Lucy Lawrence

A brief outline of my research project

My thesis explores how non-commercial and experimental little magazines such as The Evergreen (1895–97), The Green Sheaf (1903–04), and The Pagan Review (1892) participated in the Celtic revival by creating a unique mode of decadence attuned to the natural world. Through archival work, I recuperate long-dormant voices in Celtic print culture, tracing how spiritual, scientific, and artistic movements reshaped revivalist discourses at the fin de siècle.

Research activities

Publications

• Environmental Streams Conference Report, The Modernist Review Special Issue (WIP, Summer 2026)
• “Open Ecologies in The Evergreen(1895–97),” Victorian Review (Forthcoming in Vol. 51, No. 2, Autumn 2026)
• “Exorcizing the Fog Demon: Eco-Satire and Smoke Abatement in Punch(1880–81),” Victorian Periodicals Review (Forthcoming Summer 2026)
• Contributor to "RSVP Bibliography: 2017–20."Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 58, no. 3, 2025, pp. 299-395,  https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/vpr.2025.a985895.

Selected Conference Papers

• “No Mere Hinterland?: Patrick Geddes, the Camera Obscura, and Observing Rural Modernity” — Modernist Studies Association and British Association for Modernist Studies Joint Conference: Weird Modernisms — seminar paper for Rural Modernisms, Loughborough University (July 2026)
• “Crafting Enchantment in The Green Sheaf: Celtic Folklore, Mystical Waters, and Modernist Primitivism” — Modernist Studies Association and British Association for Modernist Studies Joint Conference: Weird Modernisms, Loughborough University (July 2026)
• “Crystallizing your Darlings” — Kill Your Darlings: Reimagining the Editing Process, A Northern Bridge Cohort Development Symposium, Queen’s University Belfast (May 2026)
• “A Game of Cat’s Cradle: Interdisciplinary Synthesis in The Evergreen: A Northern Seasonal (1895-97)” — Newcastle-Sapienza Seminar Series, "Play," Zoom (October 2025)
• “Dark Humour: Eco-Satire and Smoke Abatement in Punch(1880–81)” – British Association for Victorian Studies 25th Anniversary Conference, University of Oxford (July 2025)
• “Pirates and Patriots: Navigating Identity and Empire in The Green Sheaf(1903–04)” – States of [Perma]Crisis, Sapienza University Postgraduate Conference, Rome (June 2025)
• “Green Aestheticism in Celtic Little Magazines at the Fin de Siècle” – Periodicals, History, and Change, Leeds Library (December 2024)
• “Rewriting the Eco-Apocalypse: Serialization and Shiel’s The Purple Cloud in The Royal Magazine (1901)” – Re/Writing Crisis, Newcastle University (October 2024)
• “Beyond Organicism: Geddesian Synergy, Social Experiments, and Missionary Aestheticism in The Evergreen”– Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, University of Stirling (June 2024)

Teaching and Research Experience

• Guest Lecturer: “Smoke Abatement and the Technocratic Good Anthropocene,” Planetary Imaginations: Literature in the Time of Environmental Crisis, Newcastle University (February 2024, February 2025, and September 2025)
• Postgraduate Demonstrator, Newcastle University (2025-26)
  • Led seminars, office hours, and marked essays for SEL1033: Doing Criticism
• Schools Outreach, Hotspur Primary School (November 2024)
  • Co-developed and delivered Victorian climate change workshops for Year 6 students
• Learning Support Assistant, Newcastle City Council (2023–24) Specialised in support for neurodivergent pupils (ages 5–11)
• Research Intern, Transforming Transition, Newcastle University (2022)
Contributed to widening participation and first-year module reform
• Student Engagement Intern, Newcastle University (2021–22)
Led School-wide data analysis that informed changes to policy and student-led publishing initiatives

Selected Awards and Funding

• AHRC International Placement Scheme, 3 months at the Huntington Library, California, US (February-May 2026)
• AHRC Northern Bridge Cohort Development Grant: Co-organized fully funded 2-day workshop with guest speakers at Queen’s University Belfast (May 2026)
• Renwick Travel Scholarship, 14 days at the British School at Rome (2025)
• Hamilton Prize Runner-Up, Victorian Review Global Essay Competition (2024)
• AHRC Northern Bridge PhD Funding (2024-2028)
• Travel Grant, Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (2024)
• Robinson Bequest Studentship, Philip Robinson Library (2023)
• Cowan, Johnson & Watson Prize, Best Performance in Drama (2022)
• Newcastle University Postgraduate Scholarship (2022–23)

Service and Memberships

• Member, British Association for Modernist Studies
• Member, British Association for Decadent Studies
• Member, British Association for Victorian Studies
• Member, Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
• Member, Long Nineteenth-Century Studies Group, Newcastle
• Committee, Northern Environmental History Network (2023–24)

Campaigning and Advocacy

• Fossil Free Careers Organizer, People & Planet (2023–24)
Successfully lobbied Newcastle University Students’ Union to cease promotion of fossil fuel recruitment. Campaign covered by ITV Tyne & Tees

My academic background

• PhD in English Literature, Newcastle University (2024–2028)
AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Studentship | Thesis: Art for Earth’s Sake: Green Aestheticism and the Celtic Revival in Late-Victorian Periodicals
• MLitt in English Literature, Newcastle University (2023)
Distinction (81%)| Dissertation: “Amid decay lies the best soil of Renascence”: Scottish Decadence and the Celtic Revival
• BA (Hons) in English Literature, Newcastle University (2022)
First-Class Honours (76.8%)| Dissertation: Matrilineal Visions of Regenerative Futurity in Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s Iep Jāltok (2017) and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013)