Thesis Title: Seeking to ‘dethrone false Gods’: Analysing how far the spiritualist movement challenged the gender binary of religion, psychiatry and power in the late nineteenth century’

Supervisors: Dr Ian Cawood and Dr Helen Davies

Sophie Allen is a second-year MPhil/PhD candidate at Newman University. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the development of spiritualism in Birmingham, the experience of women and their participation in the active side of spiritualism, for example conducting séances. Her thesis will analyse the role of the female mind in engaging with the spiritual world as it was encouraged by fellow believers and questioned by the psychiatric profession in the late nineteenth century.

As well as her thesis, Sophie co-created Newmarts (Newman Universities Arts and Humanities Research blog) and is an editor for a special edition of Newman University’s Critical Commentary Journal. You can find her on twitter @SophieAllen_

Contact: ALLE304@newman.ac.uk.