Research Profile

Joanna Hofer-Robinson

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).


Research Interests

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

Research Grants

 ProjectFunding
Body
Start DateEnd DateAward
BreakNet (Strand 2)Irish Research Council01-MAY-2031-DEC-21€5,000.00
Breaking the Network: Infrastructure, Internationalism, and Community Fragmentation in the Long-Nineteenth CenturyEnterprise Irl15-JUN-2114-JUN-23€16,000.00

Publications

Books

 YearPublication
(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]

Book Chapters

 YearPublication
(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]

Edited Books

 YearPublication
(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]

Peer Reviewed Journals

 YearPublication
(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]

Audiovisual material

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

Articles

 YearPublication
(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]

Blog

 YearPublication
(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]

Book Reviews

 YearPublication
(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]

Film or Broadcasts

 YearPublication
(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]

Journal Volume Edited

 YearPublication
(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]

Multidisciplinary Project

 YearPublication
(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]

Professional Activities

Honours and Awards

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

Professional Associations

 AssociationFunctionFrom / To
British Association of Victorian Studies Member/
The Dickens Society Trustee01-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/

Committees

 CommitteeFunctionFrom / To
Graduate Studies Committee Acting Head of Graduate Studies, English Department2022 / 2022
Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication Multidisciplinary Committee: Royal Irish Academy Member2022 / 2026
The Dickens Society Trustee2021 / 2024
Library English Department Representative/
Postgraduate Liaison Postgraduate Liaison Officer/
First Year Committee Member/

Employment

 EmployerPositionFrom / To
King’s College London Graduate Teaching Assistant and Guest Lecturer01-JAN-13 / 31-MAY-16
University College Dublin Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow01-OCT-16 / 31-JUL-17
The University of Surrey Research Assistant24-JAN-16 / 30-SEP-16

Education

 YearInstitutionQualificationSubject
2014King's College London Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher EducationTeaching Qualification
2019UCC Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher EducationTeaching Qualification
2009The University of Southampton BAEnglish Literature
2016King's College London PhD'Charles Dickens and Creative Destruction'
2011King's College London MAEnglish: 1850 – the present

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.

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. 

Teaching Activities

Teaching Interests

Nineteenth-century literature and theatre

Research Information

External Collaborators

 NameOrganisation / InstituteCountry
Dr Peter Orford The University of BuckinghamUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Beth Palmer The University of SurreyUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Frederik Van Dam Radbound UniversityBELGIUM
Dr Nicola Kirkby Royal Holloway, University of LondonUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Chris Louttitt Radbound UniversityBELGIUM
Dr Jeremy Brice LSEUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Adam O'Brien The University of ReadingUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Oskar Cox Jensen Queen Mary University of LondonUNITED KINGDOM
Dr Emma Whipday Newcastle UniversityUNITED KINGDOM

Contact details


Search profiles by name

Search profiles by topic

English Department

Roinn an Bhéarla

O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork, Cork. Ireland

Top