Personal statement

Emma is a SWWDTP-funded PhD researcher in Environmental Humanities, working at Bath Spa University and the University of Bristol.

Her thesis focuses on soil as an active agent in folk horror, examining how the genre portrays interactions with the earth as dynamic and unsettling. By analysing depictions of 'soured earth’, haunted rural landscapes, and buried objects or substances, Emma investigates how these narratives frame soil as more than a backdrop—highlighting its agency in shaping human and environmental outcomes.

Emma's research connects the fears expressed in folk horror to real-world environmental concerns such as soil degradation, food insecurity, and the ecological consequences of human activity. Through this lens, Emma examines how soil operates as both a material and symbolic force, influencing the course of events in horror stories and reflecting humanity's complex relationship with the non-human natural world.

By combining literary analysis, film criticism, environmental theory, and cultural history, Emma’s work contributes to an understanding of soil as a dynamic participant in ecological systems and cultural imagination. Her research sheds light on how storytelling can reshape perceptions of the role of soil in human and environmental futures.

Academic qualifications

  • BA (Hons) English Literature, 
  • MA Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa University

Thesis title

‘The ground became sour’: the representation of soil, burial, and unearthing in contemporary British and North American folk horror.

Research supervisors

Research interests

Emma's research interests broadly span environmental literature and film, cultural studies, horror and the Gothic, and ecological theory, with a focus on how interactions with the natural world are represented in genre fiction and media.