Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes
Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes
Reader
My profile
Biography
Xavier Aldana Reyes is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies and co-president of the International Gothic Association.
Xavier works across modern and contemporary literature and cinema, from the early twentieth century to the present day, and specialises in Gothic and horror film and fiction. His academic research focuses on corporeal representation and embodiment, the relationship between aesthetics and affect, the transnational nature of modes and genres, and the ability of the Gothic/horror to mediate personal and national trauma. He has published five monographs - Contemporary Body Horror(2024), Gothic Cinema(Routledge, 2020), Spanish Gothic(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Horror Film and Affect(Routledge, 2016) and Body Gothic(UWP, 2014) - and four edited collections - Graveyard Gothic(with Eric Parisot and David McAllister; Manchester University Press, 2024), Twenty-First-Century Gothic(with Maisha Wester; Edinburgh University Press, 2019), Horror: A Literary History(British Library Publishing, 2016) and Digital Horror(with Linnie Blake; I.B. Tauris, 2015). These publications have been reviewed in international academic journals such as Gothic Studies, Horror Studies, C21 Literature, The Years’ Work in Cultural and Critical Theory, Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, Atlantis, MEDIENwissenschaft, Brumal, Revista de Literatura, Helikon and Fantastika, as well as in The Times Literary Supplement, Rue Morgue, Starburst and The Lady. Xavier has been interviewed for BBC Radio 3, Swedish radio and Turkish TV, newspapers/news websites like Times Higher Education, The Guardian, The Independent, Vox, The Huffington Post France and The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) and appeared in the documentaries Why Horror? (Canada, 2014) and Wonderland: Gothic (UK, 2023).
As fiction anthologist, Xavier has edited eight collections for the British Library: The Ghost Stories of Wilkie Collins (2024), ‘The Burial of the Rats’ and Other Tales of the Macabre by Bram Stoker (2023), Visions of the Vampire: Two Hundred Years of Immortal Tales(with Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, 2020), The Gothic Tales of Sheridan Le Fanu (2020), Promethean Horrors: Classic Tales of Mad Science (2019), Roarings from Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood (2019), The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson (2019) and The Gothic Tales of H. P. Lovecraft (2018). He is also chief editor for the international Horror Studies book series (University of Wales Press), which has published over 20 books.
Work with public institutions over the years has included a collaboration with the BFI for their Gothic: The Dark Heart of Cinema season (2013), co-organisation of the Darkness and Light: Exploring the Gothic exhibition at the John Rylands (2015), as well as a number of city-wide Gothic Manchester festivals (2013-2019). Since 2021, he has contributed liner notes, video essays and audio commentaries to various home entertainment releases by film distributors BFI Video Publishing, Arrow Video, Arrow Player (streaming service), Radiance, Severin, Second Sight, Imprint and Cauldron. These have been reviewed in magazines like Sight and Sound and Variety. He has also written for newspapers The Irish Times, La Vanguardia (Spain) and The Skinny, as well as for the websites Five Books and The Conversation. In 2022, he also worked with Scottish Opera on the programme for the opera Ainadamar.
Xavier teaches across the BA and MA English programmes. He leads the MA unit ‘Post-Millennial Gothic’ and the second year BA film unit ‘Theorising the Screen’, and teaches on ‘Twentieth-Century Gothic’ (MA), ‘Gothic on Screen’ (third year) and ‘Film Modes and Genres’ (second year). In the past, he has taught units on critical theory, gender, modernist literature and postwar fiction. Outside the Gothic and horror, he has strong interests in affect studies, film theory, queer studies, critical theory and contemporary (postwar) literature.
Academic and Professional Qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP). Lancaster University (2013)
- PhD in English Literature. Lancaster University (2013)
- Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Lancaster University (2012)
- MA Modern and Contemporary Literature. Birkbeck College, University of London (2009)
- BA (Hons) English Philology. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (2007)
Other academic service (administration and management)
- Institutional Media Studies pathway representative for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) (2022-)
- Co-Director of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (2021-2023)
- Impact Coordinator for English, Manchester Metropolitan University (2016-2019)
- Academic Coordinator and Convenor, ‘International Summer Programme (British Culture and Society 1800-2000)’, Lancaster University, Department of English and Creative Writing (2009-2013)
External examiner roles
External examiner for academic programmes:
- BA (Hons) in Film and Media Studies, University of Hull (October 2021-October 2025)
- MA in English, University of Reading (October 2018 - October 2021)
External examiner for 11 PhDs:
- Thesis on ‘liquidity’ and contemporary Gothic media (Newcastle University, 2024)
- Thesis on haunted houses in contemporary Hollywood horror films (University of Stirling, 2024)
- Thesis on monstrosity in the artistic oeuvre of Marylin Manson (Universidad de Jaén, Spain, 2023)
- Thesis on Sheridan Le Fanu’s late Gothic writings (University of Limerick, Ireland, 2023)
- Thesis on the intradiegetic camera in found footage horror (Northumbria University, 2023)
- Thesis on contemporary Gothic fiction and history (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2022)
- Thesis on contemporary Gothic fiction and metamodernism (Nottingham Trent University, UK, 2022)
- Thesis on Jeanette Winterson and violence (University of Reading, UK, 2022)
- Thesis on ecohorror film and fiction (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2019)
- Critical-creative thesis on monstrosity and the horror genre (University of Surrey, UK, 2018)
- Thesis on childhood and the Gothic in children’s fiction (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, 2014)
Additionally, Xavier has internal examined six PhD theses on the following topics: Black masculinity and science fiction; theology and nineteenth-century Gothic fiction; pandemics and the Gothic, the biocultural ecoGothic; Satanic panic and the Gothic imaginary; and the non-human in digital games.
External examiner for Masters of Research:
- Thesis on body horror and trans identity (University of Birmingham, 2022)
- Thesis on robotics and feminism (University of Huddersfield, 2017)
- Thesis on Tolkien and fantasy (University of Huddersfield, 2017)
Expert reviewer for academic publishers
Xavier has acted as external reviewer for renowned academic publishers (Oxford University Press, Routledge, Manchester University Press, Bloomsbury, University of Minnesota Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Edinburgh University Press, University of Wales Press, Liverpool University Press, Anthem Press, McFarland and Peter Lang), as well as a host of academic journals, including PMLA (Modern Language Association), Genre (Duke UP), Gothic Studies (MUP), Horror Studies (Intellect), Journal of American Studies (CUP), Cinema Journal (University of Texas Press), Film-Philosophy (EUP), The Journal of Aesthetics and Culture (Taylor & Francis), Somatechnics (EUP), Studia Neophilologica (Taylor & Francis), C21 Literature (Gylphi), Medical Humanities (British Medical Journal), New Review of Film and Television Studies (Taylor & Francis), The Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies (Intellect), Text Matters (Lodz University Press, Poland), Studies in Gothic Fiction (National University), Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies (Auckland University of Technology), Senses of Cinema (Senses of Cinema Inc., Australia), Humanities (MDPI), Open Screens (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies), Palgrave Communications (Palgrave Macmillan), Open Library of Humanities, Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural (Falmouth University, UK), Atlantis (Spanish Association of English Studies, Spain), Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (Washington University in St. Louis, US), Brumal: Revista de investigación sobre lo Fantástico (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain), Alambique: Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasia / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica (University of South Florida), Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain), PCEIC: International Journal on Collective Identity Research (Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain), and the Journal of the Whedon Studies Association (US). He is on the editorial boards of the following open-access journals: Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror (University of Brighton), The Journal of Stephen King Studies (Lancaster), The Dark Arts Journal and Fantastika Journal.
Expert reviewer for external funding bodies
- UK Research and Innovation Talent Review Peer College Member (2022-)
- National Science Centre, Poland (2022)
- Austrian Science Fund - FWF der Wissenschaftsfonds (2021)
- British Academy, ‘The Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling the UK’s International Challenges’ (2019)
Editorial Board membership
Xavier is chief editor of the Horror Studiesbook series published by the University of Wales Press (2018-). He sits on the editorial boards for the international book series International Gothic (Manchester University Press), Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature (Anthem Press), Queer and Trans Intersections (University of Wales Press), Dialogarts (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Terror: Estudios Críticos (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain) and Vampire Studies (Peter Lang), and for the journals Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (Intellect), Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror(Brighton University) andFantastika Journal (independent).
Xavier is a founding member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies’ Horror Studies Special Interest Group (2020-).
Membership of professional associations
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2013)
- Co-President of the International Gothic Association (2022-)
- Member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (2020-)
- Member of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (2013-)
- Member of the Modern Languages Association (2013-)
- Member of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (2021-)
Impact
Impact
Xavier’s research contributed to one of the English department’s impact case studies for the Research Excellence Framework 2021: ‘Gothic Place-Making: New Cultural Production, Curation and Tourism in Greater Manchester and Beyond’.
Grants
- British Academy Small Grant for ‘The (Lost) Origins of Gothic Cinema: Reconstructing the Old Dark House Mysteries’ (£8115) (October 2018 - January 2020).
- AHRC / BBC 3 New Generation Thinkers scheme shortlist. (2016 and 2017)
- British Academy Small Grant for ‘Spain, Britain and the Gothic’ project (£4885) (October 2013 - January 2016)
- Higher Education Academy grant (£400) in support of the Gothic Networking Day (April 2014)
- Lord Mayor’s Fund for the launch of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (£300) (October 2013)
- Full doctoral research scholarship from Lancaster University. Duration: three years. (2010-2013)
- Transport bursary from the Higher Education Academy to attend ‘”How far can you go?” Ethics, Transgression and Independent Study Workshop’ at the University of Derby (2012)
- Transport bursary from the Science Fiction Foundation to attend the ‘Apocalypse and Its Discontents’ conference at Westminster University (11-12 December 2010)
Invited Papers
- ‘Boo! and Beyond: Affect in the Horror Film’, Feeling Cultures / Culturing Feelings: Emotions and Affects in Cultural Practices conference, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland (9-11 April 2025). Keynote.
- ‘Neoliberal Evils: Contemporary Horror and the Rise of Ethical Monstrosity’, Meditations on Malevolence: Exploring Evil in Modern Fiction, University of Groningen, Utrecht, Netherlands (31 January 2025). Keynote.
- ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, 5th Gothic Studies Seminar conference, UNESP - São Paulo State University, Brazil (29 October 2024). Recorded keynote.
- ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, Gothic Summer Institute, University of Sheffield (8-12 July 2024). Talk and seminar/workshop series.
- ‘Contemporary Body Horror: Becoming “Other(-)wise” ’, Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2024, 13th Annual Conference, University of Liverpool (3-5 July 2024). Keynote.
- ‘Contemporary Body Horror’, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain (9 May 2024). Research paper and seminar.
- ‘Contemporary Body Horror: Becoming “Other-Wise”’, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia (10 April 2024). Masterclass.
- ‘Less Than Human: The Cannibal Metaphor in Contemporary Body Horror’, Cannibal Consumption: Culture, Capitalism, Critique conference, University College Dublin (1 March 2024). Keynote.
- ‘Digital Death and the Rise of Computer Screen Cinema’, Death Futures conference, Death Online Research Network, Northumbria University (31 May-2 June 2023). Keynote.
- ‘Gothic Place Making’, co-presented with Helen Darby, Dr Matt Foley and Prof Dale Townshend, Arts, Humanities and Place Showcase, co-organised by The School of Advanced Study, the AHRC and the University of Sheffield, Events Central, Sheffield, UK (21 March 2023). Talk.
- ‘Dracula’s Grand Tour: The Industrial and Cultural Coordinates of Vampire Cinema in Continental Europe, 1959-1983’, Recovering the Vampire: From Degeneration to Regeneration conference, Edge Hill University (4-6 November 2022). Keynote.
- ‘Spain’s Restless Dead: On the Silences, Monsters and Graves of the Spanish Civil War’, Gothic Interruptions: 16th International Gothic Association Conference, Trinity College Dublin (26-29 July 2022). Keynote.
- ‘(Re)framing Nosferatu: Early German Gothic Cinema and the Visual Composition of Monsters’, Nosferatu at 100: The Vampire as Contagion and Monstrous Outsider, University of Hertfordshire (12 March 2022). Public talk.
- ‘An Introduction to Gothic Literature’, Literally Gothic Festival, Alderney Literary Trust, Channel Islands (16 October 2021). Public talk.
- ‘Horror Film and Affect: The Experiential Dynamics of Cinematic Fear’, First International Workshop of the Recreational Fear Lab, Aarhus University, Denmark (26 August 2021). Research paper.
- ‘Viewer Alignment, Affect and Horror Cinema’, Researching Representations of CSA in Contemporary Culture: Wellcome Trust funded seminar series, UCD Dublin, Ireland (25-26 May 2021). Research paper.
- ‘The Value of Public Engagement to Research in the Humanities: The Case of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies’, University of Milan, Italy (6 May 2021). Digital lecture and PhD workshop.
- ‘Automata, Cyber Terror and Technocratic Reality’, 50+ Shades of Gothic: The Gothic Across Genre and Media in US Popular Culture, PopMeC (Popular Media and Culture) (2 March 2021). Digital keynote interview.
- ‘Ghost Stories for Christmas’, Casa Con Popular Culture Convention, New York, US (18 December 2020). With Dr Emma Liggins. Digital keynote.
- ‘The What and Why of Found Footage Horror’, XVIII Semana da imagem: Entre archivar e experimentar na tecnocultura, Unisinos - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil (16 November 2020). Digital keynote.
- ‘Spanish Horror Cinema: Industry, Political Trauma and the Gothic Imaginary’, Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, London branch (8 October 2020). Digital keynote.
- ‘Future Gothic: The Critical Turn to Empirical Research and Reception Studies’, Gothic Spectacle and Spectatorship, one-day symposium, Lancaster University (1 June 2019). Keynote.
- ‘Vampiros: On the Spanish Vampire’, ‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic Vampire, and Its Progeny, a symposium for the bicentenary of ‘The Vampyre’, Keats House, Hampstead (6-7 April 2019). Public talk.
- ‘Why Affect Matters: The Importance of Emotion and Somatics to the Study of the Horror Film’, Screening the Unreal symposium, Research and Enterprise Group for Screen Studies, University of Brighton (4 July 2018). Research paper.
- ‘Spirits in the Labyrinth, or Why the Civil War Continues to Be Spain’s Favourite Gothic Tale’, The Politics of Gothic, EAC Research Seminar, University of Manchester (15 November 2017). Research paper.
- ‘Visualising Monstrosity in Early Gothic Cinema’, Monsters Film Festival, Health Humanities Research Group, University of Reading (11 October 2017). Public talk.
- ‘Horror Heroines in the Age of Postfeminism’, Women-in-Peril or Final Girls? Representing Women in Gothic and Horror Cinema, 2nd Gothic Feminism conference, University of Kent (25–26 May 2017). Keynote.
- ‘Time and Timing in Gothic Horror Film: An Affective Reading’, Temporal Discombobulations: Time and the Experience of the Gothic, University of Surrey (24 August 2016). Keynote.
- ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about the Gothic’, Teaching the Gothic and the Supernatural for A Level course, English and Media Centre, London (9 June 2016). Research talk.
- ‘On the Pain of Others: Horror and Selfhood’, Self and Society postgrafuate symposium, University of Huddersfield (2 June 2016). Keynote.
- ‘Rethinking the Monstrous-Feminine: The (Un)Gendered Body of Abjection’, Monsters and Monstrosities. Reimagining the Gothic: 2016 Symposium and Showcase keynote (6 May 2016). Keynote.
- ‘The New Spanish Gothic Cinema: Continuities, Contexts, Approaches’, Stirling University (23 April 2016). Research paper.
- ‘Gothic Pedagogies: Challenges, Strategies and Design of Modern and Contemporary Gothic Modules’, Reading the Fantastic: Tales beyond Borders, Leeds University (23 April 2015). Keynote.
- ‘Sex, Blood and Rock n’ Roll: Splatterpunk and the Rise of Popular Horror Fiction in the 1980s’, English and Creative Writing Research Seminar, Northumbria University (22 April 2015). Research paper.
- ‘Gothic Studies and Public Engagement: The Case of Gothic Manchester’, Madrid’s Gothic Week / Semana Gotica de Madrid (9 November 2013). Invited public talk.
- ‘Mad Science and Surgical Horror’, British Film Institute (11 November 2013). Public talk.
- ‘The Christmas Ghost Story’, Ghost Stories, organised by The Longest Night writers and Portico Library (13 December 2013). Public talk.
Invited Roundtable Discussions
- Q&A with Gerardo Sámano Córdova on the publication of his debut novel Monstrilio, Blackwell’s Manchester (25 July 2024).
- ‘El horror contemporáneo: Un viaje a través de las artes’[‘Contemporary Horror: A Journey through the Arts’], with Rubén Sánchez Trigos and Luis Pérez Ochando, Festival Eñe, Biblioteca Regional de Madrid, Spain (21 October 2023).
- Tortoise Lates: Fear, with Matt D’Ancona, Kim Newman, Anna Bogutskaya, Prof Neil Martin and Vanessa Woolf. Tortoise Media (27 October 2022).
- Q&A with Fernanda Melchor on the publication of the International Booker Prize longlised novella Paradais, Blackwell’s Manchester (26 April 2022).
- J-Horror Day. Organised by Grimmfest, with assistance from the BFI, Sotckport Plaza (31 October 2021).
- European Horror panel. Weekday Night Bites public discussion organised by the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies SIG (27 October 2021).
- Turning a Negative into a Positive. Workshop for PhD and Early Career Scholars, International Gothic Association Biennial Conference 2019 (30 August 2019).
- Q&A with Rosie Garland. Gothic Manchester 2017 (27 October 2017).
- Reading 21st Century Horror guest panel. With Stephen Jones, Dara Downey and David Moody. Guest panel at Horror Expo Ireland 2016 (30 October 2016).
- Q&A with Andrew Michael Hurley. Twisted Tales of the North special event for Gothic Manchester 2016 (21 October 2016).
- Exploring the Influence of Gothic Horror on Contemporary Culture. Discussion following the performance of Gothic play Cuddles at the Royal Exchange Theatre (21 May 2015).
- Hellraiser special event. With actors Nicholas Vince and Barbie Wilde, writer Sam Stone and publisher David J Howe. Grimmfest horror festival and Grimm Up North (4 October 2013).
Projects
Event Organisation
- ‘Progression, Regression, and Transgression in Gothic World Literature & Film: New Approaches to the Ethics of Difference’, A Gothic-Without-Borders online conference (29 September-2 October 2023), hosted by the Department of World Languages and Literatures (WLL) at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Vancouver, Canada; coordinated by the SFU Center for Educational Excellence (CEE); and co-sponsored by the International Gothic Association (IGA). Editorial board/committee duties.
- International Gothic Summer School (6-9 June 2023), co-organised with Prof Dale Townshend and colleagues in the Gothic Centre.
- ‘Gothic Cinema’, HOME 8-week course (14 January - 3 March 2020). The course included public screenings of the films Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Black Sunday (1960), and a book launch.
- ‘Introduction to the Female Gothic’, HOME day course (14 September 2019), co-organised with Drs Emma Liggins and Sorcha Ní Fhlainn.
- ‘Detecting Pessimism: Thomas Ligotti and The Weird in an Age of Post-Truth’ (12 June 2019), Manchester Metropolitan, co-organised with Dr Rachid M’Rabty and Pilot Light TV festival.
- ‘Emerging Infectious Literatures’ (27 July 2016).
- ‘Gothic Networking Day’ (12 July 2014).
- ‘Contemporary Gothic’ strand of the Humanities in Public programme (7th-21st October 2013).
- Gothic Manchester Festival (21st-27th October 2013) and launch of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies.
- Contemporary Gothic Reading Group (10 October 2013).
- ‘Day of the Droogs’, co-organised with Prof Berthold Schoene and Prof Andrew Biswell (January 2014).
Teaching
Postgraduate Teaching
Currently Teaching
- Post-Millennial Gothic. MA (MMU) - Unit Leader
- Twentieth-Century Gothic. MA (MMU) - Unit Leader
Previously Taught
- Screening the Gothic (MMU)
- Gothic and Modernity(MMU)
Undergraduate Teaching
Currently Teaching
- Gothic on Screen. Level 6 (MMU)
- Film Modes and Genres. Level 5 (MMU)
- Theorising the Screen. Level 5 (MMU)
- World Cinema. Level 5 (MMU)
Previously Taught
- Modern Gothic. Level 6 (MMU)
- Critical Dialogues. Level 4 (MMU)
- Contemporary Literature in English. Level 6 (MMU Cheshire)
- Decadence to Modernism. Level 6 (Lancaster University)
- English Literatures of the World. Level 5 (MMU Cheshire)
- The Theory and Practice of Criticism. Level 5 (Lancaster University)
- Literature, Intertextuality, Adaptation. Level 4 (MMU Cheshire)
- Gothic and Gender. Level 5 (MMU Cheshire)
- Introduction to English Literature. Level 4 (Lancaster University)
Supervision
Xavier welcomes PhD applications related to any aspect of Gothic in literature, film, television and popular culture. He is happy to consider interdisciplinary proposals and projects in creative writing (with a co-supervisor in that discipline).
PhD Supervision
Completed
- Oliver Rendle, ‘ “Live. Laugh. Loathe.”: Cosmic Humour and Contemporary Pessimism in Literature and on Screen (1969-2019)’ (2019-2022). Principal Supervisor.
- Rebecca Wynne-Walsh, ‘Basque Gothic Cinema (1990-2021): A Regionalist Challenge to the Spanish Model of National Cinematic Production and Cultural Identity’ (2019-2022). AHRC-funded EU student. Principal Supervisor.
- Heather O. Petrocelli, ‘Horror Film and the Queer Spectator: An Empirical Study of the Spectatorial Relationships between Queerness, Genre, and Drag Performance’ (2018-2021). International PGR. First supervisor.
- Keith O’Sullivan, ‘ “Somewhere I Had To Go”: The Postmodernist and Posthumanist Gothic Transmutations of Ramsey Campbell’s Longer Fictions, 1981-2016’ (2017-2021). Principal Supervisor.
- Rachid M’Rabty, ‘Nihilism, Self-destruction and the (Im)possibility of Escape in Contemporary Transgressive Fictions’ (2014-2019). Principal Supervisor.
Ongoing
- Fredric Blanc, ‘The Weird and The Sea: Monstrosity and Thalassophobia in Modern and Contemporary Fiction’ (2019-). EU student. Principal Supervisor.
- Luke Moloney, ‘Hybrid Geographies: Ecocritical Horror in Contemporary Science Fiction, 1998–2020’ (2020-). Principal Supervisor.
- Brontë Schiltz, Thesis on the representation of television in Gothic texts (2023-). Principal Supervisor.
- Karmel Knipprath, ‘Clive Barker’s Transmedial Gothic (1978-present)’ (2022-). EU student. First Supervisor.
- Hayley Louise Charlesworth, ‘The Queer Villain Protagonist in Post-Millennial Gothic Television’ (2018-). Second Supervisor.
Visiting Research Studentships
Xavier has supported international students with 3-month research stays that included some limited supervision.
- Ilaria Villa (University of Milan), ‘Humans and Non-humans: Representation of Diversity and Exclusionary Practices in Twenty-first Century British Science Fiction TV Series’ (October-December 2019)
- Maribel Escalas (Universitat de les Illes Balears), ‘La identidad infantil en el New Horror audiovisual y la tríada IFH/M (Infancia-Familia-Horror/Mal)’ (July-September 2018)
MA Supervision
Xavier has supervised dozens of subject-specific MA dissertations on topics as varied as representations of skin in the Gothic, the weird subgenre and historiographic fiction.
Research outputs
Xavier’s areas of expertise are Gothic Studies and Horror film and fiction, with a special focus on twentieth and twenty-first century literature and cinema from Anglophone countries (especially the UK and the US) and Europe, corporeality and affect theory, and (trans)nationalism. Adaptation Studies, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Modernism, Critical Theory and Postcolonial Theory remain secondary areas of interest.
Academic Collaborations
Xavier has co-written and co-edited research with a number of international academics, such as Maisha Wester (US), Eric Parisot (Australia), Julio França (Brazil), Francisco Javier Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez (Spain) and Rocío Rødtjer (US), and with university colleagues Linnie Blake, Sorcha Ní Fhlainn and Joanna Verran (Emeritus Professor in Microbiology). He has organised various events with members from the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, most significantly the 14th conference of the International Gothic Association in 2018. As part of the Gothic Manchester festival, he collaborated with a number of academics from the departments of Microbiology (Verran), Fashion (Dr Jennifer Richards), Geography (Dr Julian Holloway) and Film and Media Studies (Dr Emily Brick and Dr Jo Ormrod).
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) Contemporary Body Horror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, W., Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) The Ghost Stories of Wilkie Collins. London: British Library Publishing.
Parisot, E., McAllister, D., Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) Graveyard Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stoker, B. (2023) 'The Burial of the Rats' and Other Tales of the Macabre by Bram Stoker. London: British Library Publishing.
Fhlainn, S.N., Aldana Reyes, X. (2021) Visions of the Vampire: Two Centuries of Immortal Tales. London: British Library Publishing.
Le Fanu, S. (2020) The Gothic Tales of Sheridan Le Fanu. London: British Library Publishing.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2020) Gothic Cinema. London and New York: Routledge.
Blackwood, A. (2019) Roarings from Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood. London: Tales of the Weird.
Hope-Hodgson, W. (2019) The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson. London: British Library Publishing.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) Promethean Horrors: Classic Stories of Mad Science. London: Tales of the Weird.
Wester, M., Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) Twenty-First-Century Gothic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Lovecraft, H.P. (2018) The Gothic Tales of H. P. Lovecraft. London: British Library Publishing.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration and Cultural Adaptation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) Horror: A Literary History. London: British Library Publishing.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) Horror Film and Affect: Towards a Corporeal Model of Viewership. London and New York: Routledge.
Blake, L., Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) Digital Horror: Haunted Technologies, Network Panic and the Found Footage Phenomenon. London and New York: I. B. Tauris.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2014) Body Gothic: Corporeal Transgression in Contemporary Literature and Horror Film. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
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Chapters in books
Parisot, E., McAllister, D., Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) 'Introduction: Graveyard Gothic.' In Parisot, E., McAllister, D., Aldana Reyes, X. (ed.) Graveyard Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 1-17.
Parisot, E., McAllister, D., Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) 'Coda: The Futures of Graveyard Gothic.' Graveyard Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 268-278.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) 'Graveyards in Western Gothic Cinema.' Graveyard Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 125-139.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) '22. Online Gothic.' The Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 337-352.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) 'Queer Zombies.' In Haefele-Thomas, A. (ed.) Queer Gothic An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 136-153.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) 'Online Gothic.' In Duncan, R. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities, pp. 337-349.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) 'Spanish Vampire Films, 1964-1985.' In Bacon, S. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-18.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) 'Spanish Vampire Films.' The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Springer International Publishing, pp. 1-18.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Body Horror.' In Shapiro, S., Storey, M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to American Horror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107-119.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Mid-Century Gothic Cinema (1931-79): From Monster Business to Exploitation Horror.' In Ní Fhlainn, S., Murphy, B.M. (ed.) Twentieth-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 114-128.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Gothic Exploitation: Transnational Appropriation, Hybridity, and Originality in Continental Horror Cinema, 1957–1983.' In Neill, N. (ed.) Gothic Mash-ups Hybridity, Appropriation, and Intertextuality in Gothic Storytelling. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 37-53.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2020) ''A Gothic Barcelona?: Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Cemetery of Forgotten Books Series and Franco’s Legacy'.' In Millette, H.G., Heholt, R. (ed.) The New Urban Gothic Global Gothic in the Age of the Anthropocene. Basingstoke: Springer Nature, pp. 237-250.
Aldana Reyes, X., Rødtjer, R. (2020) 'The Gothic in Nineteenth-Century Spain.' In Townshend, D., Wright, A. (ed.) The Cambridge History of the Gothic: Volume 2, Gothic in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 285-302.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2020) 'Abjection and Body Horror.' In Bloom, C. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 393-410.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2020) 'Gothic Cinema from the 1970s to Now.' In Hand, R.J., McRoy, J. (ed.) Gothic Film: An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 77-86.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Transitional origins.' Gothic Cinema. Routledge, pp. 43-71.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Revisiting the Spanish Civil War: An Interview with Patrick McGrath.' In Foley, M., Duncan, R. (ed.) Patrick McGrath and his Worlds: Madness and the Transnational Gothic. Routledge, pp. 63-69.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Gothic and Cinema: The Development of an Aesthetic Filmic Mode.' In Punter, D. (ed.) The Edinburgh Companion to Gothic and the Arts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 395-405.
Aldana Reyes, X., M'Rabty, R. (2019) 'Better Not to Have Been: Thomas Ligotti and the 'Suicide' of the Human Race.' In Hughes, W., Smith, A. (ed.) Suicide and the Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 124-138.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Contemporary Zombies.' Twenty-First-Century Gothic An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 89-101.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's [REC] (2007) - The Affective Approach to Horror (2019).' In Bacon, S. (ed.) Horror: A Companion. Bern: Peter Lang Publishing, pp. 27-34.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2018) 'Promethean Myths of the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Frankenstein Film Adaptations and the Rise of the Viral Zombie.' In Davison, C.M., Mulvey-Roberts, M. (ed.) Global Frankenstein. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 167-182.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2018) '‘Fantaterror’: Gothic Monsters in the Golden Age of Spanish B-Movie Horror, 1968-80.' In Edwards, J.D., Höglund, J. (ed.) B-Movie Gothic International Perspectives. Edinburgh: Traditions in World Cinema, pp. 95-105.
Reyes, X.A. (2018) 'Guillermo del toro’s crimson peak (2015).' The Gothic: A Reader. pp. 169-176.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'Dracula Queered.' In Luckhurst, R. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Dracula. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 125-135.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'Clive Barker's Late (Anti-)Horror Fiction: Tortured Souls and Mister B. Gone's New Myths of the Flesh.' In Ní Fhlainn, S. (ed.) Clive Barker: Dark Imaginer. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 194-207.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'Entries on 'Horror in the Twenty-First Century' and 'The Gothic Literary Tradition'.' In Cardin, M. (ed.) Horror Literature Through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing, pp. 41-47; 72-77.
Reyes, X.A. (2017) 'THE GOTHIC LITERARY TRADITION.' Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears: Volume 1-2. pp. 72-77.
Reyes, X.A. (2017) 'HORROR IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.' Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears: Volume 1-2. pp. 41-47.
Reyes, X.A. (2017) 'FARRIS, JOHN (1936-).' Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears: Volume 1-2. pp. 364-365.
Reyes, X.A. (2017) 'BOOKS OF BLOOD.' Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears: Volume 1-2. pp. 232-233.
Reyes, X.A. (2017) 'AJVIDE LINDQVIST, JOHN (1968-).' Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears: Volume 1-2. pp. 181-182.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'Genre Trouble: The Challenges of Designing Modern and Contemporary Gothic Modules.' In Shaw, K. (ed.) Teaching 21st Century Genres. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3-22.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'Discipline... But Punish!: The Twisted Pleasures of Torture Porn's Thanatopolitical Scaffold.' In de Valk, M. (ed.) Screening the Tortured Body: The Cinema as Scaffold. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 51-70.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'John Farris (1936-).' In McCarthy, E., Murphy, B.M. (ed.) Lost Souls of Horror and the Gothic: Fifty Neglected Authors, Actors, Artists and Others. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 80-82.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'Post-Millennial Horror, 2000-16.' Horror: A Literary History. London: British Library Publishing, pp. 189-214.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'What, When and Why Is Horror Fiction?.' Horror: A Literary History. London: British Library Publishing, pp. 7-17.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2016) 'The Mediation of Death in Fictional Snuff: Reflexivity, Viewer Interpellation and Ethical Implication.' In Jackson, N., Kimber, S., Walker, J., Watson, T.J. (ed.) Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, pp. 211-224.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) 'The [•REC] Films: Affective Possibilities and Stylistic Limitations of Found Footage Horror.' In Aldana Reyes, X., Blake, L. (ed.) Digital Horror: Haunted Technologies, Network Panic and the Found Footage Phenomenon. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 149-160.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) 'Mobilising Affect: Somatic Empathy and the Cinematic Body in Distress.' In Sellberg, K., Wånggren, L., Aghtan, K. (ed.) Corporeality and Culture: Bodies in Movement. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp. 35-46.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) 'Gothic Affect: An Alternative Approach to Critical Models of the Contemporary Gothic.' In Paitti-Farnell, L., Lee Brien, D. (ed.) New Directions in 21st Century Gothic: The Gothic Compass. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 11-23.
Blake, L., Reyes, X.A. (2015) 'Introduction: Horror in the Digital Age.' pp. 1-13.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2014) 'Nothing but the Meat: Posthuman Bodies and the Dying Undead.' In Keetley, D. (ed.) 'We're All Infected': Essays on AMC's the Walking Dead and the Fate of the Human. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 142-155.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2013) 'Gothic Horror Film, 1960-Present.' In Byron, G., Townshend, D. (ed.) The Gothic World. London: Routledge, pp. 388-398.
Reyes, X.A. (2013) 'Violence and Mediation: The Ethics of Spectatorship in the Twenty-First Century Horror Film.' Violence and the Limits of Representation. Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 145-160.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2012) 'A ‘Flesh’ New Start: The Transgressive Case of ‘Torture Porn’.' In Foley, M., McRobert, N. (ed.) Transgression and Its Limits. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 179-188.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2011) 'Bodily Boundaries and Desire: “Genderlessness” in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body.' In Falconi, D., Acedo, N. (ed.) El cuerpo del significante: La literatura contemporánea desde las teorías corporales (The Body of the Signifier: Contemporary Literature and Body Theory). Barcelona: UOC, pp. 125-136.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2010) 'Obsessed with Pain: Body Politics and Contemporary Gothic.' In Cherry, B., Howell, P., Ruddell, C. (ed.) Twenty-First-Century Gothic. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 53-97.
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Journal articles
Álvarez Trigo, L., Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Digital Gothic : an interview with Xavier Aldana Reyes.' REDEN (Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos), 3(2) pp. 16-30.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Contemporary Gothic Horror Cinema: The Imagined Pasts and Traumatic Ghosts of Crimson Peak (2015) and The Woman in Black (2012).' LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 33(2) pp. 82-101.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2021) 'Spanish Civil War horror and regional trauma : the politics of painful remembrance in Juan Carlos Medina’s Insensibles (Painless, 2012).' English Language Notes, 59(2) pp. 20-34.
Aldana Reyes, X., Resende, A., Cardoso, A. (2020) 'Interview with Xavier Aldana Reyes.' Abusões, 12(2) pp. 313-313.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2019) 'Introduction: Gothic and Horror Heroinism in the Age of Postfeminism.' Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural, 4pp. 8-21.
Aldana Reyes, X., Verran, J. (2018) 'Emerging Infectious Literatures and the Zombie Condition.' Emerging Infectious Diseases, 24(9)
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'The Curious Case of the Spanish Televisual Vampire.' Horror Studies, 8(2) pp. 241-254.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'The Cultural Capital of the Gothic Horror Adaptation: The Case of Dario Argento’s The Phantom of the Opera and Dracula 3D.' The Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 5(2) pp. 229-244.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) 'Reel Evil: A Critical Reassessment of Found Footage Horror.' Gothic Studies, 17(2) pp. 122-136.
Reyes, X.A. (2014) 'Beyond psychoanalysis: Post-millennial horror film and affect theory.' Horror Studies, 3(2) pp. 243-261.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2014) 'Beyond the Metaphor: Gay Zombies and the Challenge to Homonormativity.' The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, 13(2)
Aldana Reyes, X. (2014) 'Artaud's Theatre of Affect: From Cruelty to Horror.' A/V Journal, 18
Aldana Reyes, X. (2013) '‘Who ordered the hamburger with AIDS?’: Haematophilic Semiotics in Tru(e) Blood.' Gothic Studies, 15(1) pp. 55-65.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2013) 'Skin Deep? Surgical Horror and the Impossibility of Becoming Woman in Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In.' Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 90(7) pp. 819-834.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2010) '‘The Body is a Bloody Battlefield’: Gender (De)Constructions in Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve and Jackie Kay’s Trumpet.' Bodies of Work,
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Other
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) Audio commentary and booklet essay for Arrow Video's box set 'Love, Death & Apocalypse: Three Films by Álex de la Iglesia' (2024).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) 'All the Colours of the Cosmic Dark: H. P. Lovecraft and the Unrepresentable', booklet article for the BFI special edition of 'Die, Monster, Die!' (1965).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) ‘Fantasy and Imagination: The Legacy of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’, video essay for Severin’s Blu-ray release of Cross of the Devil (1974).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) ‘Spain’s Cinematic Vampires’, video essay for Severin’s Blu-ray release of Night of the Walking Dead (1975).
Ballin, D., Ellinger, K. (2024) 'Trasnmissions from a Haunted World', new documentary on Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2024) 'Gothic Utterance: Voice, Speech and Death in the American Gothic', book review for Modern Language Review.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) Audio Commentary for Imprint Films' special edition of The Orphanage (2023).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) 'The Cracks in Our Foundations: From Bonds to Bondage in The Dead Mother', booklet article for the Radiance Films special edition of The Dead Mother (1993).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) ‘"I Saw Something Horrible": Emanuelle in America and the "Snuff" Myth’, booklet chapter for Severin Films 'The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle' box set.
Aldana Reyes, X., França, J., Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez, F.J. (2022) Special Issue of Abusões Journal: 'Ibero-American Gothic: Gothic Production in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America'.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) Video Essay on Eloy de la Iglesia for the Cauldron Films special edition of Murder in a Blue World / Una gota de sangre para morir amando (1973).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Breaking the Silence: Fiction as Artistic Reparation', essay for Ainadamar: The Fountain of Tears opera programme.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2022) 'Domestic Science Fiction', interview with Chema Garcia Ibarra for the Arrow Video special edition of The Sacred Spirit (2021).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2021) 'Untamed Revenge: An Introduction to Wild Tales', video introduction for Wild Tales (2014) in streaming service Arrow Player.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2021) 'One Step Beyond', booklet article for the Arrow Video special edition of Beyond Re-Animator (2003).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2021) 'Run. Escape. Survive. But Never Stop Taping.', booklet article for the Arrow Video special edition of REC (2007).
Aldana Reyes, X. (2018) 'Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth: Studies in the Horror Film', book review for Gothic Studies.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2018) 'The Contemporary Gothic', entry in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2017) 'The Feel-Bad Film', book review for Film Studies.
Aldana Reyes, X. (2015) ‘Fear, Divided: Terror and Horror’, article for Emagazine: The Magazine for Advanced Level English.
Press and media
Media appearances or involvement
- Van Gogh’s smoking skeleton and Munch’s sickly sex-scapes: great artists’ ghoulish sides revealed, interview in The Guardian (31 October 2024).
- De “Ted the caver” aux ARG, d’où viennent les légendes urbaines virales et flippantes, interview in The Huffington Post France (29 October 2024).
- We’re in a golden age for body horror films – as Demi Moore’s The Substance proves, article for The Conversation (23 September 2024). Republished in RTE, Ireland , The New Daily, Australia and Cyprus Mail.
- The 25 Goopiest, Grodiest, Gnarliest Body Horror Movies, Ranked, mention in Vulture (19 September 2024).
- Mad Scientists: Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll & Boris Karloff, interview in Every Single Sci-fi Film Ever podcast, also available on YouTube (4 August 2024).
- The Living Dead’s Problems in Spanish Horror Movies, mention in Pop Matters website (24 July 2024).
- A Plurality of Screams, interview in Rue Morgue magazine, issue #218 (May/June 2024).
- Keynote from UCD Humanities Institute PhD conference, UCD Humanities Institute podcast (20 March 2024).
- Un confinaVIENTO voluntario, interview in El Faropodcast (1 March 2024).
- Radiance Films Announces May Releases, mention in Blu-ray News (14 February 2024).
- El horror contemporáneo: Un viaje a través de las artes, interview for Festival Eñe, La Fábrica, on YouTube (6 December 2023).
- Wonderland: Gothic, 4-part Sky Arts documentary, interview (7 November 2023).
- Scary Stuff Is Academic, interview in The Chicago Reader newspaper (30 October 2023).
- Review of The Dead Mother, mention in Sight and Sound magazine, 33.8 (September 2023).
- Grimmfest 2023: Shorts Program, Guests, The Jury And Late Additions!, mention in Screen Anarchy (8 August 2023).
- Dr. Xavier Aldana Reyes and the DORS 2023 Conference, interview in The Death Studies Podcast (2 August 2023).
- Imprint Films Announces October Titles Including Spooky Favorites From Emily Blunt, Kate Hudson & More, mention in Geek Vibes Nation (23 July 2023).
- Why the Gothic Keeps Gaslighting Us, interview in Imaginary Worlds podcast (7 June 2023).
- Emanuelle Films Starring Laura Gemser Compiled In Blu-ray Collector’s Set, mention in HD Report (7 June 2023).
- Radiance Films Announces September Releases, mention in Blu-ray.com (7 June 2023).
- Truly Terrifying: 24 Must-Read Nonfiction Books for Horror Fans, mention in Book Riot (1 June 2023).
- Arts, Humanities and Place, short AHRC video celebrating the work of Gothic Manchester and HAUNT Manchester (10 May 2023).
- The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle boxset arrives in July from Severin, mention in Inside Pulse (28 April 2023).
- Ghosts in the Machine: How Technology Haunts the Screen, BFI panel with director Jane Schoenbrun, Chloe Leeson and Linnie Blake for the In Dreams Are Monsters horror season (24 January 2023).
- Murder In A Blue World’ Blu-Ray Review – A Prescient Dystopian Tale That Breaks Free From Its Forebears, mention in Geek Vibes Nation (23 November 2022).
- The Psychology Behind Why Identical Twins Inspire Fascination—and Fear, interview in Atlas Obscura (22 November 2022). Republished in Big Think ( 16 September 2023).
- Meet the Editor - Xavier Aldana Reyes (S3E11), Whiskey and the Weird podcast (20 November 2022).
- Cult Films ‘Contraband’ and ‘Murder in a Blue World’ Due on Blu-ray Nov. 22 From Cauldron Films and MVD Entertainment Group, mention in Media Play News (10 November 2022).
- ‘Breaking the Silence: Fiction as Artistic Reparation’, short essay in the programme for the Ainadamar: The Fountain of Tears opera, published by Scottish Opera(November 2022).
- Tortoise Lates: Fear, interview with Luke Gbedemah, Prof Neil Martin and Vanessa Woolf, for Tortoise Media. Available on YouTube (31 October 2022).
- Julia Ducournau: el cine de terror desde la perspectiva de la mujer, mention in Radionica, Spanish news site(31 October 2022).
- My First Encounters with Gothic, or How I Became a Horror Researcher, blog post for the International Gothic Association website (6 October 2022).
- Cauldron Films: Standard Editions of Contraband and Murder in a Blue World Coming Soon, mention in Blu-ray.com (23 August 2022).
- ‘Domestic Science Fiction’, interview with director Chema García Ibarra for the Blu-ray release of The Sacred Spirit(July 2022).
- Video essay for the Cauldron Films Blu-ray release of Murder in a Blue World(May 2022), distributed by Diabolik DVD.
- Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s Hand in the Trap, interview in BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking podcast (30 March 2022).
- Horror corporal y amor incondicional, mention in La Razón de México newspaper article (18 March 2022).
- Menopause: Fertile ground for creative expression in the arts, mention in Monash Lens (25 February 2022).
- Japanese Horror & Guests, Grimmfest podcast, Manchester (13 November 2021).
- A Body of Horror: Jocelyn McGregor in conversation with Dr Maisha Wester and Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, special Halloween podcast for Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (29 October 2021).
- The Morbid Appeal of “Botched” Plastic Surgery, interview in Vox, part of ‘The Highlight: The Horror Issue’, US(28 October 2021).
- Video introduction for the film Wild Tales on Arrow Player streaming service (February 2021).
- Liner notes for the Arrow Video Blu-ray releases of the films [REC] (January 2021) and Beyond Re-animator (February 2021). These new editions were covered by the websites Horror Cult Films (UK), Screen Anarchy (US, international) and The Hollywood News (US) (Jan-Feb 2021).
- 29 Best Gothic Novels of All Time, Including Rebecca, The Oprah Magazine, US (21 October 2020).
- Rebecca’s 80th Anniversary, TRT World, Turkish television (15 October 2020).
- Exploring the literary and film history of horror across the world: an interview with Gothic academic Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, interview in HAUNT Manchester (5 October 2020).
- Terror como potência: Entrevista com Xavier Aldana Reyes, interview for Teorizadah, Brazilian Media Studies website (28 June 2020).
- Ruiz Zafón, “escritor de lectores”: Las claves de un éxito, La Vanguardia newspaper article, Spain (27 June 2020).
- The Scariest Books, Five Bookswebsite, UK (2 June 2020).
- The Psychological Reason You’re So Terrified of the Twins in The Shining, Bustle magazine, US (26 May 2020).
- Watching Through the Pandemic, TRT World, Turkish television (20 April 2020).
- Episode 10: Gothic Manchester Festival 2019, interview in RAH! podcast (1 October 2019).
- How a day course at HOME explored the Female Gothic – with experts from the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, mention in HAUNT Manchester (20 September 2019).
- Haunted City: Inside our fascination with Manchester’s Gothic past, interview in Mancunian Matters (8 July 2019).
- Are we living in ‘Gothic Times’? – the focus of the Gothic Manchester Festival Symposium 2019 is revealed, mention in HAUNT Manchester (28 May 2019).
- Meet the Manchester based horror scholar opening up weird fiction and the twenty-first-century Gothic, interview in HAUNT Manchester (23 May 2019).
- Interview in The Times Higher Education (16 May 2019).
- Manchester Horror Expert has put together The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson, article about the Hodgson collection in About Manchester (13 April 2019).
- Cult Conversations part 1 and part 2, interview in Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins (20 and 24 November 2018).
- ‘Monsters and Horror’ (‘Antika monster, skräckromantiska studier och Kung Lear i Göteborg’), P1 Kultur, 105 10, Swedish Radio (October 2018).
- Sinking Your Teeth into Vampires, Arts and Ideas podcast for BBC Radio 3 / AHRC (17 October 2018).
- Forgotten Books: 17 Years since the Publication of The Shadow of the Wind, lead article for the cultural supplement of The Irish Times, Ticket (29 September 2018, print and online).
- Interviewed for Our Age of Horror article for Aeon magazine, (19 September 2018).
- Manchester and Gothic Publishing, article for HAUNT Manchester, Visit Manchester website (19 September 2018).
- Exploring H. P. Lovecraft’s Gothic Roots, article for The Irish Times (4 September 2018).
- Why the Spanish Civil War Continues to Haunt Gothic Literature, article for The Conversation (30 September 2018). Also appeared in Spanish as Por qué la Guerra Civil Española sigue obsesionando a la literatura gótica.
- HOME and the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, article for HAUNT Manchester, Visit Manchester website (28 June 2018).
- Seeing Double: The Origins of the ‘Evil Twin’ in Gothic Horror and Hollywood, article for The Conversation (14 June 2018).
- Twins, interview for The Anthill, a podcast from The Conversation UK (14 June 2018).
- Trick or Treat? A Guide to Halloween’s Hidden (and Not So Hidden) Gems, article for The Conversation (30 October 2017).
- How George A. Romero Made Humans of Violent Brain-Devouring Zombies, article for The Conversation (17 July 2017).
- Bride of Frankenstein: Gothic Horror, interview in episode 2 for The Horror Lab podcast (iTunes) (20 June 2017).
- The Loney and Andrew Michael Hurley At Manchester Gothic Festival, mention in Manchester Confidential(21 October 2016).
- Ghosts, Monsters and Werewolves: Manchester Goes Gothic, mention in I Love Manchester (6 October 2016) .
- World Goth Day: Shedding Some Light on the Darkness of a Much-Maligned Culture, interview in The Independent (22 May 2016).
- Zombies and the City: In a Tel Aviv Show, Chinese Artist Cao Fei Re-imagines the Urban Apocalypse, mention in Hareetz, Israeli news (16 April 2016).
- Special guest in Hannah’s bookshelf, North Manchester FM (9 April 2016),
- Horror Movie Special, interview in podcast (episode 64) of the George Lamb Show (21 August 2015).
- Introducing the Children to the Darkness of Gothic Fiction, interview and article mention in Manchester Evening News (30 July 2015).
- Fangs for the Memories: Death of Christopher Lee Draws a Veil over Golden Years of Horror,article for The Conversation (11 June 2015).
- Animal Worlds: Humanities in Public, interview in The Skinny (19 October 2014).
- Interview in Why Horror?documentary film feature (21 January 2014). Bronze Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2014.
- Hero Worship: Stephen King, interview in The Skinny (9 October 2013).
- Interview for Twisted Taleswebsite (26 August 2013).
- Ghostly Goings on as Manchester Uni Offers Gothic Studies, Manchester Evening News (9 August 2013).
- A Degree in Twilight: University Launches Course in Gothic Horror to Cash in on Popularity of Vampire Fiction, mention in Daily Mail (12 August 2013).
- Profile in ‘Ambassador Spotlight’ section of Visit Manchester’s research newsletter (May 2013).