester Metropolitan University. I have also completed teaching qualifications - the PGCLTHE at ManMet and the PGDAP at Liverpool University.
After working for a number of years as an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan, I got a position as Teaching Associate in EAP at Leeds University before beginning a full time position as the Alan Price Memorial Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow at Liverpool University. I went on to work as a Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool and a lecturer in 19th century literature at Oxford Brookes, before taking up a position as Research Associate at Nottingham, collaborating with Newstead Abbey on celebrations and displays marking the bicentenary of Byron's death. I received an AHRC IAA grant as a post-doctoral knowledge exchange fellow to continue and widen my work on literary tourism, Byron, and Newstead. I am currently employed part-time on a research project at Newstead Abbey, transcribing, digitizing and creating a display based around musician William Linley's diary 'Summer Rambles of 1825'.
I have published numerous articles on 18th and 20th century Gothic and Gothic romance. In 2023, I published my first monograph Theology in the Early British and Irish Gothic, 1764-1834 with Anthem Press. It was shortlisted for the Alan Lloyd Smith prize. I have also published short fiction in a range of queer Gothic magazines and anthologies.
I run Romancing the Gothic - a free educational online programme which offers free lectures on subjects more (or less) related to horror and the Gothic. I also run yearly conferences. 2025 marks the 5th annual conference which will celebrate the 100th anniversary of M R James' A Warning to the Curious and other stories. You can find more information at
I frequently collaborate with external partners. These have included:
- Nottingham City Libraries, where I collaborated on a holographic Byron display and a series of lectures
- The Brontë Parsonage, where I ran a 'Gothic Brontës' course and will run a 'Brontës and Byron' course this year
- Science VR, where I collaborated on the creation of a digital world based on the Villa Diodati and the work of Romantic Poets
- The Regency Academe, where I design and run courses on 'Living Religion in the Georgian and Regency Periods', 'Literary Tourism' and 'Gothic Publishing'
- Newstead Abbey
I have also written for non-academic outlets including DK Publishing, History Today, Tor.com and The Conversation.
- Research interests
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My research focuses primarily on intersections of literary and theology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I also work on Gothic romance, literary tourism, women writers of the Romantic period, and the wider Gothic and horror.
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
Chapters
- , Gothic dreams and nightmares (pp. 47-62). Manchester University Press
- , Dream and Literary Creation in Women’s Writings in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (pp. 91-106). Anthem Press
- , Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction (pp. 105-118). UCL Press
- , The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins (pp. 475-497). Springer International Publishing
- , The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (pp. 373-389). Springer International Publishing
- , The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (pp. 357-372). Springer International Publishing