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Staff Profile

Dr Ella Mershon

Lecturer in Victorian Literature

  • Address: School of English
    Percy Building, Room 2.22
    Â鶹´«Ã½,
    NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
Background

Biography

I am a lecturer in Victorian Literature, specializing in ecocritical approaches to the literatures and sciences of the nineteenth century. Working across disciplines, time periods, and cultures, my research and teaching explore the many afterlives of Romantic and Victorian thought as they continue to shape understandings of the environment, constructions of the human, and interpretations of advancement and progress.

Qualifications

BA in English, University of California, Berkeley

MA in English, New York University

PhD in English, University of California, Berkeley

Previous Positions

A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Visiting Assistant Professor, Marquette University 







Research

Research Interests

My research interests include nineteenth-century literature, ecocriticism and the environmental humanities, science and technology studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, and science fiction.

Environmental Humanities

With the support of a Pioneer Award from Â鶹´«Ã½ Humanities Research Institute, I am working with Dr Shane McCorristine (HCA), Professor Ole Windhal Pedersen (NLS), and Dr Katharine Rietig (GPS) to launch an Environmental Humanities Initiative as a response to the climate crisis and the need for more than scientific solutions to address the precarity of our planet’s habitability. This initiative builds on the declaration of a climate emergency by NU in 2019 by creating a cross-faculty network of researchers who work on themes around environments, landscapes, law, politics, ecology, biodiversity, and climates. This network enables members to share research, plan teaching, develop external funding bids, and engage with relevant stakeholders and institutions in the North East.

Current Book Project

I am currently at work on a book project called, “Inorganicism: The Forms of Decay in the Age of Coal,” which offers a new approach to the study of organicism through a critical revaluation of inorganic form at an important turning point in the history of mineral extraction: the nineteenth-century transition to a coal economy.  

Publications

An essay drawn from my current book project on John Ruskin’s geochemical conception of “dust” and the gender politics of self-formation was published in Victorian Studies and was selected as the Editor’s Choice for the issue. Another essay on fugitive, cryptic, and queer forms of fungal belonging was published in a special issue of Victorian Literature and Culture on “Open Ecologies.” 



Teaching

20/21: Semester 2: Online Feedback & Consultation Hours

Tuesday, 10.00-12.00
Thursday, 10.00-11.00

Thursday, 10.00-11.00

Please sign-up for an appointment by clicking and selecting "Feedback & Consultation: 15 min. Meeting" to view and select an available time.

20/21 Semester 2

SEL3409: Planetary Imaginations
SEL1023: Transformations
SEL8148: MLitt Supervision

20/21 Semester 1

SEL2204: Victorian Passions, Victorian Values
SEL3362: Dissertation Supervision
SEL8148: MLitt Supervision


19/20: Semester Two

SEL3409: Planetary Imaginations
SEL2210: Independent Research Project 2
SEL1023: Transformations
SEL3362: Dissertation Supervision
SEL8047: MA Dissertation Supervision


19/20: Semester One

SEL2204: Victorian Passions, Victorian Values
SEL3362: Dissertation Supervision


18/19: Semester Two

SE1023: Transformations
SEL3365: Independent Essay Supervision


Publications

  • Articles

    • Mershon E. . Victorian Literature and Culture 2020, 48(1), 267-298.
    • Mershon E. . Victorian Studies 2020, 62(2), 273-282.
    • Mershon E. . Victorian Studies 2016, 58(3), 464-492.

  • Book Chapters

    • Mershon E. . In: Denisoff D, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Literature and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026, pp.194-206.
    • Mershon E. . In: Thompson L, ed. The Ethics of the Dust. Minneapolis, MN, USA: History-Papers, 2024, pp.1-10.

  • Reviews

    • Mershon E. . The Modern Language Review 2021, 116(1), 168-170.
    • Mershon E. . Modern Philology 2019, 117(1), E48-E50.