I am a Visiting Professor in the School of English, University of Leeds, and Research Affiliate of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnogaphy, University of Oxford. Formerly Professor of History and PVC and Dean, Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. Belcher Visiting Fellow in Victorian Studies at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, 2020-2023.

My most recent book is Darwinism’s Generations. The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859-1909 (Oxford University Press, 2024), but I have previously published widely on Victorian culture, especially urban culture, press and periodicals, life-writing, and the literature of Victorian Studies. More details provided on my Books page.

I am currently working on the author ledgers for Chambers’s Journal for the Curran Index, and developing my work on generations in the long nineteenth century. See my Current Projects page.

I was founding editor of the Journal of Victorian Culture, and the first Honorary Secretary of the British Association for Victorian Studies.