Occultism, History, and Literature: Why the Margins Matter

On this panel, three scholars will share insights on the roots, significance, and impact of modern occultism gained from their recently-completed major research projects— for Dixon, the monograph Sexual Heresies: Religion, Science, and Sexuality in Modern Britain, soon to appear from Stanford University Press; for Ferguson, a scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s late-life spiritualist novel The Land of Mist, forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press in September; and for Roukema, the monograph The Borderlands of Genre: Esotericism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, to be published with Oxford University Press. Together, they will reflect on the major impact of seemingly marginal or fringe belief systems as they have shaped popular literary genres and reputations, theories of religion, and understandings of sex, gender, and race from the nineteenth century to the present; they will also consider the role that occult history might play in our post-secular future. 

This event is open to the general public and does not require registration (but please note that our seating is limited). Lemonade will be served at 4:30 pm, and the event will be followed by a reception in the Piano Lounge, Graham House.

Header image: William Holbrook Beard, Lightning Struck a Flock of Witches, 1859-98, painting, oil on cardboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Corcoran Collection).

Dr Joy Dixon is an associate professor in History at UBC-Vancouver and the author of Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England (2001). Their new book, Sexual Heresies: Religion, Science, and Sexuality in Modern Britain, will be available from Stanford University Press in May 2026.

Professor Christine Ferguson (FEA, FRHistS) is Chair in English Studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where her research focuses on the entwined histories of popular fiction, science, and alternative spirituality in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain. She is the author of three books and two edited works, including the essay collection The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947 (Routledge, 2018), co-edited with Andrew Radford, and the new monograph Opens Secrets: The Popular Fiction of Britain’s Occult Revival, 1842-1936 (Oxford University Press, 2025). In 2026, she will publish the first scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Land of Mist and Other Spiritualist Writings as part of the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr Ferguson is also a society member of Green College, and she is in residence beginning in late April through mid-May 2026.
 

Dr Aren Roukema (PhD Birkbeck; MA Amsterdam) is a sessional lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia. He works at the intersections of popular culture, mental science, and heterodox religion in the Anglosphere. Publications include Esotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams (Brill, 2018) and The Borderlands of Genre: Esotericism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, perpetually forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Aren is editor of Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism.