Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal Statement
I joined Strathclyde as a lecturer in English in 2019. My research interests are in 19thcentury literature, with specific interests in Victorian poetry, literature and science, museum studies, and Gothic fiction.
I gained my BA from New York University (USA), my MA from York University (CA), and my PhD from King's College, University of London.
I am happy to supervise students on any topics related to Victorian literature or the Gothic, including within literature and science, museum studies, decadence and aestheticism, women's health in nineteenth-century literature, the senses in literature, travel and empire writing, and monstrosity.
Research Interests
I have recently published on the intersections between museums and literature in the nineteenth century and nineteenth-century understandings of non-Darwinian evolutionary theory.
the intersections between Victorian science and fin de siècle decadent literature, the representations of women in late-Victorian Gothic fiction, and the depiction of blindness in nineteenth-century poetry.
My first monograph, Arthur O’Shaughnessy: A Pre-Raphaelite Poet in the British Museum (Routledge, 2016), explored O’Shaughnessy’s contributions to the Victorian medieval revival, Pre-Raphaelitism, decadence, and aestheticism. O’Shaughnessy’s work as a taxonomist in the British Museum is foregrounded in this study to suggest new ways of thinking about the relationship between science and literature during this period, through the lens of a technician rather than a theoretician.
My current project is a wide-ranging cultural history of the 19th-century British Museum. As an interdisciplinary, public, and national museum, the British Museum offers a unique lens through which to consider key questions of 19th-century epistemology: How can one ‘know’ from what one sees? How is knowledge organized? Who has access to it? How does this shape public perceptions of class, gender, and nationality? The project explores major changes in the popular conception of history, education, and knowledge itself, across disciplinary boundaries.
I have also published on the intersections between Victorian science and fin de siècle decadent literature, the representations of women in late-Victorian Gothic fiction, and the depiction of blindness in nineteenth-century poetry.
Teaching Interests
My teaching spans the nineteenth century, and focuses on poetry, gender, and the Victorian Gothic.
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Fantasy and the Museum: Objects, Display, and the Public Imagination
Kistler, J. (Co-investigator)
ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)
1/04/23 → 31/03/28
Project: Research - Internally Allocated
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Fantasy and the Museum: Objects, Display, and the Public Imagination
Kistler, J. (Co-investigator)
ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)
1/04/23 → 31/03/28
Project: Research - Internally Allocated
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Eclectic collections: un-disciplining the museum
Kistler, J. & Tattersdill, W., 1 Nov 2025, In: Museum Worlds. 13, 1, p. 49-62 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Downloads (Pure) -
Facts and fictions: emotional authenticity and narrative in natural history exhibitions
Kistler, J., 1 May 2025, In: Museum & Society. 23, 1, p. 38-54 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile26 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
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Victorian Sea Serpents
Kistler, J. (Speaker)
27 Jun 2025Activity: Talk or Presentation › Oral presentation
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Snake Summer at the Hunterian Zoology Museum
Kistler, J. (Recipient)
Jun 2025 → Sept 2025Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Public Events