Prof Sara Lodge

Prof Sara Lodge

Professor

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 2641
Email
sjl15@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 301
Location
Kennedy Hall

 

Biography

Born and raised in Edinburgh, I gained my BA (Hons) from Cambridge and my D.Phil from Oxford, where I taught before coming to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. I specialise in 19th-century literature and culture, with a particular interest in popular culture and visual culture; writers who are also artists, musicians, natural scientists; and creative spaces such as 19th-century theatre and periodicals, where different forms of literary and artistic production meet and merge.

My most recent book, published by Yale University Press in September 2024, is , which uncovers for the first time the world of real 19th-century female detectives while comparing their lives and work with the sensational myth of the female detective that flourished on the stage and page from the 1840s to the 1890s.

Previous work includes books about the hugely popular comic author, artist, and political protest writer Thomas Hood (1799-1845), the critical reception of Jane Eyre, and the extraordinary polymath Edward Lear (1812-1888), who was a nonsense poet, travel writer, composer, scientific depicter of new species of animal and bird, and a landscape painter. I am editor of an essay collection Literature in Transition: The 1820s (Cambridge University Press) which explores diverse aspects of the decade, from early science fiction to writing about vagrancy and bodysnatching.

As a journalist, I write for the Times Literary Supplement, Irish Times, Literary Review, and Washington Examiner. I've appeared on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, and Radio Scotland, among other broadcasters, and enjoy co-producing and anchoring full-length radio documentaries, such as this one on .

I also work as a speechwriter, writing speeches predominantly on women's rights, education, and the pressing environmental issues that define our epoch. I am happy to supervise PhD students in any of my areas of interest.

Research areas

Nineteenth-century literature and culture, rhetoric, the literary essay and eco-criticism

PhD supervision

  • Bethany Gilbert
  • Charlotte Lewis
  • Alice Remmington
  • Maitrayee Roychoudhury

Selected publications

  • Lodge, S., 10 Jan 2025, TLS, The Times Literary Supplement.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

  • Open access
    Lodge, S., 11 Jul 2025, In: Victorian Periodicals Review. 57, 4, p. 418-438 21 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Lodge, S., 13 Jun 2025, TLS, The Times Literary Supplement, 6376.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Book/Film/Article review

  • Lodge, S., 14 May 2025, Wall Street Journal.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

  • Open access
    Lodge, S., 1 Nov 2024, In: Victoriographies. 14, 3, p. 252-271 20 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Lodge, S., 24 Sept 2024, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 359 p.

    Research output: Book/Report › Book

  • Lodge, S., 3 Oct 2023, In: The Literary Review. 523, 7.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

  • Lodge, S., 31 Mar 2023, In: TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. 6261, 6.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

  • Lodge, S., 30 Sept 2022, Libraries in literature. Crawford, A. & Crawford, R. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 233-244 12 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Lodge, S. J., 1 Nov 2022, Remediating the 1820s. Sangster, M. & Mee, J. (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 118-136 13 p. (Edinburgh critical studies in romanticism).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter