Sign in

Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS

@braddonite.bsky.social
257 followers 275 following 29 posts

Senior Lecturer Victorian Lit and Culture at Loughborough Uni. Mental health in the 19th century; Victorian asylums; sensation and gothic fiction; Neo-Victorian-dabbler; dog-parent; Dahl-maker. (She/Her)

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Patrick Leary @patrickleary.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
If you work on the 19th-c press and are looking at bills for travel, repro fees, etc., applying for a Curran Fellowship should be a no-brainer. Not a lot of hoops to jump through, and the folks making the decisions are researchers just like you. These are open to anybody, of any age, anywhere. #C19
14630
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
More senseless culling of excellent departments. Terrible news about History at the Uni of Hertfordshire.
000
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Bestselling novelist Marie Corelli was born today in 1854 as Caroline Cody. It’s a great day to perform a cover reveal for my volume of the @vpfa.bsky.social Key Popular Women Writers series on Corelli—out VERY soon. I am incredibly excited for it to be out in the world! @lboroenglish.bsky.social
A book cover image for the Key Popular Women Writers volume on Marie Corelli written by Joanna Turner. It depicts a painting of a woman standing on a rock, the sea and vast sky behind her. She points into the distance, winking, with the wind blowing her dark hair. She is dressed in a long skirt, blouse, and scarf, and wears boots
2155
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This is SO GOOD! Julia Kuehn and Diane Eveline Van den Brink open the latest issue of @vpfa.bsky.social journal with a polemical article that includes a case study featuring Wilkie Collins and Marie Corelli.
victorianpopularfiction.org
Victorian Popular Fictions 8.1 1 Kuehn and van den Brink
The Good, the Bad, and the Popular: The Question of a Popular Canon and Other Methodological ContemplationsJulia Kuehn and Diane Eveline van den BrinkDownload PDF hereAbstractThis article challenge…
053
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
You did brilliantly @lizhedgecock.bsky.social - it was a fascinating session. I’ve just ordered the first 2 Mrs Hudson and Sherlock books….
100
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Bethany Dahlstrom @cryingtheoretic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Learning about William Holman Hunt’s orientalist religious works set in front of this beautiful backdrop. Absolute perfection. #VPFAPublics
053
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
@helenmckenzie.bsky.social ‘s new research on Braddon’s letters to the RLF and philanthropy more generally is very exciting and points to some really fruitful new areas of discovery.
012
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The Bodies panel was certainly one of my favourites too. Fascinating research presented at #VPFAPublics day 2.
042
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Presented my #VPFAPublics paper this morning in the Moot Room, which is gorgeous. I felt a bit like I was preaching a sermon!
A chapel-like roomA room at LJMUMoot room
071
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Jo’s fantastic Corelli book will be out in August!
062
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Delightful that as we gear up for #VPFAPublics, the new issue of VPFJ is out, featuring yours truly in some great company! Have I been wanting to write this since my MA? Quite possibly. Alcott, sensation, Genette, Goethe ... What more could you want? doi.org/10.46911/YER... @vpfa.bsky.social
doi.org
Victorian Popular Fictions 8.1 3 Butler-Way
“The omen never fails”: Appropriating Intertexts in Louisa May Alcott’s A Long Fatal Love ChaseEmma Butler-WayDownload PDF hereAbstractNot seeing publication until 130 years after it was written, L…
1137
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Lucie Matthews-Jones @luciejones83.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Thank you to @vpfa.bsky.social for inviting me to give my 1st (pedagogy focused) keynote where I playful thought about What the Victorians Taught Me About Teaching? I focused on creative production, emotion, sociability&wellbeing. I shared some of my students creative work too. #vpfapublics
A lecture theatre environment. Looking onto a PowerPoint screen with a slide that reads What the Victorians Taught Me About Teaching?: Creative Pedagogy in the Classroom. In the front three desks with creative work on them.
5197
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Your paper was so good Jo! It was great to share a panel with you!
120
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Andrea Kaston Tange @aktange.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Twin Cities' horrors continue though media has moved on. Families are still in hiding (schools w/virtual options till April), ICE still abducting people w/disregard for law, ongoing need for rent relief. Here's one hyper-local effort from my trusted colleague. Please RT even if you can't donate.
artistic poster of a wolf and a hand and garlands of wildflowers; the text reads "March rent financial mutual aid needed. Supporting 11 families. Current goal: $7,000.00. Venmo: @Emma-Torzs"
03846
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
One of my brilliant doctoral researchers passed her viva yesterday! So pleased for her, but will miss the regular meetings with her and @drclaireocall.bsky.social very much.
161
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Registration is now live for my VPFA Study Day on 'Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities'. It's free to attend, thanks to funding from the VPFA and the Health Humanities Hub at Loughborough University. The programme and the link to register here: victorianpopularfiction.org/sensation-fi...
victorianpopularfiction.org
Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: 27th March 2026
A VPFA Study DayHosted by Loughborough University Registration now open! Click here to register Scroll down for the Study Day Programme The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect…
0127
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Still time to send me an abstract for Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities. It’s shaping up to be a fascinating day!
033
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Please give Emma's wonderful blog post about Guillermo del Torro's Frankenstein a read. Let us know your thoughts, did you enjoy the film? What did you like and dislike? Even if it deviated from the book, did it, as Emma says, still keep its 'soul'?
033
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Dr Janette Leaf @janetteleaf.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
If you like #Victorian popular fiction, #Egyptomania or #19thCentury Art, I hope you'll like my article! I loved my editors! @vpfa.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social @ncsascholars.bsky.social @issegyptomania.bsky.social @mariecorelli.bsky.social @edinburghup.bsky.social
1155
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
So proud of Dr Jo Turner and her many achievements ❤️
130
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Send me your abstracts for Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities #VPFA #HealthHumsLboro
042
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
culturalcurrents.bsky.social @culturalcurrents.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
On Wed 29 Oct, 16.15, join us for our first event of 2025-26, feat. two @lboroenglish.bsky.social legends: 1/1 Dr Anne-Marie Beller @braddonite.bsky.social "We regret to learn that Miss Braddon is out of her mind": Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Life and Fiction
133
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇
01511
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
🚨Call for Papers! ❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day 🗺️Loughborough University 📅27 March 2026 💷 FREE For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for... Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for more information
Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa
CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

•	Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
•	The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…
12521
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Proofs arrived! @kerryfeatherstone.bsky.social and I translated and edited #MaryElizabethBraddon’s only serial written for the French press 🇫🇷 and her only published fiction written in French.
Contents page of a book
050
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Such a great keynote. #VPFAExtremes
041
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
First panel of the day is Mental Illness in Braddon, which couldn’t be more up my street! #VPFAExtremes
151
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Lovely #VPFA peeps ♥️
2110
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Tara MacDonald @tara-macdonald.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
THRILLED to share that my book has won the VPFA Second Book Prize! 🎉
1165
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Exciting new issue of VPFJ is now out in the world, featuring my review for Helena Esser's fantastic Steampunk London: Neo-Victorian Urban Space and Popular Transmedia Memory. I'm a big fan. Get your libraries on it. @vpfa.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social doi.org/10.46911/TWO...
doi.org
Victorian Popular Fictions 7.1 8 Butler-Way
Helena Esser, Steampunk London: Neo-Victorian Urban Space and Popular Transmedia Memory. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024, 248 pp. HB £85.00. ISBN: 9781350433908 Reviewed by Emma Butler-Way Downlo…
0117
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Dr Helena Esser @helenaesser.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Just chaired an excellent first panel of #VPFAExtremes with fellow #Birkbeck Victorianists @janetteleaf.bsky.social, Jeremy Newton, & Gordon Bates on Hypnotic Gothic Fictions!
0126
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Birmingham & Midland Institute @bmi1854.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
We are delighted to welcome the @VPFA1 for day 1 of their 3 day conference "Heights, Depths and Extremes." #VPFAExtremes #VPFA #bmi1854 #birmingham #victorian
095
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Starting the Intertextuality and Adaptation panel, we've got Julia Kuehn joining us online to talk about Marie Carelli's novel The Sorrows of Satan and its stage adaptations #VPFAExtremes
062
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
‘Even grammatical’! 😂
120
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
My favourite fact of the first day! #VPFAExtremes
162
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Great paper on vivisection and dehumanisation by Brandi Burns. Some quite horrible details though 😢
030
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Now we have Crescent Rainwater talking about Netta Syrett’s novel The Victorians and its debt to a wide spectrum of Victorian fiction in its representation of sexual liberated modern women, as well as lesbian desire #VPFAExtremes
032
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Emma Butler-Way @ebutler-way.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
I had the best time presenting this paper! It was such a great panel to be on - by a *wild* coincidence, we had two separate papers, featuring two separate books that both just so happened to have a character with the last name of Tempest, and someone accidentally selling their soul... #VPFAExtremes
084
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
On the Sappho and Swinburne panel, first we’ve got V J Rene joining us online to discuss extremity in Swinburne’s work, including masochism, erotic transgression and political radicalism #VPFAExtremes
032
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Next we have Professor Andrew King very appositely discussing the ‘Brummagem popularity’ of Granville Bantock’s song cycle Sappho #VPFAExtremes
063
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna @annaulrika75.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Cecilia Fabaro is now speaking about George Egerton's last short story collection 'Fantasias' and the "extreme experiments will allegory" in these stories. #VPFAExtremes
022
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
The Sappho panel today was excellent. #VPFAExtremes
022
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Anna Shane @annas1891.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
We now have Casey Reeves discussing Renee Vivien and Natalie Burney’s poetry and their use of Sappho to signal to the queer community #VPFAExtremes
065
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
HistFest @histfest.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
📣 EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT To mark the release of her eagerly anticipated new book, VICTORIA’S SECRET: THE PRIVATE PASSION OF A QUEEN, we’re thrilled to announce an exciting new event with historian and author Dr Fern Riddell 7pm, Thurs 24 July | British Library Book now: histfest.org/victorias-se...
Event poster. Headshot to author Fern Riddell (left) and her new book cover (right), Victoria’s Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen.
03012
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
culturalcurrents.bsky.social @culturalcurrents.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Here's the programme for our free hybrid Symposium on Periodisation, Generations, and the Gaps Between, Wed 7 May, 1-5pm - register here: www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias...
023
Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Enjoyed the chance to listen to two of my brilliant colleagues speak about their research on Wednesday, in the midst of a busy busy teaching week. Thank you @jadefrench.bsky.social and Emily ❤️
040
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Loughborough University PR @lboropr.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Loughborough English professor Elaine Hobby has been with Her Majesty the Queen today at the unveiling of a statue of Aphra Behn - the first professional woman writer. The event took place in Behn's home city of Canterbury. Read more: 👇 bit.ly/4bdmmaD
bit.ly
Her Majesty the Queen unveils Aphra Behn statue following campaign involving Loughborough English professor
Her Majesty the Queen has officially unveiled a historic statue of Aphra Behn in Canterbury today, marking a momentous occasion in the recognition of the first full-time professional woman writer in t...
065
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Sarah Parker @profsarahparker.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Event alert! Periodisation, Generations, and the Gaps Between Symposium, 7 May 2025, 1-5pm BST, feat. @amigonidavid.bsky.social @helenkingstone.bsky.social Fatima Borrman and Helen Small, organised by me and @jadefrench.bsky.social hybrid and FREE, register here: www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias...
lboro.ac.uk
Periodisation, Generations, and the Gaps Between
Hybrid - International House & Zoom Webinar, 7 May 2025, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
0105
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals @rs4vp.org · 04/02/2025
👋Hello Bluesky! We are now officially "live" and will regularly post announcements, tidbits, and other exciting news that will interest our members and friends across the sky! Follow us, tag us, invite your friends to join us and we will endeavor to do the same!
24827
Reposted by Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS
Pete Orford @peteorford.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Two Dickens talks for the price of one today: first stop is Eastbourne to deliver the Birthday talk (on Madame Defarge and the Goblin of Avignon) to their Dickens Fellowship branch, then straight to London to talk about editing Pictures from Italy to my Dickens postgraduates.
My favourite Dickens character, the Goblin of Avignon, points gleefully to a pit during her enthusiastic tour of a former inquisition chamber Madame Defarge (on the right) squares up against Miss Pross (on the left). Who will win? There's only one way to find out: FIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!
0112