Charles Gough

• BA English Literature (University of Birmingham)
• MSt English (1830-1914) (Oxon)

I graduated with a first-class degree in English Literature cum laude from the University of Birmingham in 2019. On completion I received the Tess Winnall Memorial Prize, awarded to the final year student who achieves the highest marks in English Literature and who is also recognised as an impressive ambassador for their department and discipline, through their contributions to department societies and activities. During my time as an undergraduate, I served as Student Mentor and Student Experience Ambassador in the College of Arts and Law. In 2021 I graduated from the University of Oxford with Distinction in my Master's (MSt English, 1830-1914). I was awarded a Graduate Prize for outstanding achievement by Trinity College. At Oxford, I was a committee member for the Oxford English Graduate Conference 2021.

I returned to the University of Birmingham in October 2021 to begin my studies as an AHRC Midlands4Cities-funded doctoral researcher, under the co-supervision of Professor John Holmes (University of Birmingham), Professor Rebecca Mitchell (University of Birmingham), and Dr Ross Forman (University of Warwick).

University of Birmingham

• Teaching Associate, English Literature (UG Year 2 – Decadents & Moderns)
• Teaching Associate, English Literature (UG Year 1 – Poetry)
• Teaching Associate, Academic Writing Advisory Service (UG & PGT College of Arts & Law)

Birmingham City University

• Visiting Lecturer, English Literature (UG Year 2 – The Victorians)

The principal focus of my doctoral research is the emergence of the ‘queer soul’ in nineteenth-century poetry. Investigating the ways in which multiple poets imagined varying iterations of the soul to explore queer self-construction and relationships, my project seeks to uncover the significance of the soul as a mode of examining and articulating the intricacies of sexual selfhood in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Alongside works of literature in verse, my project also considers works of art, sexology, and life writing, in an interdisciplinary approach that traverses the boundaries between literature, visual art, and the history of sexuality.

More broadly, my research interests include:  

• Poetry
• Queer studies
• Decadence and Aestheticism
• Visual art
• Life Writing/Confessional Writing

Conferences

• "George Ives, The Order of Chaeronea, and Homosexual Community at the Fin de Siècle", Fin de Sexe? A Symposium on Sexuality, University of Edinburgh. (June 2024)
• "'Behold the dawn has yet to come': Queer Eschatology and Futurity in The Diary of George Ives", Queer and Trans History Now Postgraduate Symposium, Mansfield College, University of Oxford. (June 2024)
• "Recovering 'Angelo': The Textual (De)Construction of John Addington Symonds's Secret Sonnet Sequence", English Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick. (May 2023)
• "(Queer) Lyric Subjectivity in the Late-Victorian Sonnet Sequence: John Addington Symonds's Portrait of a Soul", English, Drama & Creative Studies PGR Symposium, University of Birmingham. (Dec 2022)
• "Marc-André Raffalovich's Queer Mysticism", BAVS 2022: British Association for Victorian Studies Annual Conference, University of Birmingham. (Sept 2022)
• "Queer Mysticism in Marc-André Raffalovich's 'Cyril'", Midlands4Cities Research Festival. (June 2022)
• "John Addington Symonds's Intertextual Selves: Poetry and Queer Self-Construction in the Memoirs", Oxford English Graduate Conference, University of Oxford. (June 2022)
• "Queer Mysticism in Marc-André Raffalovich's 'Cyril'", English Postgraduate Symposium, University of Warwick. (May 2022)

Other Talks

• "Queer Eschatology and Community in the George Ives Archive", 19CC Research Seminar, University of Birmingham. (Feb 2024)
• "Homosexual Eschatology in the Diary of George Cecil Ives", Familiar Terms Research Series, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. (Dec 2023)
• "A 'Fragmentary Soul': Reconstructing John Addington Symonds's Secret Sonnet Sequence", English Literature Research Seminar, University of Birmingham. (May 2023)

Other Activities

• Research Fellow - Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin (AHRC International Placement Scheme 23/24)
• Conference Organising Assistant - Dickens Society Conference 2024, University of Birmingham
• Organiser & Moderator - 19CC Postgraduate Symposium 2023, University of Birmingham
• Research Centre Assistant - Nineteenth-Century Centre (19CC), University of Birmingham
• Conference Organising Assistant - BAVS 2022, University of Birmingham
• Conference Ambassador - BAVS 2022, University of Birmingham

Memberships

• British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS)
• British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS)
• University of Birmingham Nineteenth-Century Centre (19CC)

@charliejgough