Research

Throughout my career I have engaged in research for a variety of fields. During my English Literature Master’s degree I developed my research specialism in digital folklore and unfiction: a type of digital transmedia storytelling which uses medium in order to convince an audience that its fictional contents are wholly real. I received a first for my dissertation, ‘”Evan, We Are Fiction“: An Investigation into the Boundless Immersion of Unfiction‘, which explores the difficulties faced by academics attempting to categorise, document and analyse the mediums which can make up an unfiction project. I’ve also written on adjacent fields of digital folklore and literature, such as creepypasta and fanfiction. As a continuation of this research I am involved with the Queer Immersives Index, a project which documents unfiction, ARGs, visual novels and e-literature created by and concerning members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Likewise, throughout my Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature and my Master’s degree I studied Old, Middle and Early Modern English texts. I wrote a paper entitled, ‘Riddling the Obscene: quantifiable faithfulness in Old English riddle translations’, an analysis into the translation of the Exeter Book riddles. I also translated, transcribed and coded a portion of the Jane Loraine Recipe Book.

As part of the Dundee Design Festival 2021 I conducted research and wrote about the histories and design of commonplace items for the Everyday Objects digital exhibition. Another digital exhibition I developed is the Maritime Humanities Hub Project, a collaboration between Newcastle University and The Discovery Museum to tell the story of Newcastle’s history as a port city. Using Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums’ maritime archive, I produced a number of digital assets including biographies, podcasts, and maps.

Following my diagnosis of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), I became interested in researching and educating about mental health and neurodivergence, especially trauma disorders and therapies. I acted as a consultant on Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) – a type of trauma therapy – for disability activist Laura Kate Dale’s web series Access-Ability, which focuses on difficulties experienced by disabled and neurodivergent people within the video game community and industry.