Book Chapter
Robert Louis Stevenson and Bridge of Allan
Shaw M (2026) Robert Louis Stevenson and Bridge of Allan. In: Heart of Stirling: The History and Heritage of Stirling since 1124. John Donald, pp. 188-190.
About me
I was born in Stirling, raised in nearby Tullibody, and spent a fair bit of my childhood chasing ducks around the university campus. I undertook my MA and PhD at the University of Glasgow, as well as an MA at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 2016, I was Research Assistant on the Carnegie-funded project 'The People's Voice: Scottish Political Poetry, Song and the Franchise 1832-1918', before taking up the post of Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Kent in 2017. I returned to Stirling in 2019, joining the university as Lecturer in Scottish Literature.
Research
My research focuses on Scottish literature and art in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, with a particular emphasis on the 1890s. My current research project is concerned with the representation of homosexuality in Scottish literature from 1880 to 1930.
My research interests also include the Celtic Revival and literary decadence in Scotland. My monograph, The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), explored the ways in which dissident fin-de-siècle styles and ideas were embraced by Scottish writers and artists hoping to develop a comparable cultural revival to the Irish Literary Revival. With Dr Scott Lyall (Edinburgh Napier University), I am currently editing a volume of essays devoted to the Scottish Literary Revival, which emerged from our RSE network grant, 'The Scottish Revival Network'.
In 2020, I completed an edition of literary correspondence between Robert Louis Stevenson and J. M. Barrie (Sandstone Press, 2020). This project began in 2016, when I held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Beinecke Library, Yale University.
I am currently Director of the Scottish Centre for Victorian and Neo-Victorian Studies and, from 2016-18, I served on the advisory board of the AHRC Popular Occulture in Britain 1875-1947 network.
Current PhD Supervisees
Neil Conway, The Melancholic Solitary in Modern Scottish Poetry
Isla Macfarlane, Books, Borrowers and Visitors at the Library of Innerpeffray, 1855-1897
Katie MacLean, Jane Austen and Queer Adaptation, 1782-2026
I would be delighted to supervise research projects focused on nineteenth- to twentieth-century Scottish literature, Victorian aestheticism & decadence, queer literature, the Celtic Revival, nineteenth-century periodicals, or literary correspondence.
Award
Best Early Career Researcher - Research Culture Awards 2020 (nominated)
Excellence in Teaching in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities - RATE Awards 2022 (nominated)
Outstanding Activity dedicated to enhancing Research Culture - Research Culture Awards 2024 (nominated)
Teacher of the Year - Arts and Humanities - RATE Awards 2025 (nominated)
Research projects (1)
Homosexuality and the Scottish Periodical Press 1885-1928
PI: Dr Michael Shaw
Funded by: The Royal Society of Edinburgh
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Outputs (18)
Magazine Article
Modern Irish and Scottish Literature by Richard Alan Barlow
Shaw M (2025) Modern Irish and Scottish Literature by Richard Alan Barlow. Irish Literary Supplement. 12.02.2025, p. 16.
Book Chapter
Shaw M & Blair K (2024) The Victorian Period. In: Carruthers G (ed.) A Companion to Scottish Literature. London: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 116-126. https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Companion+to+Scottish+Literature-p-9781119651444#:~:text=a%20dummy%20description.-,Description,first%20millennium%20to%20the%20present.
Website Content
Homosexuality and the Scottish Periodical Press 1880-1930
Shaw M (2024) Homosexuality and the Scottish Periodical Press 1880-1930. [Blog Post] 04.10.2024. https://queerscotland.com/2024/10/04/homosexuality-and-the-scottish-press-1880-1930/
Book Review
Robert Louis Stevenson and Nineteenth-Century French Literature. By Katherine Ashley
Shaw M (2023) Robert Louis Stevenson and Nineteenth-Century French Literature. By Katherine Ashley. Scottish Literary Review, 15 (2), pp. 59-61, Art. No.: 4. https://doi.org/10.1353/slr.2023.a913676
Book Chapter
Celticists and Anthropologists
Shaw M (2022) Celticists and Anthropologists. In: Kidd SM, McCracken-Flesher C & McNeil K (eds.) The International Companion to Nineteenth-Century Scottish Literature. International Companions to Scottish Literature. Glasgow: Scottish Literature International, pp. 194-202. https://www.hive.co.uk/product/sheila-m-kidd/the-international-companion-to-nineteenth-century-scottish-literature/27560329
Article
Shaw M (2022) Contested Cosmopolitanism: William and Elizabeth A. Sharp's Glasgow Herald Reviews of the Paris Salons 1884-1900. Studies in Scottish Literature, 48 (1), pp. 37-47. https://doi.org/10.51221/sc.ssl.2022.48.1.5
Book Review
Moulding a Persona: The Life and Letters of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod
Shaw M (2021) Moulding a Persona: The Life and Letters of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod. Review of: William F. Halloran, ed., The Life and Letters of William Sharp and “Fiona Macleod,” volume 3: 1900-1905 (London: Open Book Publishers, 2020). Pp. x + 471. ISBN: 978-1-80064-007-8. Studies in Scottish Literature, 47 (1), pp. 178-181. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2290&context=ssl
Edited Book
A Friendship in Letters: Robert Louis Stevenson & J. M. Barrie
Shaw M (ed.) (2020) A Friendship in Letters: Robert Louis Stevenson & J. M. Barrie. Inverness: Sandstone Press. https://sandstonepress.com/books/a-friendship-in-letters
Book Chapter
Shaw M (2020) Fin-de-Siècle Scotland. In: The Cambridge History of Scottish Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Monograph
The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity
Shaw M (2019) The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity. Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Article
Whim and Whipping: Satire and the Great Reform Act in Scottish Periodical Poetry
Shaw M (2018) Whim and Whipping: Satire and the Great Reform Act in Scottish Periodical Poetry. Scottish Literary Review, 10 (2), pp. 1-25. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/707794
Book Chapter
Decadence and the Urban Sensibility
Shaw M (2018) Decadence and the Urban Sensibility. In: Desmarais J & Weir D (eds.) Decadence and Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 82-97.
Book Chapter
Theosophy in Scotland: Oriental Occultism and National Identity
Shaw M (2017) Theosophy in Scotland: Oriental Occultism and National Identity. In: Ferguson C & Radford A (eds.) The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 23-40.
Book Chapter
Aestheticism and Decadence in Patrick Geddes's Socioeconomics
Shaw M (2017) Aestheticism and Decadence in Patrick Geddes's Socioeconomics. In: Parkins W (ed.) Victorian Sustainability in Literature and Culture. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 165-179.
Article
Shaw M (2016) Transculturation and Historicisation: New Directions for the Study of Scottish Literature c.1840–1914. Literature Compass, 13 (8), pp. 501-510. https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12326
Book Chapter
Before the Rising: Home Rule and the Celtic Revival
Shaw M (2016) Before the Rising: Home Rule and the Celtic Revival. In: Maley W (ed.) Scotland and the Easter Rising: Fresh Perspectives on 1916. Edinburgh: Luath Press, pp. 174-178. https://www.luath.co.uk/history/scotland-and-the-easter-rising-fresh-perspectives-on-1916
Book Chapter
William Sharp's Neo-Paganism: Queer Identity and the National Family
Shaw M (2015) William Sharp's Neo-Paganism: Queer Identity and the National Family. In: Dau D & Preston S (eds.) Queer Victorian Families: Curious Relations in Literature. Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature, 15. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 77-96. https://www.routledge.com/Queer-Victorian-Families-Curious-Relations-in-Literature-1st-Edition/Dau-Preston/p/book/9781138792456
Teaching
In the 2026-27 academic year, I will be contributing to the following modules:
ENGU9A1: Introduction to Literary Studies: Genre (convenor)
ENGU9WH: Writing and History: Scotland and Empire (convenor)
ENGU9EB: British Literature 1700-1830 (convenor)
ENGU903: Literary Revolutions
HISU9H3: Key to the Kingdom: The History and Heritage of Stirling
ENGU9DP: Dissertation Preparation
ENGU9A8: English Studies Dissertation