Professor in English
English Studies University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA
Christine Ferguson is a Professor in English Studies in the Division of Literature and Languages, where her research focuses on the entwined histories of the literary gothic and the British occult revival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Before coming to Stirling in 2016, she taught at the University of Glasgow from 2008-2016, at the University of Alberta from 2004-2008, and was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia from 2002-2004. She currently serves on on the board of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and sits on the editorial boards for the Journal of Victorian Culture, Victorian Review, Victoriographies, the Cambridge Elements in Magic and the Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism series.
Her major publications include the books Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity, and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing 1848-1930 (2012) and Language, Science, and Popular Fiction in the Victorian Fin de Siècle (2006); she is the editor of Spiritualism, Health, Race, and Human Variation (2014), a volume in Routledge’s Spiritualism 1840-1930 facsimile edition series, and, with Andrew Radford, The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947 (Routledge 2018). She is currently at work on a scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Land of Mist for the Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, and a monograph on the popular fiction produced by leading figures in Britain's occult revival, including Edward Bulwer Lytton, Emma Hardinge Britten, Mabel Collins, H.P. Blavatsky, A.P. Sinnett, Arthur Machen, Dion Fortune, and Aleister Crowley.
She leads the AHRC Follow-On Funding project, "The Media of Mediumship: Encountering the Material Culture of Modern Occultism in Britain’s Science, Technology, and Magic Collections," which runs between 2021-22 and in collaboration with the Science Museum Group and Senate House Library. She was PI on the AHRC network project, Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947, and, with Dr Manon Hedenborg-White, heads the ESSWE Network on Esotericism, Gender, and Sexuality (ESOGEN).
Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947
University of Glasgow, University College Dublin (UCD) and Birkbeck University of London
http://www.stir.ac.uk/popular-occulture-in-britain/
AHRC Network Grant
Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity, and Racial Hygiene in Transatlantic Spiritualist Writing, 1848-1930
AHRC Early Career Fellowship
Languages of the Dead: The Afterlife of English in Late Victorian and Edwardian British Literature
SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Victorian Literature Spiritualism and Occultism in Literature Gothic Literature and Medicine Disability Studies Neo-Victorianism Graphic Novels and Comics
The Media of Mediumship: Encountering the Material Culture of Modern Occultism in Britain's Science, Technology and Magic Collections
PI: Professor Christine Ferguson
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council
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Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947
PI: Professor Christine Ferguson
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council
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Article
Ferguson C (2022) Beyond Belief: Literature, Esotericism Studies, and the Challenges of Biographical Reading in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Land of Mist. Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 22, pp. 205-230. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-20211002
Article
Anna Kingsford and the Intuitive Science of Occultism
Ferguson C (2022) Anna Kingsford and the Intuitive Science of Occultism. Aries, 22 (1), pp. 114-135. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-02201006
Editorial
Spiritualism and Science Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Ferguson C & Sera-Shriar E (2022) Spiritualism and Science Studies for the Twenty-First Century. Aries, 22 (1), pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-02201001
Book Review
Physics and Psychics: The Occult and the Modern Sciences in Modern Britain
Ferguson C (2021) Physics and Psychics: The Occult and the Modern Sciences in Modern Britain. Review of:
by Richard Noakes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 404 pp. ISBN: 9781316638569. Aries, 22 (1), pp. 155-158. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-02201008
Book Chapter
Women Writers and the Theosophical Tale of Terror
Ferguson C (2021) Women Writers and the Theosophical Tale of Terror. In: Bloom C (ed.) Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic. Palgrave Gothic. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 541-557. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030408657
Book Chapter
Zanoni’s Daughters: Fin de Siècle Fictions of Female Initiation
Ferguson C (2020) Zanoni’s Daughters: Fin de Siècle Fictions of Female Initiation. In: Chajes J & Huss B (eds.) The Cosmic Movement: Sources, Contexts, Impact. Goldstein-Goren Library of Jewish Thought, 27. Beer Sheva: Ben Gurion University of the Negev Press, pp. 91-126. https://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/index.php?dir=site&page=catalog&op=item&cs=5290
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2020) New Religions and Esotericism. In: Denisoff D & Schaffer T (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Victorian Literature. Routledge Literature Companions. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 414-425. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Victorian-Literature-1st-Edition/Denisoff-Schaffer/p/book/9781138579866
Book Chapter
The Case of Fletcher: Shell Shock, Spiritualism, and Oliver Lodge’s Raymond
Ferguson C (2020) The Case of Fletcher: Shell Shock, Spiritualism, and Oliver Lodge’s Raymond. In: Mussell J & Gooday G (eds.) A Pioneer of Connection: Recovering the Life and Career of Oliver Lodge. Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Pittsburgh, PA, USA: University of Pittsburgh Press. https://upittpress.org/books/9780822945956/
Article
The Luciferian Public Sphere: Theosophy and Editorial Seekership in the 1880s
Ferguson C (2020) The Luciferian Public Sphere: Theosophy and Editorial Seekership in the 1880s. Victorian Periodicals Review, 53 (1), pp. 76-101. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.2020.0012
Keynote
‘Where Sex is the First Great Teacher:’ Rape and Reincarnation in the Woman’s Occult Romance
Ferguson C (2020) ‘Where Sex is the First Great Teacher:’ Rape and Reincarnation in the Woman’s Occult Romance. British Women Writers Conference, Texas Christian University, 05.03.2020-07.03.2020.
Book Chapter
What does Popular Fiction have to do with the Occult?
Ferguson C (2019) What does Popular Fiction have to do with the Occult?. In: Hanegraaf W, Forshaw P & Pasi M (eds.) Hermes Explains: Thirty Questions about Esotericism. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 95-104. https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463720205/hermes-explains
Keynote
Journoccultism: Newspaper Scrying from Machen to Fort
Ferguson C (2019) Journoccultism: Newspaper Scrying from Machen to Fort. Approaching Esotericism and Mysticism: Cultural Influences, The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, 05.06.2019-07.06.2019.
Keynote
Anna Kingsford and the Intuitive Science of Occultism
Ferguson C (2019) Anna Kingsford and the Intuitive Science of Occultism. Science and Spiritualism: 1750-1930, Leeds Trinity University, 30.05.2019-31.10.2020.
Article
'The More Subtle Inquisitor:' Arthur Machen as Early Reviewer of Dubliners for Grant Richards
Ferguson C (2018) 'The More Subtle Inquisitor:' Arthur Machen as Early Reviewer of Dubliners for Grant Richards. Dublin James Joyce Journal, 9, pp. 122-134. http://www.ucd.ie/englishdramafilm/research/jamesjoyceresearchcentre/jjrc-dublinjamesjoycejournal/
Edited Book
The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947
Ferguson C & Radford A (eds.) (2018) The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947. Among the Victorians and Modernists, 6. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Occult-Imagination-in-Britain-1875-1947/Ferguson-Radford/p/book/9781472486981
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2017) Dracula and the Occult. In: Luckhurst R (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Dracula. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 57-65. http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/english-literature-1830-1900/cambridge-companion-dracula?format=HB#eg64W44bpHs7c0XO.97
Keynote
Imagined Publics and Occult Mediation
Ferguson C (2017) Imagined Publics and Occult Mediation. The Medial Breakthrough in Norwegian Literature, 1855-1905, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 20.06.2017-21.10.2020.
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2017) Occult Sciences. In: Holmes J & Ruston S (eds.) The Routledge Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Science. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 423-437. https://www.routledge.com/The-Ashgate-Research-Companion-to-Nineteenth-Century-British-Literature/Holmes-Ruston/p/book/9781472429872
Article
Reading with the Occultists: Arthur Machen, A. E. Waite, and the Ecstasies of Popular Fiction
Ferguson C (2016) Reading with the Occultists: Arthur Machen, A. E. Waite, and the Ecstasies of Popular Fiction. Journal of Victorian Culture, 21 (1), pp. 40-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13555502.2015.1123170
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2016) Mixed Media: Olivia Plender’s A Stellar Key to the Summerland and the Afterlife of Spiritualist Visual Culture. In: Jones A & Mitchell R (eds.) Drawing on the Victorians: The Palimpsest of Victorian and Neo-Victorian Graphic Texts. Series in Victorian Studies. Athens, OH, USA: Ohio University Press, pp. 121-150. http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Drawing+on+the+Victorians
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2015) Arthur Machen. In: Felluga D (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 969-972. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118405382.html
Book Chapter
Illustrating the Abyss: An Interview with Catherine Anyango on Heart of Darkness (2010)
Ferguson C (2015) Illustrating the Abyss: An Interview with Catherine Anyango on Heart of Darkness (2010). In: Tabachnick S & Saltzman E (eds.) Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works. Jefferson, NC, USA: McFarland and Company, Inc. pp. 194-204. http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7879-8
Article
Other Worlds: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Cross-Cultures of Spiritualism
Ferguson C (2015) Other Worlds: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Cross-Cultures of Spiritualism. Victorian Review, 41 (2), pp. 177-191. https://doi.org/10.1353/vcr.2015.0006
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2014) Introduction. In: Ferguson C (ed.) Spiritualism 1840-1930: Vol. 1: Health, Race, and Human Variation. Victorian Concepts. London: Routledge, pp. 1-20. https://www.routledge.com/Spiritualism-1840-1930/Pulham-Ferguson-Arias-Kontou/p/book/9780415683067
Edited Book
Ferguson C (ed.) (2014) Spiritualism, 1840-1930 : Victorian Concepts, Volume 1: Spiritualism: Health, Race, and Human Variation. Victorian Concepts. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Spiritualism-1840-1930/Pulham-Ferguson-Arias-Kontou/p/book/9780415683067
Keynote
Ferguson C (2014) From Anxiety to Ecstasy: Arthur Machen, A.E. Waite, and the Mysticist Redemption of Victorian Popular Fiction. Anxious Forms, University of Glasgow, 22.08.2014.
Article
Neo-Victorian Presence: Tom Phillips and the Non-Hermeneutic Past
Ferguson C (2013) Neo-Victorian Presence: Tom Phillips and the Non-Hermeneutic Past. Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies, 18 (3), pp. 22-57. http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/AJVS/article/view/9383/9282
Authored Book
Ferguson C (2012) Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 1848-1930. Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-determined-spirits.html
Book Chapter
Recent Scholarship on Spiritualism and Science
Ferguson C (2012) Recent Scholarship on Spiritualism and Science. In: Kontou T & Willburn S (eds.) The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult. Ashgate Research Companion. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 19-24. https://www.routledge.com/The-Ashgate-Research-Companion-to-Nineteenth-Century-Spiritualism-and-the/Kontou-Willburn/p/book/9780754669128
Article
Recent Studies in Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism
Ferguson C (2012) Recent Studies in Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism. Literature Compass, 9 (6), pp. 431-440. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2012.00890.x
Keynote
Beyond Suspicion: Neo-Victorianism and the Anti-Hermeneutic Turn in Tom Phillips’ A Humument
Ferguson C (2012) Beyond Suspicion: Neo-Victorianism and the Anti-Hermeneutic Turn in Tom Phillips’ A Humument. Neo-Victorian Networks: Epistemologies, Aesthetics, and Ethics, University of Amsterdam, 13.06.2012-15.06.2012.
Article
Surface Tensions: Steampunk, Subculture, and the Ideology of Style
Ferguson C (2011) Surface Tensions: Steampunk, Subculture, and the Ideology of Style. Neo-Victorian Studies, 4 (2), pp. 66-90. http://www.neovictorianstudies.com/
Article
Zola in Ghostland: Spiritualist Literary Criticism and Naturalist Supernaturalism
Ferguson C (2010) Zola in Ghostland: Spiritualist Literary Criticism and Naturalist Supernaturalism. SEL Studies in English Literature, 50 (4), pp. 877-894. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/404724/summary
Article
Ferguson C (2009) Victoria-Arcana and the Misogynistic Poetics of Resistance in Iain Sinclair’s White Chappell Scarlet Tracings and Alan Moore’s From Hell. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 20 (1-2), pp. 45-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/10436920802690430
Book Chapter
Ferguson C (2009) Steampunk and the Visualization of the Victorian: Teaching Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. In: Tabachnick S (ed.) Approaches to Teaching the Graphic Novel. Options for Teaching. New York: MLA, pp. 200-207. https://www.mla.org/Publications/Bookstore/Options-for-Teaching/Teaching-the-Graphic-Novel
Article
Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist" (1891)
Ferguson C (2009) Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist" (1891). Victorian Review, 35 (1), pp. 64-68. https://doi.org/10.1353/vcr.2009.0020
Article
Sensational Dependence: Prosthesis and Affect in Dickens and Braddon
Ferguson C (2008) Sensational Dependence: Prosthesis and Affect in Dickens and Braddon. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 19 (1), pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10436920701884688
Book Chapter
Elephant Talk: Language and Enfranchisement in the Merrick Case
Ferguson C (2008) Elephant Talk: Language and Enfranchisement in the Merrick Case. In: Tromp M (ed.) Victorian Freaks: The Social Work of Nineteenth-Century Freakery. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, pp. 114-133. https://ohiostatepress.org/books/Book%20Pages/Tromp%20Victorian.html
Article
Eugenics and the Afterlife: Lombroso, Doyle, and the Spiritualist Purification of the Race
Ferguson C (2007) Eugenics and the Afterlife: Lombroso, Doyle, and the Spiritualist Purification of the Race. Journal of Victorian Culture, 12 (1), pp. 64-85. https://doi.org/10.3366/jvc.2006.12.1.64
Authored Book
Language, Science, and Popular Fiction in the Victorian Fin-de-Siècle: The Brutal Tongue
Ferguson C (2006) Language, Science, and Popular Fiction in the Victorian Fin-de-Siècle: The Brutal Tongue. The Nineteenth Century Series. Aldershot: Ashgate. https://www.routledge.com/Language-Science-and-Popular-Fiction-in-the-Victorian-Fin-de-Siecle/Ferguson/p/book/9780754650829
Article
Footnotes on Trilby: The Human Foot as Evolutionary Icon in Late Victorian Culture
Ferguson C (2006) Footnotes on Trilby: The Human Foot as Evolutionary Icon in Late Victorian Culture. Nineteenth Century Contexts, 28 (2), pp. 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/08905490600849550
Article
Non-Standard Language and the Cultural Stakes of Stoker’s Dracula
Ferguson C (2004) Non-Standard Language and the Cultural Stakes of Stoker’s Dracula. ELH: English Literary History, 71 (1), pp. 229-249. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2004.0015
Article
Decadence as Scientific Fulfillment
Ferguson C (2002) Decadence as Scientific Fulfillment. PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 117 (3), pp. 465-478. http://www.jstor.org/stable/823145
