Ailise BulfinView profile
Assistant Professor
- Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture
- Contemporary Literature and Culture
- Popular Fiction and Popular Culture
- +15 more
Dr Ailise Bulfin is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin. Her research and teaching focus on 19th-century and contemporary literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on popular fiction genres such as gothic, horror, crime, and science fiction. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project ‘CSAReps’, which investigates fictional representations of child sexual abuse and their societal impact. University: University College Dublin School: School of English, Drama and Film Rank: Assistant Professor Email: ailise.bulfin1@ucd.ie Dr Bulfin's research spans a wide range of interdisciplinary fields, including medical humanities, environmental humanities, cognitive literary studies, and cultural studies. Her work critically examines how narratives about war, invasion, environmental disaster, and sexual violence shape public understanding and emotional responses. She has published extensively on topics such as invasion fiction, catastrophe narratives, and representations of child sexual abuse in literature and film. Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward interdisciplinary inquiry, combining literary analysis with empirical and cognitive approaches. She frequently explores how gothic and speculative fiction serve as vehicles for addressing urgent social and psychological issues, particularly through metaphor and indirect representation. Her work on climate change and ecological catastrophe in Victorian fiction highlights early forms of ecological awareness, while her research on child sexual abuse in young adult gothic fiction investigates both harmful myths and resilient survivor models. European Research Council Starting Grant (CSAReps, 2021–2028) Wellcome Trust funding British Academy grants Irish Research Council fellowships Royal Irish Academy funding Dr Bulfin has delivered keynotes and invited talks at institutions such as the University of Reading, Max Planck Institute, and University of Aberdeen. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s Discipline of Psychiatry and co-organizes the international Invasion Network. Her public engagement includes radio interviews on RTE and collaborative events with CSA survivors and health professionals. As a teacher, she has coordinated modules on speculative fiction, war fiction, and modernity, and advocates for student-centered, research-led pedagogy. She holds a Professional Special Purpose Certificate in Academic Practice from Trinity College Dublin.






