Dr Richard Leahy
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Dr Richard Leahy is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Chester UK. He teaches across each different level of the programmes, on subjects and topics that include Victorian Literature, Gothic Literature, Literary and Critical Theory, Science Fiction and more. He also teaches on the Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture MA, as well as supervising a number of postgraduate projects at both MRes and PhD level. Richard has also successfully ran public events including guest lectures, as well as student-based engagement activities.
Teaching and Supervision
Richard currently convenes EN4002 'Approaches to Literature' at Level 4, EN5004 'The Gothic' at Level 5, EN6006 'Science Fiction' at Level 6 and EN7218 'Science, Technology and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century' at Level 7, as well as teaching/lecturing on the following modules: EN4002 Approaches to Literature EN4008 Studying Literature 1 EN4009 Studying Literature 2 EN5002 Victorian Literature EN5004 The Gothic EN6022 Nineteenth Century Literature EN6006 Science Fiction EN6108 Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy EN6031 Kill Bill: Representing Trauma EN7201 Nineteenth Century Literature EN7202 Nineteenth Century Culture EN7203 Research Methods EN7218 Science, Technology and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Dr Leahy's research primarily revolves around intersections of technology, culture and literature. His monograph, Literary Illumination, was published in 2018, with a number of projects spawning from it since. He is currently working on the intersections between rail travel, psychology and the literature of the Nineteenth Century. For a list of recent publications, please see below: Journal Articles and Book Chapters: ‘Fire and Reverie: Domestic Light and the Individual in Cranford and Mary Barton’ in The Gaskell Journal, Vol. 28 (The Gaskell Society, 2014) ‘Artificial Light in the Nineteenth Century: Candlelight and Gaslight; or the Individual and the Network’ in Kaleidoscope: Light, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Durham University, 2014) ‘The Literary Realisation of Electric Light in the Early 20th Century: Artificial Illumination in H.G. Wells and E.M. Forster’ in Dark Nights, Bright Lights: Night, Darkness and Illumination in Literature, eds. Susanne Bach and Folkert Degenring (Berlin: Degruyter, 2015) 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Class and the Uncanny’ for the BAVS Neo-Victorianist Blog (March, 2016) ‘Sherlock’s ‘The Abominable Bride’: Recreating Nineteenth Century Illumination in Neo-Victorian Space’ for the BAVS Neo-Victorianist Blog (April, 2016) ‘Deconstructing and Reconstructing Textual Femininity in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl’ in Parlour Journal, Vol. 2 (University of Ohio, August 2016) ‘Myth, Folklore and Spiritualism in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Representations of Hair’, A Cultural History of Hair in the Age of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2018) ‘With, all down darkness wide, his wading light?’: Light and Dark in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘The Candle Indoors’ and ‘The Lantern out of Doors’, The Nordic Journal of English Studies (University of Gothenburg, 2018) ‘Superintelligence and Mental Anxiety from Mary Shelley to Ted Chiang’ Foundation: Science Fiction Studies, 130 (2018) 'His Dark Materials in a Post-Truth World' in His Dark Materials and Philosophy: Paradox Lost, eds. Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene. (London: Open Court, 2020) 'Trains and Brains: Splitting the Self in Sensation Fiction' in The Rail, The Body, and the Pen, ed. Brian Cowlishaw (McFarland, 2021) 'Ted Chiang, Intelligence, and Anxiety' in SSC: Ted Chiang, ed. Derek C. Maus (Layman Poupard, 2022) Conference Appearances: Gladstone’s Colloquium, February 2014 – ‘The Candle and Victorian Literary Spaces.’ University of Cambridge’s ‘Thinking with Things’ Seminar Series, April 2014 – ‘The Candle in Detective and Gothic Fiction.’ Paris Diderot University’s ‘Uses of Light in British Arts of the Nineteenth Century Conference’, June 2014 – ‘The Candle and Lacan’s Gaze.’ The British Society For Literature and Science Annual Conference, University of Liverpool, April 2015 – ‘Candlelight and Gaslight, or Individuality and Modernity.’ British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Cardiff, August 2016 ‘Networks of Consumerism and Technology in the works of Émile Zola.’ ‘Talking Bodies’, The University of Chester, April 2017 – ‘Writing the Body in Gillian Flynn’s Novels’. British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Lincoln, August 2017 – ‘Trains and Brains: The Shared Social Experience of Railways and Psychology’. British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Exeter, August 2018 – ‘The Sensuous Pastoral: The Pre-Raphaelites and Detail’