Hi there!

I’m Zoë. I live and sometimes work in Ghent, Belgium. I’m a PhD candidate in literary studies at KU Leuven and in history at Ghent University. My passion for the past brought me to Ghent University to pursue a degree in history (2017) and my interest in English literature lead me to complete a second degree in historical linguistics and literature at the same university (2020).

I am currently working on an FWO-funded project, History as Fairy-ground: Scottish and Irish Female Authors and the Gothic Imagination. My research focuses on how female authors use the Gothic aesthetic to reimagine the cultural and national past. These questions are at the intersection of literary studies and history and allow me to examine the connections between cultural nationalism, literature and historiography as imagined by female authors. This research is completed at both the department of literary studies at KU Leuven and at the history department in Ghent.

The idea of “the Romanticist and the Historian” grew out of a want to carve out a place for a researcher who does not fit within one department. As I am trained in both disciplines, and work in different departments at separate institutions, conducting my research is at times challenging. This blog seemed like a way to foster an inner dialogue between disciplines—a bit of a meta-discursive exercise that can flow back into my research. At the same time, this space allows me to think about being a PhD-student, finding my rhythm and my voice, and to reflect on the challenges and benefits of starting a project during a global pandemic.