Fireside Tales of Terror: the Gothic and Winter took place on 15-16 December 2022. The conference was sponsored by the Humanities Research Centre, the ELCS department, and the International Gothic Association. As well as a large number of online audience members who weren’t participating, there were 33 presenting delegates with papers ranging from Romantic period epics, to Victorian short stories, through to video games and film, to fashion and vintage postcards. The two keynote speakers were Dr Derek Johnston (Queen’s University, Belfast) on his work on televisual period drama at Christmas and the Gothic mode, and Dr Monica Germana (University of Westminster) on Boreal Gothic, folklore and travel in winter.  

Our objectives were to bring scholars from around the world together to explore the environmental and affective traditions and departures between the Gothic mode and the winter season across different mediums in the arts and humanities. The conference itself was extremely successful in terms of exploring these topics, and forging new networks and the connections across papers, as well as new and innovative research being showcased. 

The HRC is pleased to announce that the new Director, Professor Alison Cooley, will take over in September 2022.

Alison is Professor of Classics and Ancient History and has been at Warwick since 2000.

We would like to thank the outgoing Director, Professor David Lambert, for his work and dedication to the HRC over the last three years.

Professor Tim Lockley from the Department of History and ex-Director of the Humanities Research Centre is one of a trio of University of Warwick academicsLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window recognised in the 2021 Queens Birthday Honours List. The award was in recognition of his services to his local community in Harbury, where he serves as a Parish councillor, and with particular recognition of his work in his area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congratulations to the winners of the HRC Doctoral Fellowship Competition:

Neils Boender (History) and Yara Staets (German Studies)

Tabina Iqbal (English and Comparative Literary Studies)

Charlotte Spear and Madeleine Sinclair (English and Comparative Literary Studies)

A one-day interdisciplinary conference to be held on Saturday 14th May 2022

Registration is now open

Keynote Speaker: Professor Diane PurkissLink opens in a new window

The HRC announces a competition for 3 internal Doctoral Fellows. Each Fellow will receive a research budget of £300 and a conference budget of £700 to organise a one-day interdisciplinary Post-Graduate Conference (to be held at Warwick, UK) during the academic year 2022/23.

A further £200 grant may be available if you set up a blog and write 8 blogs during the year about the conference and your research.

Closing date: 11.00 am Wednesday 16th March 2022