Helena is an experienced teacher and academic with a background in literature, film and creative writing and has taught on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of East Anglia, Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Nottingham and the University of Suffolk.
Helena was awarded a BA in Literature and Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University before completing an MA in Modern Culture at University College London and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her specialisms include gothic and horror fiction and film, 20th century and contemporary fiction, contemporary television, modern retellings of myth and energy humanities.
She has published work in HARTS & Minds, Otherness: Essays and Studies, Green Letters, Gramarye, Gothic Studies and Horror Studies and has more work forthcoming in other key journals in her fields. She is currently writing her first monograph, Nuclear Gothic: Textual and Cultural Fusions, to be published by Anthem Press in 2023.
Helena has presented at national and international academic conferences including those hosted by the International Gothic Association, the British Society for Literature and Science, and the Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester. In summer 2021 she co-ran an online conference with Mark Jancovich at the University of East Anglia on re-imagining the Western and Post-War America, which was attended by delegates across Europe, the Americas and Australia. At least two edited collections on the Western genre are expected to be forthcoming as a result of this event.
Helena is a member of the International Gothic Association and the UEA Gothic Reading Group; she has also appeared on both the Hallowed Histories and The Constant Reader podcasts and has done extensive Outreach work across East Anglia, working with multiple local schools to introduce pupils to various humanities subjects and the university experience itself.