Laura Chapot Final year PhD candidate in Comparative Literature I am currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature (German and Scandinavian Studies) at the University of Edinburgh. In my research, I investigate the discursive formations that construct the concept of ‘decadence’ in German and Scandinavian cultural production(s) at the fin de siècle. I draw on a blend of discourse theory, historical semantics and comparative literary theory to form the theoretical framework of the project. This allows me to approach decadence as a dynamic complex of different cultural discourses in interaction through the means of a mixed discourse analytical method using Digital Humanities tools such as Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) to carry out textual analyses which inform my close readings within a large-scale digitised corpus of texts. Alongside my studies, I have also tutored German language and literature at the University of Edinburgh, and was co-editor of FORUM - Edinburgh’s Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts - in 2013.

Dr Dorothy Butchard Postdoctoral Fellow in English Literature Having completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2015, I'm now a postdoctoral fellow at IASH. My research considers creative responses to changing technological environments, and my current project focuses on literary depictions of transatlantic communications, placing post-millennium responses to new technologies such as instant messaging and video calls in the context of earlier epochal developments in long-distance contact. My doctoral thesis, titled “Electric Amateurs: Literary Encounters with Computing Technologies 1987-2001” (2015) and supervised by Dr Lee Spinks, considered portrayals of the internet and personal computing across a range of genres including fiction, poetry and digital works published in the late twentieth century and turn of the millennium. Alongside my research I work as a tutor in English Literature and Cultural Studies, and my academic interests are complemented by occasional freelancing as a graphic and web designer, along with writing and editorial projects.