Kirstin Mills

Dr Kirstin Mills is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Master of Research and Graduate Diploma of Research in the Faculty of Arts. She holds a PhD and a BA (Hons, First Class) in Literature from Macquarie University.

Her research specialises in Gothic and fantastic literature and visual media, with a particular focus on literature of the long nineteenth century and its twenty-first-century adaptations, as well as the intersection of the Gothic with the historical, cultural and technological contexts from which it emerges. Her various research projects have examined literary representations of space, the supernatural and the sciences of the mind, including nineteenth-century scientific theories of dreams, madness and alternative states of consciousness and Victorian mathematical and cultural concepts of the fourth dimension; twenty-first-century digital media adaptations of nineteenth-century Gothic literature; Gothic animal studies; and the Gothic and gender. These studies bring together a wide range of authors including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lucas Malet, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Horace Walpole, Gottfried August Bürger, Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald, Bram Stoker and contemporary digital vampire texts.

Kirstin's current major projects include a monograph, which is the first to explore the adaptation of classic nineteenth-century Gothic texts for twenty-first-century digital mobile media, and an edited volume for the Palgrave Gothic series titled Victorian Gothic and the Occult. Other ongoing projects include investigations of the role of dreams, the mind and supernatural space in the development of gothic and fantastic literature in the long nineteenth century, and contemporary Gothic television adaptations.

Kirstin is also an editor of the journal Advances in Nineteenth-Century Research (Routledge/Tayor and Francis), and a series editor for the International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association Book Series with Clemson University Press, both of which aim to broaden nineteenth-century studies and foster global, interdisciplinary scholarship in this area.

More details about Kirstin's projects and a full research and teaching portfolio can be found at her website: www.kirstinmills.com

• Gothic Literature
• Gothic Visual and Digital Media
• Romantic Literature and Culture
• Victorian and Long-Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
• Literature and Science
• Literature and Medicine
• Supernaturalism, Folklore and the Occult
• Adaptation Studies

Kirstin currently supervises PhD and Master of Research projects in the Discipline of Literature (School of Humanities). She especially welcomes projects focused on Gothic and fantastic literature, media and/or their adaptations (such as films, television or gaming) from the Romantic period to the twenty-first century, and literature of the long nineteenth century more broadly.

Kirstin Mills is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Master of Research and Graduate Diploma of Research in the Faculty of Arts. The Master of Research (MRes) and the Graduate Diploma of Research (including the nested Graduate Certificate of Research), programs seek to equip students with key research, critical analysis and communication skills that prepare them for further postgraduate study (PhD) and a wide range of research careers.

Kirstin led the design and implementation of the new, innovative Graduate Diploma of Research and nested Graduate Certificate of Research in the Faculty of Arts, which launched in 2025 and replaced the former Bachelor of Philosophy. Kirstin is passionate about shaping graduate research programs to not only produce skilled, world-ready researchers with a strong sense of their identity and value as researchers, but also foster creative thinking, collaborative, interdisciplinary connection and a closeknit, supportive academic community. Read and hear what Kirstin has to say about the advantages of interdisciplinary research training here.

As well as convening the MRes and GradDipRes programs, Kirstin has also developed innovative curriculum and leads teaching within many of the advanced research training units in the GradDipRes, with a focus on research and writing theory and practice, research project design and development, researcher development, and digital literacies and communication. Kirstin currently convenes and teaches the following units within the GradDipRes, which each advance innovative approaches to research skills training:

• FOAR8010 Research Writing
• FOAR8020 Research Theory
• FOAR8030 Research Methods
• FOAR8050 Researcher Professional Development
• FOAR8060 Research Project

Former units convened and taught in the graduate research programs include:

• FOAR7001 Research Communications
• FOAR7002 Research Frontiers I
• FOAR7003 Digital Literacies for Researchers
• FOAR7000 Research Paradigms

Kirstin has extensive experience in teaching and curriculum design. Prior to her current role, Kirstin taught as a sessional lecturer and tutor in the Department of English at Macquarie University (2009-1019), and as a Lecturer-in-Charge for the School of Arts at the Australian Catholic University, North Sydney (2019). Since 2009, she has regularly taught on a wide range of units at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, with subjects ranging from medieval, Gothic and Victorian literature to contemporary literature, narrative theory and creative writing. Kirstin has carried this wide experience of writing and storytelling into her current teaching of research communication skills.

Kirstin is committed to enhancing the research student experience and research training in both the Faculty of Arts and Macquarie University more broadly. She currently serves on the University's Graduate Research Management Committee, as Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Arts Research Training Committee, and on the Faculty of Arts Education Committee. She also contributes to Macquarie's Graduate Research Advisory group, and is a member of Macquarie's Teaching and Leadership Community of Practice. She is also an accredited Mental Health First Aider, a member of Macquarie's Ally Network, and is constantly working to support and enhance the wellbeing of students and colleagues alike.

Kirstin is also passionate about the value of research shared with the wider community. She has contributed many articles about Victorian Gothic literature and its latest adaptations to Macquarie's The Lighthouse magazine (including articles on Dracula, Wednesday, Beetlejuice, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and Victorian-era TV shows). She also provides commentary for newspapers, has been interviewed about her research on ABC and 2SER Radio, and contributes to public events as an expert speaker, most recently at the State Library of New South Wales. Kirstin has also appeared as a guest speaker on many episodes of the Discipline of Literature's From the Lighthouse podcast since its inception in 2017 (and also created its logo and website photography). Kirstin draws on this research engagement experience in her teaching, aiming to empower students to tell their own stories that communicate and celebrate their research and its value for the world.