Overview
My research focuses on the role and representation of infrastructure in nineteenth-century writing. In particular, I'm interested in the relationship between discourses of development and nineteenth-century ideas about education and national development. In the past, my research has concentrated on the significance of communication media and technology in Victorian literature. I have further research interests in the cultural history of sexual knowledge, in literary constructions of privacy from the Romantic period to the present, and in contemporary responses to and reinventions of the Victorian period. I would be pleased to supervise postgraduate research related to any of these subjects.
I hold an MA (Hons) in English and French (2011) and a PhD in Victorian Literature (2015) from the University of St Andrews. I joined Â鶹Íø in 2016 as a lecturer in nineteenth-century British literature, having previously taught at St Andrews and for the Scottish Universities' International Summer School based at Edinburgh University.
Additional Contact Information
My research and teaching focus on nineteenth-century literature, with particular emphasis on the relationships between literary culture and media, technologies, and infrastructures of communication.
Email: k.koehler@bangor.ac.uk
Phone: (0124838)2113
Location: Room 303, New Arts Building, College Road, Â鶹Íø, LL57 2DG
I welcome PhD proposals in the following subject areas: Victorian literature and culture; Neo-Victorian literature; letters in literature and epistolary writing; media, networks, and technologies of communication in literature; infrastructure and literature; the life and work of Thomas Hardy.
Teaching and Supervision
I would welcome PhD proposals in the following subject areas: Victorian literature and culture; Neo-Victorian literature; letters in literature and epistolary writing; media, networks, and technologies of communication in literature; infrastructure and literature; the life and work of Thomas Hardy. If you are a prospective doctoral researcher and not sure whether your project fits my expertise, please don't hesitate to contact me to discuss your proposal.
Research Interests
I'm currently the principal editor of a four-volume source book on nineteenth-century communication culture, forthcoming with Routledge in 2025. Nineteenth-Century Communications: A Documentary History, 1780-1918 seeks to help researchers navigate the overwhelming wealth of materials related to the development of communications and their political, economic, social, and cultural impacts. This research is supported by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust with a small grant.
I also recently co-edited, alongside Dr Gregory Tate (St Andrews University) a special issue of the journal 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth-Century on 'Nineteenth-Century Literary Languages'. The issue will appear early in 2025 and represents the culmination of the AHRC-funded research network
I am working on a book on the way in which nineteenth-century popular verse cultures responded to - and helped to shape - the experience of living in a networked world.
Building on my interest in communications, my research also explores the infrastructures (especially roads and bridges) that underpinned the increasingly faster transmission of messages. In particular, I have been working on the cultural reception in Welsh and English of the two bridges over the Menai. This research forms the beginning of a new project that takes a four nations approach to exploring the connections between the nineteenth-century bildungsroman and other discourses of development.
My first monograph, , was published by Palgrave in 2016. Related research on epistolary elements of novels and stories by , Charles Dickens, , , and Anthony Trollope has been published in Brontë Studies, Victorian Literature and Culture and Victorian Review, as well as in edited collections.
I have also written on the ways in which the plots and narrative form of literary texts refract changing attitudes toward during the Victorian period. An essay about the significance of handwriting in Victorian fiction, periodicals, and graphology manuals has appeared in an edited collection about
Postgraduate Project Opportunities
I am willing to supervise a PhD
Publications
2025
- Published
Koehler, K., McIlvenna, K., Hopkins, E., Kirkby, N., Smith, E. & Thompson, H., 25 Sept 2025, Routledge.
Research output: Book/Report › Book - Published
Koehler, K. (Editor) & Tate, G. (Editor), 2 May 2025, In: 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century. 37
Research output: Contribution to journal › Special issue › peer-review
2023
- Published
Koehler, K., 2 Sept 2023.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review - Published
Koehler, K., 8 Nov 2023, In: 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2022
- Published
Koehler, K., Jul 2022, Institutions of Literature, 1700-1900: The Development of Literary Culture and Production. Mee, J. & Sangster, M. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 234-254 21 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review - Published
Koehler, K., May 2022.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
2021
- Published
Koehler, K., Oct 2021, In: Journal of Victorian Culture. 26, 4, p. 499-518
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2020
- Published
Koehler, K., Jan 2020, In: English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920. 63, 2, p. 211-233
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2019
- Published
Koehler, K., 26 Jun 2019, Oxford Bibliographies.
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
2018
- Published
Koehler, K., Mar 2018, In: Brontë Studies. 43, 2, p. 136-146
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - Published
Koehler, K., 1 Dec 2018, Victorian Judgement. Gregory, J. R., Bautz, A. & Grey, D. (eds.). Routledge
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
2017
- Published
Koehler, K., Jun 2017, In: Victorian Literature and Culture. 45, 2, p. 395-412
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2016
- Published
Koehler, K., 9 Nov 2016, Thomas Hardy's Short Stories: New Perspectives. Berning Schaefer, J. & Craft Brownson, S. (eds.). 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge, p. 84-102 (The Nineteenth Century Series).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review - Published
Koehler, K., 6 Jun 2016, London: Palgrave Macmillan. 236 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
2015
- Published
Koehler, K., 31 Aug 2015, Private and Public Voices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Letters and Letter-Writing. Koehler, K. & McDonald-Miranda, K. (eds.). Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, p. 155-182 27 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - Published
Koehler, K., Mar 2015, In: Victorian Review. 41, 1, p. 125-142 18 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - Published
Koehler, K. (Editor) & McDonald-Miranda, K. (Editor), 31 Aug 2015, Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press. 255 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Activities
2023
Symposium organised by the Centre for Literary Editing and the Materiality of the Text (CLEMT)
30 Jun 2023
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)Bilingual workshop as part of AHRC-funded research network Victorian Literary Languages.
12 Jan 2023 – 13 Jan 2023
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)
2022
25 Aug 2022 – 26 Aug 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)26 May 2022 – 27 May 2022
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)
2020
3 Dec 2020
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
2019
An interview about new research into poetry and other writing about the bridges across the Menai.
19 Nov 2019
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor)A talk as part of a series of lectures offered by the university to coincide with the first installment of the Winter Light event.
16 Nov 2019
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Contributor)Public workshop exploring the ways in which poetry can change our understanding of the relationship between place and memory.
14 Nov 2019
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Contributor)Lecture given as part of the Shankland Library Lecture series at Â鶹Íø.
6 Nov 2019
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)28 Aug 2019
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)Short interview, alongside actor Isabella Nefar, about Howard Brenton's play Jude (Hampstead Theatre), loosely based on Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure.
9 May 2019
Links:
One-day workshop for twenty KS4 students from the South West, organised in collaboration with Dr Catherine Charlwood (St Anne's College Oxford) and Mr Andrew Hewitt (Hull University), designed to support pupils' engagement with and understanding of nineteenth-century non-fiction and their interest in Thomas Hardy. The workshop was funded by the European Research Council-funded project 'Diseases of Modern Life', based at Oxford University, and supported by the Thomas Hardy Society.
7 May 2019
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Schools engagement (Organiser)Invited workshop for AS-level students at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen, Caernarfon.
3 May 2019
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Schools engagement (Speaker)May 2019 – Jul 2019
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Participant)The free workshop introduced resources designed to support the teaching and study of nineteenth-century non-fiction. It also explored strategies for using these resources and for drawing on Hardy Country heritage in the teaching of nineteenth-century non-fiction. A subsequent event for pupils, designed to support their engagement with nineteenth-century non-fiction, took place on 7 May 2019.
12 Apr 2019
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Organiser)
2018
Editor
23 Jul 2018 – 1 Jul 2021
Links:
'Alike and Unlike: Revisiting Boscastle and Great Orme's Head'
19 Jul 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)Organisation of, and participation in, an international, interdisciplinary colloquium, featuring fourteen speakers from eight countries.
5 Jul 2018
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)
2017
A lecture delivered at the Dorset County Museum as part of the 2017 Thomas Hardy Public Lecture Series, co-organised by the University of Exeter, the National Trust, and Hardy Country.
26 Oct 2017
Links:
Two-month fellowship (£6,000) for research in the Huntington Library. The award enabled me to conduct primary and secondary research toward my current monograph project on Victorian Poetry and Epistolary Aesthetics.
Jun 2017 – Aug 2017
Activity: Types of Award - Fellowship awarded competitively (Recipient)'Poor Marty's Only Card': Re-reading Marty South
22 Apr 2017
Links:
Peer-reviewing and editorial decisions.
Apr 2017 →
Activity: Editorial activity (Editorial board member)
2016
Paper Title: Consuming Old Selves: Re-Reading Letters in Victorian Poetry
1 Sep 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)29 Jul 2016
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Lecturer)29 Jul 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Keynote/plenary speaker)Paper Title: ‘Large quantities of vinegar’: Nutrition Science and/in Victorian Culture
18 Jun 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)19 Mar 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2015
2015 →
Activity: Publication peer-review (Peer reviewer)
Projects
-
17/05/2021 – 19/06/2023 (Finished)
-
31/08/2020 – 15/06/2024 (Finished)
-
01/06/2017 – 31/08/2017 (Finished)