I am a Senior Lecturer in English Literature, in the Communication and Culture department at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). I am also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education (Bangor, Wales, UK). In 2022-23, I was the Megumi Visiting Professor in the English Department at Kobe College (Japan). 

I research at the intersections of literature and education, in and beyond the UK. I have particular expertise in young adult (YA) literature and Shakespeare, in and beyond the classroom. Recent publications concern children's and YA Shakespeare biofiction; gendered YA Shakespeare; and YA vampire adaptations of Shakespeare. In September 2025, I was approached by The Conversation to contribute to a series marking the 20th anniversary of Stephenie Meyer's novel Twilight.

An ongoing project, with collaborators at Bangor, involves diversifying literature taught in England and Wales, with a focus on gender and ethnic diversity. Our peer-reviewed article in Wales Journal of Education and PDF and video resources are freely-available and bilingual. They were made available to all teachers in Wales via the Welsh Government's Professional Learning site, Hwb. In the UK, they have been shared with teachers by BAMEed, the English Association, National Association for Teachers of English, OCR exam board, Show Racism the Red Card, and Teachit. In 2025, Inclusive Books for Children invited me to act as peer-reviewer for their second Excluded Voices report.

The book Measure for Measure: a Critical Reader, edited with John Jowett, will be published by Bloomsbury in late 2025. A co-authored book on Shakespeare in East Asian Education was published by Palgrave, with Kohei Uchimaru, Adele Lee, and Rosalind Fielding in 2021. My first monograph, Shakespeare Valued, was published by Intellect in 2015. Full details of my research publications, including book chapters and articles, can be found on this site under the tabs 'my research' > 'research outputs'. 

I am Lead Editor of the peer-reviewed international journal Jeunesse: young people, texts, cultures (University of Toronto Press), having previously served as a member of the editorial team since 2020. I regularly give 'meet the editor' talks to colleagues and research students. In 2011, I became the Founding Editor of the British Shakespeare Association's Teaching Shakespeare, a cross-sector magazine for Shakespeare educators internationally. I oversaw the publication of 21 freely-available volumes, with readers in over 60 countries. 

I created the FutureLearn Pictures of Youth MOOC, a freely-available online course, exploring children's visual culture in picturebooks, comics, television and film with Dr Clémentine Beauvais in 2018. It had over 15,000 participants in four years, with above average retention.

I enjoy researching, teaching and disseminating my work internationally, in person, with extensive experience in East Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China, as well as Vietnam). I was a co-founder of the Gothic Association of Asia (GAA) website, with Li Hsin Hsu (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), Katarzyna Ancuta (Chulalongkorn, Thailand), Samantha Landau (Tokyo), Chiho Nakagawa (Nara). In September 2022, with Li-Hsin Hsu leading as local organiser, we held the inaugural GAA event: a hybrid symposium on 'Asian folklore, folk horror and the gothic' at NCCU, Taiwan.

What unites my diverse research interests within English literature and education are my theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and research methods. These consistently draw on literary criticism; critical theory; cultural studies; thematic and content analysis to analyse texts and other qualitative data (interview transcripts, posts on social media sites, and survey data, for example). I also use descriptive statistics in my educational research. 

I am the Director of the Aston Research Centre for the Humanities (REACH). In 2024, inaugurated a series of 'in conversations, 'Balancing Academic and Creative Writing', with external and internal speakers. It brings together academics, professional services staff, and students with broad interests in writing from disciplines across the university, STEM and SHAPE. In the same year, REACH co-organised the Disruptive Technologies in Arts and Humanities workshop, led by Prof. Manolya Kavakli-Thorne and Dr Manimuthu Arunmozhi, bringing together academics, industry partners and creative industries.

Besides leading REACH, I am a member of the following Aston research centres and groups: Aston University Archives Centre (AUAC); A-Game Centre (Aston Games in Education Centre) and TESOL. 

Research supervision

I am interested in supervising research students (PhDs etc.) on children's and YA literature; diversifying the curriculum; Shakespeare in adaptation; Shakespeare in education; as well as the teaching of literature more generally, in and beyond the English-language environments. N.b. These are not funded PhD opportunities.

To give prospective applicants an idea of the sorts of PhD projects I supervise, some of my previous supervisees include:

• Daniel Xerri. Lead supervisor with Dr Nicholas McGuinn. Passed without corrections. January 2016. Poetry in Malta.
• Chelsea Sellars. (née Swift). Supervisor. Passed with minor corrections. July 2016. Children’s reading identities in North Yorkshire.
• Paulina Bronfman Collovati. Lead supervisor with Prof. Vanita Sundaram. Passed with minor corrections. Shakespeare for human rights in the UK. July 2019.
• Laura Nicklin. Supervisor. Passed without corrections. January 2020. Shakespeare for rehabilitation in the United States’ prison system.
• Ying Zou. Lead supervisor with Dr Clémentine Beauvais. Passed with minor corrections. April 2020. Chinese parents’ use of English language picturebooks.
• Hatice Herdili Sahin. Lead supervisor with Kerry Knox. Passed with minor corrections. June 2022. Arts Education in Turkish schools.
• Jessica Gibson. Co-supervisor with Dr Clémentine Beauvais. Passed with minor corrections. April 2023. Representations of disability in Disney films.
• Marina Cartier. Co-supervisor with Dr Clémentine Beauvais (until 2022). Passed with minor corrections. March 2024. British children's response to translated humorous picturebooks.

I am a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) with a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), a higher education teaching qualification, from the University of York in 2013. I am an experienced research supervisor. I was awarded UK Graduate Council for Education (UKGCE)-recognised research supervisor status in 2019.

Editorial duties 

2021- Lead Editor Jeunesse: Young people, texts, culture, University of Toronto Press, previously Editor 2020-21.

2023, Guest Editor, ‘Hot Shakespeare, Cool Japan’ issue, Cahiers Élisabéthains.

2016-21 Editorial Advisory Panel Member, Palgrave Communications, latterly Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

2011-21 Founding Editor, Teaching Shakespeare, British Shakespeare Association.

Leadership at Aston

2024- Director, Research Centre for the Humanities (REACH)

2023- Research co-Lead, Communication and Culture (2023-24 Acting)

2023- Acting PhD Lead, Communication and Culture

Leadership at Bangor

2021-23 Research Director, School of Education

2021-22  Chair, School of Educational Sciences ethics committee

Leadership at York

2018-21 PhD Lead, Education Department (2018 Acting Director of Research Degree Programmes)

2015-17 Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Education (2013-15 Deputy Director)

2010-17 Programme Leader, BA English in Education

Employment history

2023- Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Communication and Culture, Aston University

2021-23 Senior Lecturer, Educational Sciences, Bangor University

2017-21 Senior Lecturer, Education, University of York

2010-17 Lecturer, Education, University of York

2011-19 Visiting Lecturer, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham 

2007-10 Associate Lecturer, Open University

Qualifications

2013 University of York, Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice

2011 Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, AHRC-funded PhD in English 

2005 University of Cambridge, M.Phil in Educational Research

2003 University of Adelaide, B.A. (hons) 1^st Class, English major