Laurie Huggett
Postgraduate Researcher
English and Creative Writing
About me:
I am a PhD candidate in the department of English at Exeter University.
I undertook my BA in English Literature at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. My finals paper focused on psychology in nineteenth century ghost stories, exploring how the genre articulated Victorian crises of faith arising from the popularisation of psychology. In 2012 I went on to study an MA in Creative Writing at Exeter University, focusing particularly on nineteenth century anitquarianism.
Before returning to academia in 2018, I worked for several years as an editorial consultant in the field of International Development. Clients included global organisations such as: the International Development Research Centre in Canada; UNICEF and WHO. I have also worked abroad teaching English in Poland and Spain.
research includes
psychology in nineteenth century
ghost stories, exploring how the genre articulated Victorian
crises of faith arising from the popularisation of psychology
research includes
Research Unit:
College of Humanities
Research Project:
My research project is titled 'Disrupted Memory and the Restoration of the ‘Normal’: Daphne du Maurier and the Cold War, 1949-1960'. Looking closely at both published and unpublished material from the 1950s, I am examining how du Maurier’s writing engages with the cultural anxieties of the period. I consider representations of guilt, trust and history within her writing and how these themes respond to the social marginalisation of emotion and the recasting of a post-war ‘normality’ in the 1950s.
Research Supervisory team:
Dr. Kirsty Martin
Dr. Vike Plock
Research Wider Research Interests:
I am interested in female 'middlebrow' authors of the 1940s and 50s. I am also more widely interested in the Gothic within nineteenth and twentieth century literature, particularly representations of 'hauntings' within texts.
Professional Development:
2021-09-08
Conferences/Symposiums-The UAB Rewriting War Conference
Conference rescheduled from March 2020. Now to be held online in September 2021 hosted by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
Delivering a paper: 'Trauma on the edge: Memories of war in mid-twentieth century middlebrow literature.' (provisional title)
2019-06-27
Conferences/Symposiums-Daphne Du Maurier: A Critical Reassessment An International Interdisciplinary Conference
An international colloquium at Le Mans University.
Delivered paper: 'Trusting the body: Mutants and masks in du Maurier’s post war stories' (2019)
