Xavier Aldana Reyes

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes

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Biography

Xavier Aldana Reyes is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University and a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. He works across modern and contemporary literature, cinema and television, from the early twentieth century to the present day.

Xavier specialises in Gothic and horror film and fiction, their histories, industries and socio-political work. His academic research focuses on the role of corporeality and embodiment in literature and cinema, the relationship between aesthetics and affect, the transnational nature of modes and genres, and the ability of horror to mediate personal and national trauma. He has published four monographs - Gothic Cinema (Routledge, 2020), Spanish Gothic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Horror Film and Affect (Routledge, 2016) and Body Gothic (UWP, 2014) - and four edited collections - Graveyard Gothic (with Eric Parisot and David McAllister; Manchester University Press, 2024), Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (with Maisha Wester; Edinburgh University Press, 2019), Horror: A Literary History (British Library Publishing, 2016) and Digital Horror (with Linnie Blake; I.B. Tauris, 2015). These publications have been reviewed in international academic journals such as Gothic Studies, Horror Studies, C21 Literature, The Years’ Work in Cultural and Critical Theory, Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, Atlantis, MEDIENwissenschaft, Brumal, Revista de Literatura, Helikon and Fantastika, as well as in The Times Literary Supplement, the website for The British Association for Literature and Science and the magazines Rue Morgue, Starburst and The Lady.Xavier has been interviewed for BBC Radio 3, Swedish radio and Turkish TV, as well as newspapers and news websites like Times Higher Education, The Independent and Vox, and appeared in the documentaries Why Horror? (Canada, 2014) and Wonderland: Gothic (UK, 2023).

Xavier is currently writing a short monograph, Contemporary Body Horror, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2024/25. This book seeks to expand the reach and meanings of ‘body horror’, and conceives of it as absolutely essential to understanding the state and value of the genre in the twenty-first century.

As fiction anthologist, Xavier has edited seven collections for the British Library: ‘The Burial of the Rats’ and Other Tales of the Macabre by Bram Stoker (2023), Visions of the Vampire: Two Hundred Years of Immortal Tales (with Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, 2020), The Gothic Tales of Sheridan Le Fanu (2020), Promethean Horrors: Classic Tales of Mad Science (2019), Roarings from Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood (2019), The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson (2019) and The Gothic Tales of H. P. Lovecraft (2018). He is also chief editor for the international Horror Studiesbook series (University of Wales Press), which has published 20 books to date. 

Work with public institutions over the years has included a collaboration with the BFI for their Gothic: The Dark Heart of Cinema season (2013), co-organisation of the Darkness and Light: Exploring the Gothic exhibition at the John Rylands (2015), as well as a number of city-wide Gothic Manchester festivals (2013-2019). Since 2021, he has contributed liner notes, video essays and audio commentaries to various releases by film distributors Arrow Video, Arrow Player (streaming service), Radiance, Severin, Second Sight, Imprint and Cauldron that have been reviewed in magazines like Sight and Sound and Variety. He has also written for newspapers The Irish Times, La Vanguardia (Spain) and The Skinny, as well as for the websites Five Booksand The Conversation. In 2022, he also worked with Scottish Opera on the programme for the opera Ainadamar.

Xavier teaches across the BA and MA English programmes. He leads the MA unit ‘Post-Millennial Gothic’ and the second year BA film unit ‘Theorising the Screen’, and teaches on ‘Twentieth-Century Gothic’ (MA), ‘Gothic on Screen’ (third year) and ‘Film Modes and Genres’ (second year). In the past, he has taught units on critical theory, gender, modernist literature and postwar fiction. Outside the Gothic and horror, he has strong interests in affect studies, film theory, queer studies, critical theory and contemporary (postwar) literature.

In 2022, Xavier was elected co-President, with Dr Karen Macfarlane, of the International Gothic Association.

Academic and Professional Qualifications

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP). Lancaster University (2013)
  • PhD in English Literature. Lancaster University (2013) 
  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Lancaster University (2012)
  • MA Modern and Contemporary Literature. Birkbeck College, University of London (2009)
  • BA (Hons) English Philology. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (2007)

Other academic service (administration and management)

  • Institutional Media Studies pathway representative for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) (2022-)
  • Co-Director of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (2021-2023)
  • Impact Coordinator for English, Manchester Metropolitan University (2016-2019)
  • Academic Coordinator and Convenor, ‘International Summer Programme (British Culture and Society 1800-2000)’, Lancaster University, Department of English and Creative Writing (2009-2013)

External examiner roles

External examiner for academic programmes:

  • BA (Hons) in Film and Media Studies, University of Hull (October 2021-October 2025)
  • MA in English, University of Reading (October 2018 - October 2021)

External examiner for 11 PhDs:

  • Thesis on ‘liquidity’ and contemporary Gothic media (Newcastle University, 2024)
  • Thesis on haunted houses in contemporary Hollywood horror films (University of Stirling, 2024)
  • Thesis on monstrosity in the artistic oeuvre of Marylin Manson (Universidad de Jaén, Spain, 2023)
  • Thesis on Sheridan Le Fanu’s late Gothic writings (University of Limerick, Ireland, 2023) 
  • Thesis on the intradiegetic camera in found footage horror (Northumbria University, 2023)
  • Thesis on contemporary Gothic fiction and history (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2022)
  • Thesis on contemporary Gothic fiction and metamodernism (Nottingham Trent University, UK, 2022)
  • Thesis on Jeanette Winterson and violence (University of Reading, UK, 2022)
  • Thesis on ecohorror film and fiction (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2019)
  • Critical-creative thesis on monstrosity and the horror genre (University of Surrey, UK, 2018)
  • Thesis on childhood and the Gothic in children’s fiction (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, 2014)

Additionally, Xavier has internal examined five PhD theses on the following topics: theology and nineteenth-century Gothic fiction; pandemics and the Gothic, the biocultural ecoGothic; Satanic panic and the Gothic imaginary; and the non-human in digital games.

External examiner for Masters of Research:

  • Thesis on body horror and trans identity (University of Birmingham, 2022)
  • Thesis on robotics and feminism (University of Huddersfield, 2017)
  • Thesis on Tolkien and fantasy (University of Huddersfield, 2017)

Expert reviewer for academic publishers

Xavier has acted as external reviewer for renowned academic publishers (Oxford University Press, Routledge, Manchester University Press, Bloomsbury, University of Minnesota Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Edinburgh University Press, University of Wales Press, Liverpool University Press, Anthem Press, McFarland and Peter Lang), as well as a host of academic journals, including PMLA (Modern Language Association), Genre (Duke UP), Gothic Studies (MUP), Horror Studies (Intellect), Journal of American Studies (CUP), Cinema Journal (University of Texas Press), Film-Philosophy (EUP), The Journal of Aesthetics and Culture (Taylor & Francis), Somatechnics (EUP), Studia Neophilologica (Taylor & Francis), C21 Literature (Gylphi), Medical Humanities (British Medical Journal), New Review of Film and Television Studies (Taylor & Francis), The Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies (Intellect), Text Matters (Lodz University Press, Poland), Studies in Gothic Fiction (National University), Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies (Auckland University of Technology), Senses of Cinema (Senses of Cinema Inc., Australia), Humanities (MDPI), Open Screens (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies), Palgrave Communications (Palgrave Macmillan), Open Library of Humanities, Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural (Falmouth University, UK), Atlantis (Spanish Association of English Studies, Spain), Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (Washington University in St. Louis, US), Brumal: Revista de investigación sobre lo Fantástico (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain), Alambique: Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasia / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica (University of South Florida), Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain),PCEIC: International Journal on Collective Identity Research (Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain), and the Journal of the Whedon Studies Association (US). He is on the editorial boards of the following open-access journals: Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror (University of Brighton), The Journal of Stephen King Studies (Lancaster), The Dark Arts Journal and Fantastika Journal.

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

  • UK Research and Innovation Talent Review Peer College Member (2022-)
  • National Science Centre, Poland (2022)
  • Austrian Science Fund - FWF der Wissenschaftsfonds (2021)
  • British Academy, ‘The Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling the UK’s International Challenges’ (2019)

Editorial Board membership

Xavier is chief editor of the Horror Studiesbook series published by the University of Wales Press (2018-). He sits on the editorial boards for the international book series International Gothic (Manchester University Press), Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature (Anthem Press), Queer and Trans Intersections (University of Wales Press), Dialogarts (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Terror: Estudios Críticos (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain) and Vampire Studies (Peter Lang), and for the journals Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (Intellect), Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror (Brighton University) andFantastika Journal (independent).

Xavier is a founding member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies’ Horror Studies Special Interest Group (2020-).

Membership of professional associations

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2013)
  • Co-President of the International Gothic Association (2022-)
  • Member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (2020-)
  • Member of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (2013-)
  • Member of the Modern Languages Association (2013-)
  • Member of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (2021-)

Get in touch

0161 247 6711
436 Geoffrey Manton Building

Impact

Impact

Xavier’s research contributed to one of the English department’s impact case studies for the Research Excellence Framework 2021: ‘Gothic Place-Making: New Cultural Production, Curation and Tourism in Greater Manchester and Beyond’.

Grants

  • British Academy Small Grant for ‘The (Lost) Origins of Gothic Cinema: Reconstructing the Old Dark House Mysteries’ (£8115) (October 2018 - January 2020).
  • AHRC / BBC 3 New Generation Thinkers scheme shortlist. (2016 and 2017)
  • British Academy Small Grant for ‘Spain, Britain and the Gothic’ project (£4885) (October 2013 - January 2016)
  • Higher Education Academy grant (£400) in support of the Gothic Networking Day (April 2014)
  • Lord Mayor’s Fund for the launch of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (£300) (October 2013)
  • Full doctoral research scholarship from Lancaster University. Duration: three years. (2010-2013)
  • Transport bursary from the Higher Education Academy to attend ‘”How far can you go?” Ethics, Transgression and Independent Study Workshop’ at the University of Derby (2012)
  • Transport bursary from the Science Fiction Foundation to attend the ‘Apocalypse and Its Discontents’ conference at Westminster University (11-12 December 2010)

Invited Papers

  • ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, 5th Gothic Studies Seminar conference, UNESP - São Paulo State University (29 October 2024). Keynote.
  • ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, Gothic Summer Institute, University of Sheffield (8-12 July 2024). Talk and seminar/workshop series.
  • ‘Contemporary Body Horror: Becoming “Other-Wise” ’, Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2024, 13th Annual Conference, University of Liverpool (3-5 July 2024). Keynote.
  • ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (9 May 2024). Research paper and seminar.
  • ‘Contemporary Body Horror: Becoming “Other-Wise”’, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia (10 April 2024). Masterclass.
  • ‘Less Than Human: The Cannibal Metaphor in Contemporary Body Horror’, Cannibal Consumption: Culture, Capitalism, Critique conference, University College Dublin (1 March 2024). Keynote.
  • ‘Digital Death and the Rise of Computer Screen Cinema’, Death Futures conference, Death Online Research Network, Northumbria University (31 May-2 June 2023). Keynote.
  • ‘Gothic Place Making’, co-presented with Helen Darby, Dr Matt Foley and Prof Dale Townshend, Arts, Humanities and Place Showcase, co-organised by The School of Advanced Study, the AHRC and the University of Sheffield, Events Central, Sheffield, UK (21 March 2023). Talk.
  • ‘Dracula’s Grand Tour: The Industrial and Cultural Coordinates of Vampire Cinema in Continental Europe, 1959-1983’, Recovering the Vampire: From Degeneration to Regeneration conference, Edge Hill University (4-6 November 2022). Keynote.
  • ‘Spain’s Restless Dead: On the Silences, Monsters and Graves of the Spanish Civil War’, Gothic Interruptions: 16th International Gothic Association Conference, Trinity College Dublin (26-29 July 2022). Keynote.
  • ‘(Re)framing Nosferatu: Early German Gothic Cinema and the Visual Composition of Monsters’, Nosferatu at 100: The Vampire as Contagion and Monstrous Outsider, University of Hertfordshire (12 March 2022). Public talk.
  • ‘An Introduction to Gothic Literature’, Literally Gothic Festival, Alderney Literary Trust, Channel Islands (16 October 2021). Public talk.
  • ‘Horror Film and Affect: The Experiential Dynamics of Cinematic Fear’, First International Workshop of the Recreational Fear Lab, Aarhus University, Denmark (26 August 2021). Research paper.
  • ‘Viewer Alignment, Affect and Horror Cinema’, Researching Representations of CSA in Contemporary Culture: Wellcome Trust funded seminar series, UCD Dublin, Ireland (25-26 May 2021). Research paper.
  • ‘The Value of Public Engagement to Research in the Humanities: The Case of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies’, University of Milan, Italy (6 May 2021). Digital lecture and PhD workshop.
  • ‘Automata, Cyber Terror and Technocratic Reality’, 50+ Shades of Gothic: The Gothic Across Genre and Media in US Popular Culture, PopMeC (Popular Media and Culture) (2 March 2021). Digital keynote interview. 
  • ‘Ghost Stories for Christmas’, Casa Con Popular Culture Convention, New York, US (18 December 2020). With Dr Emma Liggins. Digital keynote.
  • ‘The What and Why of Found Footage Horror’, XVIII Semana da imagem: Entre archivar e experimentar na tecnocultura, Unisinos - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil (16 November 2020). Digital keynote.
  • ‘Spanish Horror Cinema: Industry, Political Trauma and the Gothic Imaginary’, Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, London branch (8 October 2020). Digital keynote.
  • ‘Future Gothic: The Critical Turn to Empirical Research and Reception Studies’, Gothic Spectacle and Spectatorship, one-day symposium, Lancaster University (1 June 2019). Keynote.
  • ‘Vampiros: On the Spanish Vampire’, ‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic Vampire, and Its Progeny, a symposium for the bicentenary of ‘The Vampyre’, Keats House, Hampstead (6-7 April 2019). Public talk. 
  • ‘Why Affect Matters: The Importance of Emotion and Somatics to the Study of the Horror Film’, Screening the Unreal symposium, Research and Enterprise Group for Screen Studies, University of Brighton (4 July 2018). Research paper.
  • ‘Spirits in the Labyrinth, or Why the Civil War Continues to Be Spain’s Favourite Gothic Tale’, The Politics of Gothic, EAC Research Seminar, University of Manchester (15 November 2017). Research paper.
  • ‘Visualising Monstrosity in Early Gothic Cinema’, Monsters Film Festival, Health Humanities Research Group, University of Reading (11 October 2017). Public talk.
  • ‘Horror Heroines in the Age of Postfeminism’, Women-in-Peril or Final Girls? Representing Women in Gothic and Horror Cinema, 2nd Gothic Feminism conference, University of Kent (25–26 May 2017). Keynote.
  • ‘Time and Timing in Gothic Horror Film: An Affective Reading’, Temporal Discombobulations: Time and the Experience of the Gothic, University of Surrey (24 August 2016). Keynote.
  • ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about the Gothic’, Teaching the Gothic and the Supernatural for A Level course, English and Media Centre, London (9 June 2016). Research talk.
  • ‘On the Pain of Others: Horror and Selfhood’, Self and Society postgrafuate symposium, University of Huddersfield (2 June 2016). Keynote.
  • ‘Rethinking the Monstrous-Feminine: The (Un)Gendered Body of Abjection’, Monsters and Monstrosities. Reimagining the Gothic: 2016 Symposium and Showcase keynote (6 May 2016). Keynote.
  • ‘The New Spanish Gothic Cinema: Continuities, Contexts, Approaches’, Stirling University (23 April 2016). Research paper.
  • ‘Gothic Pedagogies: Challenges, Strategies and Design of Modern and Contemporary Gothic Modules’, Reading the Fantastic: Tales beyond Borders, Leeds University (23 April 2015). Keynote.
  • ‘Sex, Blood and Rock n’ Roll: Splatterpunk and the Rise of Popular Horror Fiction in the 1980s’, English and Creative Writing Research Seminar, Northumbria University (22 April 2015). Research paper.
  • ‘Gothic Studies and Public Engagement: The Case of Gothic Manchester’, Madrid’s Gothic Week / Semana Gotica de Madrid (9 November 2013). Invited public talk.
  • ‘Mad Science and Surgical Horror’, British Film Institute (11 November 2013). Public talk.
  • ‘The Christmas Ghost Story’, Ghost Stories, organised by The Longest Night writers and Portico Library (13 December 2013). Public talk.

Invited Roundtable Discussions

  • ‘El horror contemporáneo: Un viaje a través de las artes’[‘Contemporary Horror: A Journey through the Arts’], with Rubén Sánchez Trigos and Luis Pérez Ochando, Festival Eñe, Biblioteca Regional de Madrid, Spain (21 October 2023).
  • Tortoise Lates: Fear, with Matt D’Ancona, Kim Newman, Anna Bogutskaya, Prof Neil Martin and Vanessa Woolf. Tortoise Media (27 October 2022). 
  • Q&A with Fernanda Melchor on the publication of the International Booker Prize longlised novella Paradais, Blackwell’s Manchester (26 April 2022).
  • J-Horror Day. Organised by Grimmfest, with assistance from the BFI, Sotckport Plaza (31 October 2021).
  • European Horror panel. Weekday Night Bites public discussion organised by the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies SIG (27 October 2021).
  • Turning a Negative into a Positive. Workshop for PhD and Early Career Scholars, International Gothic Association Biennial Conference 2019 (30 August 2019).
  • Q&A with Rosie Garland. Gothic Manchester 2017 (27 October 2017).
  • Reading 21st Century Horror guest panel. With Stephen Jones, Dara Downey and David Moody. Guest panel at Horror Expo Ireland 2016 (30 October 2016).
  • Q&A with Andrew Michael Hurley. Twisted Tales of the North special event for Gothic Manchester 2016 (21 October 2016).
  • Exploring the Influence of Gothic Horror on Contemporary Culture. Discussion following the performance of Gothic play Cuddles at the Royal Exchange Theatre (21 May 2015).
  • Hellraiser special event. With actors Nicholas Vince and Barbie Wilde, writer Sam Stone and publisher David J Howe. Grimmfest horror festival and Grimm Up North (4 October 2013).

Projects

Event Organisation

  • ‘Progression, Regression, and Transgression in Gothic World Literature & Film: New Approaches to the Ethics of Difference’,  A Gothic-Without-Borders online conference (29 September-2 October 2023), hosted by the Department of World Languages and Literatures (WLL) at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Vancouver, Canada; coordinated by the SFU Center for Educational Excellence (CEE); and co-sponsored by the International Gothic Association (IGA). Editorial board/committee duties.
  • International Gothic Summer School (6-9 June 2023), co-organised with Prof Dale Townshend and colleagues in the Gothic Centre.
  • ‘Gothic Cinema’, HOME 8-week course (14 January - 3 March 2020). The course included public screenings of the films Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Black Sunday (1960), and a book launch.
  • ‘Introduction to the Female Gothic’, HOME day course (14 September 2019), co-organised with Drs Emma Liggins and Sorcha Ní Fhlainn.
  • ‘Detecting Pessimism: Thomas Ligotti and The Weird in an Age of Post-Truth’ (12 June 2019), Manchester Metropolitan, co-organised with Dr Rachid M’Rabty and Pilot Light TV festival.
  • ‘Emerging Infectious Literatures’ (27 July 2016).
  • ‘Gothic Networking Day’ (12 July 2014). 
  • ‘Contemporary Gothic’ strand of the Humanities in Public programme (7th-21st October 2013).
  • Gothic Manchester Festival (21st-27th October 2013) and launch of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies.
  • Contemporary Gothic Reading Group (10 October 2013).
  • ‘Day of the Droogs’, co-organised with Prof Berthold Schoene and Prof Andrew Biswell (January 2014).

Teaching

Postgraduate Teaching

Currently Teaching

  • Post-Millennial Gothic (MMU) - Unit Leader
  • Twentieth-Century Gothic (MMU)

Previously Taught

  • Screening the Gothic (MMU)
  • Gothic and Modernity(MMU)

Undergraduate Teaching

Currently Teaching

  • Gothic On Screen. Level 6 (MMU)
  • Theorising the Screen. Level 5 (MMU) - Unit leader.
  • Film Modes and Genres. Level 5 (MMU)

Previously Taught

  • Modern Gothic. Level 6 (MMU)
  • Critical Dialogues. Level 4 (MMU)
  • Contemporary Literature in English. Level 6 (MMU Cheshire)
  • Decadence to Modernism. Level 6 (Lancaster University)
  • English Literatures of the World. Level 5 (MMU Cheshire)
  • The Theory and Practice of Criticism. Level 5 (Lancaster University)
  • Literature, Intertextuality, Adaptation. Level 4 (MMU Cheshire)
  • Gothic and Gender. Level 5 (MMU Cheshire)
  • Introduction to English Literature. Level 4 (Lancaster University)

Supervision

Xavier welcomes PhD applications related to any aspect of Gothic in literature, film, television and popular culture. He is happy to consider interdisciplinary proposals and projects in creative writing (with a co-supervisor in that discipline).

PhD Supervision

Completed

  • Oliver Rendle, ‘ “Live. Laugh. Loathe.”: Cosmic Humour and Contemporary Pessimism in Literature and on Screen (1969-2019)’ (2019-2022). Principal Supervisor.
  • Rebecca Wynne-Walsh, ‘Basque Gothic Cinema (1990-2021): A Regionalist Challenge to the Spanish Model of National Cinematic Production and Cultural Identity’ (2019-2022). AHRC-funded EU student. Principal Supervisor.
  • Heather O. Petrocelli, ‘Horror Film and the Queer Spectator: An Empirical Study of the Spectatorial Relationships between Queerness, Genre, and Drag Performance’ (2018-2021). International PGR. First supervisor.
  • Keith O’Sullivan, ‘ “Somewhere I Had To Go”: The Postmodernist and Posthumanist Gothic Transmutations of Ramsey Campbell’s Longer Fictions, 1981-2016’ (2017-2021). Principal Supervisor.
  • Rachid M’Rabty, ‘Nihilism, Self-destruction and the (Im)possibility of Escape in Contemporary Transgressive Fictions’ (2014-2019). Principal Supervisor.

Ongoing

  • Fredric Blanc, ‘The Weird and The Sea: Monstrosity and Thalassophobia in Modern and Contemporary Fiction’ (2019-). EU student. Principal Supervisor.
  • Luke Moloney, ‘Hybrid Geographies: Ecocritical Horror in Contemporary Science Fiction, 1998–2020’ (2020-). Principal Supervisor.
  • Karmel Knipprath, ‘Clive Barker’s Transmedial Gothic (1978-present)’ (2022-). EU student. First Supervisor.
  • Brontë Schiltz, Thesis on the representation of television in Gothic texts (2023-). First Supervisor.
  • Hayley Louise Charlesworth, ‘The Queer Villain Protagonist in Post-Millennial Gothic Television’ (2018-). Second Supervisor.

Visiting Research Studentships

Xavier has supported international students with 3-month research stays that included some limited supervision.

  • Ilaria Villa (University of Milan), ‘Humans and Non-humans: Representation of Diversity and Exclusionary Practices in Twenty-first Century British Science Fiction TV Series’ (October-December 2019)
  • Maribel Escalas (Universitat de les Illes Balears), ‘La identidad infantil en el New Horror audiovisual y la tríada IFH/M (Infancia-Familia-Horror/Mal)’ (July-September 2018)

MA Supervision

Xavier has supervised dozens of subject-specific MA dissertations on topics as varied as representations of skin in the Gothic, the weird subgenre and historiographic fiction.

Research outputs

Xavier’s areas of expertise are Gothic Studies and Horror film and fiction, with a special focus on twentieth and twenty-first century literature and cinema from Anglophone countries (especially the UK and the US) and Europe, corporeality and affect theory, and (trans)nationalism. Adaptation Studies, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Modernism, Critical Theory and Postcolonial Theory remain secondary areas of interest.

Academic Collaborations

Xavier has co-written and co-edited research with a number of international academics, such as Maisha Wester (US), Eric Parisot (Australia), Julio França (Brazil), Francisco Javier Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez (Spain) and Rocío Rødtjer (US), and with university colleagues Linnie Blake, Sorcha Ní Fhlainn and Joanna Verran (Emeritus Professor in Microbiology). He has organised various events with members from the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, most significantly the 14th conference of the International Gothic Association in 2018. As part of the Gothic Manchester festival, he collaborated with a number of academics from the departments of Microbiology (Verran), Fashion (Dr Jennifer Richards), Geography (Dr Julian Holloway) and Film and Media Studies (Dr Emily Brick and Dr Jo Ormrod).

Press and media

Media appearances or involvement