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4. Joanna Hofer-Robinson

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Biography

Joanna Hofer-Robinson is an interdisciplinary researcher whose major projects combine tools from cultural geography and historical studies with close readings of diverse species of text, theatre, and visual culture. She has also experimented with practice-led research: leading a project that staged two rarely-performed Victorian plays. With particular expertise in nineteenth-century literature and culture, her recent publications include the monograph Dickens and Demolition (Edinburgh UP, 2018) and Sensation Drama, 1860—1880: An Anthology (Edinburgh UP, 2019; co-edited with Dr Beth Palmer).


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Research Interests

The literature and culture of the long-nineteenth century; infrastructure; practice-led research.

Research Grants

	Project	Funding Body	Start Date	End Date	Award
	BreakNet (Strand 2)	Irish Research Council	01-MAY-20	31-DEC-21	€5,000.00
	Breaking the Network: Infrastructure, Internationalism, and Community Fragmentation in the Long-Nineteenth Century	Enterprise Irl	15-JUN-21	14-JUN-23	€16,000.00

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Publications

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Books

	Year	Publication
	(2018)	Dickens and Demolition: Literary Afterlives and Mid-Nineteenth Century Urban Development. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2018) Dickens and Demolition: Literary Afterlives and Mid-Nineteenth Century Urban Development. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]

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Book Chapters

	Year	Publication
	(2021)	'Bleak House' Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2021) 'Bleak House' In: Jeremy Tambling (eds). An Encyclopaedia of Urban Literary Studies. Cham: Palgrave-Macmillan and Springer. [Details]
	(2020)	'‘Once upon a time would not prove to be All-time or even a long time.’ From Sanitary Reform to Cultural Memory: The Case of Jacob’s Island' Hofer-Robinson, Joanna (2020) '‘Once upon a time would not prove to be All-time or even a long time.’ From Sanitary Reform to Cultural Memory: The Case of Jacob’s Island' In: Bell, Emily (eds). Dickens After Dickens. York: White Rose University Press.   [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]

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Edited Books

	Year	Publication
	(2024)	The Plays of Charles Dickens Joanna Hofer-Robinson and Peter Orford (Ed.). (2024) The Plays of Charles Dickens Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]
	(2019)	Sensation Drama, 1860-1880: An Anthology Joanna Hofer-Robinson and Beth Palmer (Ed.). (2019) Sensation Drama, 1860-1880: An Anthology Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]

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Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2021)	'Adaptable near and far: C. H. Hazlewood’s double adaptations' Hofer-Robinson, Joanna (2021) 'Adaptable near and far: C. H. Hazlewood’s double adaptations'. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2019)	'‘Staging The Frozen Deep as Practice-led Research: “Illusion can only be perfected through the feelings.”’' Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2019) '‘Staging The Frozen Deep as Practice-led Research: “Illusion can only be perfected through the feelings.”’'. Dickens Quarterly, 36 (4):329-346   [Full Text] [Details]
	(2018)	'‘“kaleidoscopes of changing pictures”: Representing Nations in Toy Theatres’' Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2018) '‘“kaleidoscopes of changing pictures”: Representing Nations in Toy Theatres’'. Journal of Victorian Culture, 23 (1):4-63 [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2017)	'Is He a Dramatist? Or, Something Singular! Staging Dickensian Drama as Practice-Led Research' Robinson, Joanna; Cox Jensen, Oskar; Whipday, Emma (2017) 'Is He a Dramatist? Or, Something Singular! Staging Dickensian Drama as Practice-Led Research'. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, 43 (2):160-182   [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2020)	'‘“Twin sisters”: Intermediality and Sensation in Wilkie Collins’s The New Magdalen’' Beth Palmer and Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) '‘“Twin sisters”: Intermediality and Sensation in Wilkie Collins’s The New Magdalen’'. Nineteenth-Century Contexts, [DOI] [Full Text] [Details]
	(2014)	'‘Digitalizing Dickens: Adapting Dickens for the Bicentenary’' Joanna Robinson (2014) '‘Digitalizing Dickens: Adapting Dickens for the Bicentenary’'. Dickens Quarterly, [Full Text] [Details]

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Audiovisual material

	Year	Publication
	(2011)	Dickens: Dark London App. Museum of London (2011) Dickens: Dark London App. Audiovisual material [Details]

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Articles

	Year	Publication
	(2020)	How David Copperfield tells the story of Charles Dickens. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) How David Copperfield tells the story of Charles Dickens. Articles   [Details]
	(2019)	'Dickens' impact in our culture is felt most strongly when we barely see him at all'. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2019) 'Dickens' impact in our culture is felt most strongly when we barely see him at all'. Articles   [Details]
	(2019)	A 19th century play with modern overtones. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2019) A 19th century play with modern overtones. Articles   [Details]
	(2017)	'Reinventing Dickens for Christmas'. Joanna Robinson (2017) 'Reinventing Dickens for Christmas'. Articles   [Details]
	(2019)	'The Art of Acting Naturally'. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2019) 'The Art of Acting Naturally'. Articles   [Details]

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Blog

	Year	Publication
	(2020)	Toy Theatres and Real Ones. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) Toy Theatres and Real Ones. Journal of Victorian Culture Online: Blog   [Full Text] [Details]
	(2015)	‘Month 9: “Say something plain.” Speech and Suppression in the January Number’, Dickens Our Mutual Friend Online Reading Project. Joanna Robinson (2015) ‘Month 9: “Say something plain.” Speech and Suppression in the January Number’, Dickens Our Mutual Friend Online Reading Project. Blog [Details]
	(2012)	Dickens and London, Museum of London Website. Joanna Robinson (2012) Dickens and London, Museum of London Website. Blog [Details]

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Book Reviews

	Year	Publication
	(2018)	Review of Emily Steinlight. Populating the Novel: Literary Form and the Politics of Surplus Life. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 2018. Pp. xi + 278. $55. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2018) Review of Emily Steinlight. Populating the Novel: Literary Form and the Politics of Surplus Life. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 2018. Pp. xi + 278. $55. Book Reviews [Details]
	(2014)	‘Review of Charles Dickens and the Mid-Victorian Press, 1850–1870, ed. by Hazel Mackenzie and Ben Winyard’. Joanna Robinson (2014) ‘Review of Charles Dickens and the Mid-Victorian Press, 1850–1870, ed. by Hazel Mackenzie and Ben Winyard’. Book Reviews [Details]

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Film or Broadcasts

	Year	Publication
	(2016)	Podcast of the Dockland Encounters Symposium. Joanna Robinson, et al (2016) Podcast of the Dockland Encounters Symposium. Film or Broadcasts [Details]
	(2015)	‘Is She His Wife? or, Something Singular! A Dickensian Drama’. Joanna Robinson, Emma Whipday and Oskar Cox Jensen (2015) ‘Is She His Wife? or, Something Singular! A Dickensian Drama’. Film or Broadcasts [Details]

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Journal Volume Edited

	Year	Publication
	(2023)	Infrastructure Beyond Networks. Joanna Hofer-Robinson and Nicola Kirkby (editors) (2023) Infrastructure Beyond Networks. Journal Volume Edited [Details]
	(2023)	Interstitial Spaces. Joanna Hofer-Robinson, Chris Louttitt, and Frederik Van Dam (editors) (2023) Interstitial Spaces. Journal Volume Edited [Details]

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Multidisciplinary Project

	Year	Publication
	(2020)	Dockside Entertainments: The Crimean Banquet. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) Dockside Entertainments: The Crimean Banquet. Multidisciplinary Project   [Details]
	(2020)	The Dublin Diving Bell. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) The Dublin Diving Bell. Multidisciplinary Project   [Details]
	(2020)	The Dublin Time Ball. Joanna Hofer-Robinson (2020) The Dublin Time Ball. Multidisciplinary Project   [Details]

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Professional Activities

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Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	2024	Belcher Visiting Fellowship in Victorian Studies	St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford
	2021	Returners Scheme	University College Cork
	2021	H2020 Proposal Preparation Support	Enterprise Ireland
	2020	Royal Irish Academy/British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium	British Academy
	2018	Research Support Funding	University College Cork
	2011	Museum of London Stipend	Museum of London
	2019	NUI Galway Conference Funding	NUI Galway
	2020	Knowledge Frontiers Seed Funding (collaborative award)	British Academy
	2020	New Foundations	Irish Research Council
	2020	Huntington Library Mayers Fellowship	Huntington Library
	2011	AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship	AHRC
	2015	Small Grants Competition	King's College London
	2017	UCD SEED Funding Scheme	UCD
	2014	Small Grants Competition	King's College London
	2015	British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS) Event Grant	British Association of Victorian Studies
	2019	College of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Social Sciences Event Funding	UCC
	2013	Huntington Library Research Fellowship	AHRC International Placement Scheme
	2016	Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship	Irish Research Council

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Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	British Association of Victorian Studies	Member	/
	The Dickens Society	Trustee	01-SEP-21 / 31-AUG-24
	The National Association of English Studies, Ireland	Member	/
	Irish Network for Nineteenth-Century Studies	Founder	/
	The Higher Education Academy	Associate Fellow	/
	North American Victorian Studies Association	Member	/

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Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Graduate Studies Committee	Acting Head of Graduate Studies, English Department	2022 / 2022
	Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication Multidisciplinary Committee: Royal Irish Academy	Member	2022 / 2026
	The Dickens Society	Trustee	2021 / 2024
	Library	English Department Representative	/
	Postgraduate Liaison	Postgraduate Liaison Officer	/
	First Year Committee	Member	/

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Employment

	Employer	Position	From / To
	King’s College London	Graduate Teaching Assistant and Guest Lecturer	01-JAN-13 / 31-MAY-16
	University College Dublin	Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow	01-OCT-16 / 31-JUL-17
	The University of Surrey	Research Assistant	24-JAN-16 / 30-SEP-16

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Education

	Year	Institution	Qualification	Subject
	2014	King's College London	Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education	Teaching Qualification
	2019	UCC	Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education	Teaching Qualification
	2009	The University of Southampton	BA	English Literature
	2016	King's College London	PhD	'Charles Dickens and Creative Destruction'
	2011	King's College London	MA	English: 1850 – the present

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Outreach Activities

	Description
	Dickensian Drama The research project ‘Dickensian Drama’ engaged members of the public as well as to explore the benefits of practice-led research methods for the study of nineteenth-century drama. So far, we have staged two rarely-performed plays to academics and interested members of the public. Our first production of Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular! was filmed, and the video has now been viewed on YouTube over 800 times.
	Developing content for a public-facing online archive and the app Port Places, as part of the ERDF-funded project “Ports, Past and Present”: https://portspastpresent.eu/.
	Contributor to RTE Brainstorm: https://www.rte.ie/author/927613-dr-joanna-robinson/
	Writer for the Museum of London I wrote captions and edited text for the Museum of London’s app Dickens: Dark London (2011), and kept a regular Dickens and London blog during their Dickens exhibition in 2012.
	Public Speaker I have given several talks to different branches of the Dickens Fellowship, and at King’s College London and the Museum of London during the 2012 bicentenary of Dickens’s birth.

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Other Activities

	Description
	Principal Investigator: Dickensian Drama     Initiated a collaborative project between the Charles Dickens Museum and cross-disciplinary colleagues at King’s College London and University College London, which investigated what a practice-led research methodology can add to our understanding of Dickensian dramaturgy by staging two rarely performed plays.    The Frozen Deep (2016) and Is She His Wife? or, Something Singular! (2015)         Directed (2016) and produced (2015) two practice-led research productions;     Conducted primary research into staging and performance techniques and workshopped historical acting styles with volunteer actors;  Conducted primary research into staging and performance techniques and workshopped historical acting styles with volunteer actors;  Organised academic and public performances to raise awareness of neglected plays, and to test the effect of our practice-led research on different audiences;  Wrote two successful funding bids and secured three additional sources of funding;  Designed and built the set;  Recruited and communicated with volunteer actors and academic collaborators.    Outputs include:   Two journal articles (in Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Film and Dickens Quarterly);  A film of the production, as a tool for teaching (hosted on YouTube, viewed over 800 times);  Conference papers (Dickens Day 2015 (plenary panel), Society for Theatre Research 2016, Trinity Long Room Hub 2017 (invited));  Invited public talks (Canterbury and London Dickens Fellowship 2016 and 2017); Development of an undergraduate performance workshop (UCC 2018).
	Co-Investigator: (Non-)Spectacular Infrastructure A British Academy-funded interdisciplinary project, working with Dr Jeremy Brice (Sociology, LSE) and Dr Adam O’Brien (Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading), to develop events, a joint publication, and an AHRC funding bid.
	Co-Investigator: Ports, Past and Present: Cultural Crossings between Ireland and Wales An ERDF-funded project and joint initiative with University College Cork and Wexford County Council in Ireland, and in Wales with Aberystwyth University and the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, which aims to increase tourism in port towns on the Irish Sea Basin through a deeper understanding of their past.
	Judge for the Global Undergraduate Awards (2019)
	Founder: The Irish Network for Nineteenth-Century Studies (INNS) Before this project began, there was no interdisciplinary research network for scholars in Ireland who research the nineteenth century across a variety of geographical and cultural contexts. INNS addresses this gap by fostering communication between researchers, offering fora for the presentation of new work, and exploring avenues to develop future collaborative activities. These aims are effected by:   Bidding for institutional and national funding to ensure the sustainability of the network (Irish Research Council New Foundations Award); Networking with colleagues across Ireland to build and maintain a mailing list, organising events (at UCC Apr. 2019 and at NUIG in Dec. 2019), and recruiting representatives from other HEIs.
	Editorial Assistant: Victoriographies (2015 - 17)
	Symposium Organiser: Irish Network for Nineteenth-Century Studies Inaugural Event (2019), NUI Galway. Maritime Spaces, Shows, and the Nineteenth-Century City (2019), UCC. Dockland Encounters (2017), National Maritime Museum of Ireland Dickensian Drama (2015), Charles Dickens Museum Inventing Urban Modernity: Building the Present by Constructing the Past (2014), King's College London
	Reading Group Convenor:  ‘Great Expectations Serial Readalong’ (2018): engaging with digital reading project (UCC).   ‘Confused-cius’ (Jan. 2017 – May 2017): a fortnightly critical theory reading group (UCD). ‘Different Dickens’ (Jan. 2015 – Sep. 2015): a monthly reading group to read and analyse Charles Dickens’s lesser-known work. Collaboration between KCL and Birkbeck. ‘City-Centric’ (June 2012 – June 2014): a monthly interdisciplinary urban studies reading group.

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Teaching Activities

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Teaching Interests

Nineteenth-century literature and theatre
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Research Information

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External Collaborators

	Name	Organisation / Institute	Country
	Dr Peter Orford	The University of Buckingham	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Beth Palmer	The University of Surrey	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Frederik Van Dam	Radbound University	BELGIUM
	Dr Nicola Kirkby	Royal Holloway, University of London	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Chris Louttitt	Radbound University	BELGIUM
	Dr Jeremy Brice	LSE	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Adam O'Brien	The University of Reading	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Oskar Cox Jensen	Queen Mary University of London	UNITED KINGDOM
	Dr Emma Whipday	Newcastle University	UNITED KINGDOM