Dr John Miller

School of English

Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature

John Miller
Profile picture of John Miller
john.miller@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 0194
Jessop West

Full contact details

Dr John Miller
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

I arrived in Sheffield in 2012 to take up a lectureship in Nineteenth-Century Literature and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2016. I am President of the  (UK & Ireland); co-director of the Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre and co-editor of Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature.

Research interests

My research focuses on writing about animals, ecology and empire from the nineteenth century to the present, with particular emphasis on the late Victorian period. My first monograph Empire and the Animal Body (Anthem, 2012) explored the representation of exotic animals in Victorian and Edwardian adventure fiction. My second book was the co-authored volume Walrus for the Reaktion Animal series. I am currently near to completing a monograph titled Victorians in Furs: Fiction, Fashion and Activism. I have started work on my next project, A Literary History of In Vitro Meat which examines the origins of cultured flesh in the late nineteenth century and traces its development in imaginative literature through to the present. I am also contributing co-editor of The Dictionary of Neoliberal Terms and have recently edited a collection of stories about tattooing for the British Library.

Publications

Books

  • Miller J (2022) The Heart of the Forest: Why Woods Matter. British Library Publishing.
  • Miller J (2021) The Philosophy of Tattoos. Philosophies.
  • Miller JW & Miller L (2014) Walrus. Reaktion.
  • Miller J (2012) Empire and the Animal Body: Violence, Identity and Ecology in Victorian Adventure Fiction. Anthem Press.

Edited books

  • McHugh S, McKay R & Miller J (Eds.) (2021) . Springer International Publishing.
  • Miller J (Ed.) (2020) Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain..
  • Miller J (Ed.) (2019) Tales of the Tattooed: An Anthology of Ink. British Library Publishing.
  • Miller J & McCorry S (Ed.) (2019) Literature and Meat Since 1900. Palgrave.
  • McKay RR & Miller J (Ed.) (2017) Werewolves, Wolves and the Gothic. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
  • Hutchings K & Miller J (Ed.) (2016) Transatlantic Literary Ecologies: Nature and Culture in the Nineteenth-Century Anglophone Atlantic World. Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Palladino M & Miller J (Ed.) (2015) . London: Routledge.
  • Miller JW, Maley W & Lyons P (Eds.) (2013) Romantic Ireland from Tone to Gonne: Fresh Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Ireland.. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Journal articles

  • Miller J (2024) . Green Letters, 28(1-2), 109-111.
  • Miller J (2021) . Green Letters, 25(4), 439-441.
  • Miller J (2017) . Green Letters, 21(2), 220-221.
  • Miller J (2016) North Kelvin Meadow. Philosophy Activism Nature(12), 169-178.
  • Miller J (2016) . Green Letters, 20(1), 113-115.
  • Miller J (2014) . Gothic Studies, 1(16), 70-84.
  • Miller J (2013) . Green Letters, 17(3), 305-306.
  • Miller J (2013) . Journal of Victorian Culture, 18(2), 301-305.
  • Miller J (2013) Illustrating the Fur Trade in Boys-Own Adventure Fiction.. Antennae: the journal of nature in visual culture, 48-57.
  • Miller J (2013) Biodiversity and the Abyssal Limit of the Human. 釦聆鳥梯梭棗域襲(1 & 2), 207-220.
  • Miller J (2012) In Vitro Meat: Power, Authenticity and Vegetarianism.. Journal for Critical Animal Studies(4), 41-63.
  • Miller J (2012) Rebellious Tigers, a Patriotic Elephant and an Urdu-Speaking Cockatoo: Animals in Mutiny Fiction.. Journal of Victorian Culture(4), 480-491.
  • Miller J (2012) Introduction: Victorian Animals. Journal of Victorian Culture, 17(4), 436-441.
  • Miller J (2012) Postcolonial Ecocriticism and Victorian Studies.. Literature Compass, 9(7), 476-488.
  • Miller J & Palladino M (2011) Glasgows Doulton Fountain and Postcolonial Heterotopia in Zo禱 Wicombs The One That Got Away.. Safundi: the journal of South African and American studies, 12, 407-423.
  • Miller J (2008) Adventures in the Volcanos Throat: Tropical Landscape and Bodily Horror in R. M. Ballantynes Blown to Bits.. Victorian Review: an interdisciplinary journal of victorian studies(1), 115-130.

Book chapters

  • Miller J (2023) , The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror (pp. 111-118). Routledge
  • Miller J (2022) UTOPIAN FICTION, Edinburgh Companion to Vegan Literary Studies (pp. 278-286).
  • Miller J (2022) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 85-104). Springer International Publishing
  • Hawthorn R & Miller J (2022) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 1-24). Springer International Publishing
  • Miller J (2021) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 605-620). Springer International Publishing
  • McHugh S, McKay R & Miller J (2021) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 1-11). Springer International Publishing
  • Miller J (2019) Fiction, Fashion, and the Victorian Fur Seal Hunt In Ryan D, Spencer J & Edwards K (Ed.), Reading Literary Animals Medieval to Modern Routledge
  • Miller J (2019) In Mazzeno LW & Morrison RD (Ed.), Victorian Environmental Nightmares (pp. 101-119). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Hawthorn R & Miller J (2019) Tattoos, deviance and consumer culture in North American television: Criminal minds, CSI: NY and Law and order, TATTOOS IN CRIME AND DETECTIVE NARRATIVES (pp. 256-270).
  • Miller J (2019) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 91-110). Springer International Publishing
  • McCorry S & Miller J (2019) , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (pp. 1-17). Springer International Publishing
  • McKay RR & Miller J (2017) Introduction In McKay RR & Miller J (Ed.), Werewolves, Wolves and the Gothic (pp. 1-17). University of Wales Press
  • Miller J (2017) Saki, Nietzsche and the Superwolf In McKay RR & Miller J (Ed.), Werewolves, Wolves and the Gothic University of Wales Press
  • Miller J (2017) In Mazzeno L & Morrison R (Ed.), Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture: Contexts for Criticism (pp. 189-212). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Miller J (2017) Bare Life and Bear Love Masculinity, Capital, and Arctic Animals in the Nineteenth-Century North, CRITICAL NORTHS: SPACE, NATURE, THEORY (pp. 119-135).
  • Miller J & Palladino M (2017) Glasgow' Empire Exhibition and the Interspatial Imagination in 'There's the Bird that Never Flew' In Easton K & Attridge D (Ed.), Zoe Wicomb and the Translocal Writing Scotland and South Africa (pp. 148-165). Routledge
  • Miller J (2016) The Environmental Politics and Aesthetics of Rider Haggards King Solomons Mines: Capital, Mourning and Desire In Mazzeno LW & Morrison RD (Ed.), Victorian Writers and the Environment: Ecocritical Perspectives Routledge
  • Miller J (2016) The Sublime and the Dying: Landscape Aesthetics and Animal Suffering in the BoysOwn Fur Trade In Hutchings K & Miller JW (Ed.), Transatlantic Literary Ecologies: Nature and Culture in the Nineteenth-Century Anglophone Atlantic World Ashgate
  • Hutchings K & Miller J (2016) , Transatlantic Literary Ecologies Nature and Culture in the Nineteenth Century Anglophone Atlantic World (pp. 1-21).
  • Miller J (2015) Zooheterotopias, Globalization of Space Foucault and Heterotopia (pp. 149-164).
  • Palladino M & Miller J (2015) THE GLOBALIZATION OF SPACE: FOUCAULT AND HETEROTOPIA INTRODUCTION, GLOBALIZATION OF SPACE: FOUCAULT AND HETEROTOPIA (pp. 1-+).
  • Miller J (2013) R. M. Ballantyne and Mr G. ORilla: Apes, Irishmen and the1861 Great Gorilla Controversy. In Miller JW, Lyons P & Maley W (Ed.), Romantic Ireland From Tone to Gonne: Fresh Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Ireland. (pp. 402-415). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Miller J (2013) The Queer Corners of the Soul: John Buchan and Psychoanalysis" In Macdonald K (Ed.), John Buchan and the Idea of Modernity. (pp. 125-140). Pickering and Chatto
  • Miller J (2012) Representation, Race and the Zoological Real in the 1861 Great Gorilla Controversy In Sullivan J, Plunkett J & Kember J (Ed.), Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship 1840-1910 (pp. 153-166). Pickering and Chatto
  • Miller J (2009) The Anarchists Garden: Politics and Ecology in John Buchans Wastelands", Reassessing John Buchan: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps (pp. 193-206). Pickering and Chatto
  • Miller J (2009) Animal Magic: Conjury and Power in Colonial Taxidermy In Colligon F, Millim A & Georganta K (Ed.), The Apothecarys Chest: Magic, Art and Medication. (pp. 13-22). Cambridge Scholars' Press
  • Miller J (2007) The Pornography of Science: Violence, Taxonomy and Desire in the Imperial Hunting Narratives. In Moffat R & de Klerk E (Ed.), Material Worlds Cambridge Scholars' Press

Book reviews

  • Miller J (2021) . Journal of Victorian Culture, 26(1), 137-140.
  • Miller (2020) . Victorian Studies, 62(2), 306-306.
  • Miller J (2020) . Fashion Theory, 24(3), 455-460.
  • Miller J (2019) . Green Letters, 23(4), 436-438.
  • Miller J (2018) . Green Letters, 22(4), 442-444.
  • Miller J (2018) . Green Letters, 22(2), 220-222.
  • Miller J (2017) . Green Letters, 21(1), 106-108.
  • Miller J (2016) . Social History, 41(1), 120-120.
  • Miller J (2016) . Journal of Victorian Culture, 21(1), 132-136.
  • Miller J (2015) . Cultural and Social History, 12(3), 432-434.
  • Miller J (2014) Beastly Journeys: Travel and Transformation at the Fin de Siecle. LITERATURE & HISTORY-THIRD SERIES, 23(2), 100-102.
  • Miller J (2013) The Tiger that Swallowed the Boy: Exotic Animals in Victorian England. JOURNAL OF VICTORIAN CULTURE, 18(2), 301-305.
  • Miller J (2013) Reading the Animal in the Literature of the British Raj. JOURNAL OF VICTORIAN CULTURE, 18(2), 301-305.

Other

  • Miller J & McKechnie C (2012) New Perspectives on Victorian Animals (a special issue of Journal of Victorian Culture), 17.4.
Research group

I would be very happy to supervise projects relating to any aspect of my research, particularly animals and/or ecology in Victorian literature and culture, adventure fiction, the Arctic, and the literary representation of tattoos and tattooing.

Teaching activities

I teach mainly in modules on the nineteenth century and in relation to animal studies and ecocriticism. Courses closely related to my research interests include:

  • LIT115: Darwin, Marx, Freud
  • LIT271: Radical Theory
  • LIT275: Literature, Ecology, Capital
  • LIT6045: Humans, Animals, Monsters and Machines from Gullivers Travels to King Kong
  • LIT637 Victorian Bodies
Public engagement

I have a strong interest in the links between environmental aesthetics, conceptions of environmental and species value and public policy. I organised open sessions on these and related topics at the conferences Modern Environments: Contemporary Readings in Green Studies at the University of Glasgow in 2007 and Activism, Apocalypse, and the Avant-Garde at the University of Edinburgh in 2008. In 2015, as part of Sheffields Festival of Arts and Humanities, I ran a day of events under the title Caring for Sheffields Woodlands.