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Dr Victoria Mills

Positions held:
  • Reader in Nineteenth Century Literature and Visual Culture, School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Prior to joining 糖心logo入口 I held a Research Fellowship at Darwin College, Cambridge and a Teaching Fellowship in Nineteenth-Century Literature at King鈥檚 College, London.听My first career was听in the museum sector including roles at the Victoria and Albert Museum and听The Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum).

    I have research interests in the听intersections between听literature, visual and material cultures,听museums and collecting, the history of the book and in gender and听sexuality. I have published on the relationship between collecting and gender in the work of a range of nineteenth-century writers including George Eliot, Oscar Wilde and Henry James. I co-edited (with Tatiana Kontou) the six-volume series, Victorian Material Culture, for Routledge (2022) and Victorian Arts (with Kate Nichols). My short film. ,听 exploring the work of听Victorian 'art-workman' David Parr was released in 2025.听

    I am currently Subject Lead in English, Co-Director of the 糖心logo入口 Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies and Programme Director for the MA in Victorian Studies.

    听

    听


    Highlights

    • My short film made in collaboration with the Derek Jarman Lab.

    • Victorian Arts co-edited with Kate Nichols (Routledge 2022)

    • The Victorian Art-Workman - British听Academic Small Grant (2024-2027)

    • 'Victorian Beauty', special issue of (with Heather Tilley) 2023.

    • a six听volume series co-edited with Tatiana Kontou听 (Routledge in 2022)

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Programme Director MA Victorian Studies
    • Subject Lead in English

    Professional memberships

    • British Association for Victorian Studies (Committee Member)

      North American Victorian Studies听Association

      Fellow of the Higher Education Academy


  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Literature, visual and material cultures
    • The history of the book
    • Gender and sexuality, especially Victorian masculinities
    • Nineteenth-Century classical reception
    • The Arts and Crafts Movement

    Research overview

    I am currently working in three broad areas:

    Literature, visual and material culture

    I co-edited, (with Tatiana Kontou) the six-volume series (2022) and (with Kate Nichols).听

    I co-curated听Victorian Sentimentality with Alison Smith and Nicola Bown at Tate听Britain听in 2011. In 2015 I was the Researcher for the 'Fallen Woman' exhibition held at the Foundling Museum. I am currently researching the figure of the Victorian art-workman and have received a British Academy Small Research Grant to support this work (2024-7). My short film on this topic, The Man Who Painted His House, was released in 2025.听

    I have published on Vernon Lee's Greek travel writing and the imagination of ruin in the British School at Athens volume (2024).

    The history of the book

    I听have published on the practice of extra-illustrating Victorian novels set in Italy and am continuing to develop research in this area. I co-edited the Word and Image special issue, 听and I have recently co-developed听the 糖心logo入口- Passau听network听in the history of the book, which has met annually since 2023. I am听currently working on two book projects linked to this project: Textual Ecologies: Media, Materials, Environments and Codex (In)Disciplines: Altered Books and Knowledge Formations, 1700-1900

    Gender and Sexuality

    I am interested in literary figurations of the听relationship听between gender and material culture.听I am completing a monograph听Collecting, Masculinity and the Victorian Imagination, which听focuses on the literary depiction of male collectors and the significance of collecting as theme and method in late-Victorian writing. 听I听have also published on the figure of the female collector and on the imagination of museums by听Victorian women听writers. My essay on the gender听politics听of Victorian book illustration can be read听

    Research Centres and Institutes

    • Steering Committee,
    • Steering Committee,
    • Committee member,

    Research projects

    Art, Labour and Devotion: Uncovering the Victorian Art-Workman.

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in working on aspects of nineteenth-century literature and culture that relate to my research interests.

    Teaching

    I teach across the BA in English literature, the MA in Victorian Studies and on the new MA in English Literature and Culture. I have supervised BA dissertations on literature from the Renaissance to the present day and MA dissertations on topics ranging from Walter Pater and the poetics of antiquity to opium eating in the Cambridgeshire fens.  

    Teaching modules

    • Rewriting our World
    • Dissertation MA English and MA Medical Humanities
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Mills, Victoria (2020) . Journal of Victorian Culture 25 (2), pp. 240-263. ISSN 1355-5502.
    • Mills, Victoria (2011) . 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 12, ISSN 1755-1560.
    • Mills, Victoria (2009) . Women鈥檚 History Review 18 (4), pp. 669-686. ISSN 0961-2025.
    • Mills, Victoria (2006) . 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 0 (2), ISSN 1755-1560.
    • Mills, Victoria (1998) . Journal of Education in Museums 19, ISSN 0260-9126.
    • Mills, Victoria (1995) . Teaching History 81, pp. 7-9. ISSN 0040-0610.

    Book

    • Kontou, T. and Mills, Victoria, eds. (2022) . Victorian Material Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781138225268.
    • Mills, Victoria and Nichols, K., eds. (2022) . Victorian Material Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781138225329.

    Book review

    • Mills, Victoria (2019) .
    • Mills, Victoria (2016) .

    Book section

    • Mills, Victoria (2024) . In: Despotopoulou, A. and Mitsi, E. (eds.) Victorians and Modern Greece: Literary and Cultural Encounters. Modern Greek & Byzantine Studies, Routledge British School at Athens). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781032495200.
    • Mills, Victoria (2022) . In: Pelizzari, M.A. and Wilcox, S. (eds.) The Idea of Italy: Photography and the British Imagination, 1840-1900. New Haven, U.S.: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300263831.
    • Mills, Victoria (2020) . In: Scholl, L. (ed.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women鈥檚 Writing. Palgrave. ISBN 9783030027216.
    • Mills, Victoria (2015) . In: Murray, B.H. and Henes, M. (eds.) Travel Writing, Visual Culture and Form 1760-1900. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. pp. 65-86. ISBN 9781137543394.
    • Mills, Victoria (2013) . In: Shears, J. and Harrison, J. (eds.) Bric-脿-Brac in Victorian Literature - Oddities and Commodities. Nineteenth century series. Ashgate. ISBN 9781409439905.
    • Mills, Victoria (2012) . In: Boehm, K. (ed.) Bodies and Things in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Palgrave. pp. 130-152. ISBN 9780230369382.
    • Mills, Victoria (2009) . In: Cal猫, Luisa and Di Bello, Patrizia (eds.) Illustrations, Optics and Objects in Nineteenth-Century Visual and Literary Cultures. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. pp. 147-166. ISBN 9780230221970.

    Editorial

    • Mills, Victoria and Tilley, Heather (2023) . 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 34, 糖心logo入口 University. ISSN 1755-1560.
    • Boehm, K. and Mills, Victoria (2017) . Word and Image 33 (3), pp. 233-239. Taylor and Francis. ISSN 0266-6286.
    • Mills, Victoria (2016) . 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century (23), 糖心logo入口 University. ISSN 1755-1560.
    • Mills, Victoria (2008) . 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 0 (6), 糖心logo入口 University. ISSN 1755-1560.

    Exhibition

    • Mills, Victoria and Bown, Nicola and Smith, A. .

    Other

    • Mills, Victoria (2015) . London, UK: The Foundling Museum.
    • Mills, Victoria and Hooper-Greenhill, E. (2004) . Leicester, Department of Museum Studies.
    • Mills, Victoria (2004) . Leicester University, Department of Museum Studies.

    Video

    • Mills, Vicky and Ford, L. (2025) . Derek Jarman Lab.
  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Outreach

    Co-Curator '' (with Alison Smith and Nicola Bown) Tate Britain, 2011

    Exhibition Researcher, ', Curated by Lynda Nead, Foundling Museum, 2015.听My on the research I undertook for the exhibition. A based on this project.

    Silent Orchid Summer School in听association with Birmingham Arts and Science Festival July 2020