Dr Emily E. Roach 
Lecturer | Writer

"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them"
                                                                                                   ​(Horseradish - Lemony Snicket​)
After working in the City as a banking lawyer for over a decade, I left private practice to undertake full-time postgraduate study and obtained a PhD in English Literature. I now work in Higher Education as a Senior Lecturer in Law. 

My research focuses on contemporary queer poetry, specifically slam and spoken word, transgender poets, twentieth and twenty-first century American fiction, queer Americana, LGBT memoir and media and LGBT representation in popular culture. My current research draws on my legal expertise and takes an interdisciplinary approach, contextualising the impact of the law on LGBT individuals in Britain and the United States with reference to the literature, media and music that offered affective sites of queer resistance.

My cross-disciplinary, multi-media research is driven by my interest in contemporary queer texts. Full details of my academic profile can be found on academia.edu. I am queer, bisexual and an LGBT activist. I am a Trustee of an LGBT charity and a Director of an LGBT focused community interest company. My third sector work focuses on community outreach and LGBT arts and culture. I can also be found writing fiction and creative nonfiction under a pseud and on Instagram @librarywithoutdust

Media
Fansplaining Podcast.  Guest speaker.  Episode 37: Queer YA and Beyond also briefly featured in Episode 55: Happy Anniversary #2

Bi Dean Podcast. Guest Speaker. Episode 4: Is It 'Too Late' For Dean to Come Out? 

Bi Dean Podcast. Guest Speaker. Episode 5: Is It 'Fanservice' To Make Dean Bisexual?

Quoted
‘Too closure for comfort: the death of definitive TV endings’ by Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 24 April 2017

‘The final frontier: how sci-fi is becoming less male’ by Dan Martin, The Guardian, 9 May 2017 ​​

Book Chapters 
“Performance Poetry as Trans Literature”. Routledge Handbook on Trans Literature. Forthcoming, 2023

“Homoeroticsm and the Meta-Textual Fangirl in Supernatural.” A Supernatural Politics: Essays on Social Engagement, Fandom and the Series, edited by Lisa Macklem and Dominick Grace, McFarland, 2021

Haunted Families, Queer Temporalities and the Horrors of Normativity in The Haunting of Hill House  in The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on The Haunting Netflix Adaptation ed. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., McFarland & Company, Inc., 2020

Supernatural: Wincest, Destiel and Dean Winchester's Bisexual Panic in Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities ed. Joseph Brennan, University of Iowa Press, 2019

Polyjuice, Potterheads and the Changing Face of Harry Potter Fandom: From LiveJournal to Tumblr in Fan Phenomena: Harry Potter ed. Valerie Estelle Frankel, Intellect Ltd, 2019

AIDS, Homophobia and the Monstrous Upside Down: The Queer Subtext of Stranger Things in Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series ed. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., McFarland & Company, Inc., 2018

Harry Potter and the Cursed Closet: Queerbaiting, Slash Shipping, and ‘The Cursed Child' in Harry Potter and Convergence Culture: Essays on Fandom and the Expanding Potterverse ed. Amanda Firestone and Leisa A. Clark, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2018

Epilogue? What Epilogue? Re-visioning the Harry Potter Canon in Fanon, Harry Potter Still Recruiting, Winged Lion Press, 2012

Academic Journals
The Homoerotics of the Boyband, Queerbaiting and RPF in Pop Music Fandoms, Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2018)

The Class Divide: Creditors Fight for Equality as the SIVs Collapse, International Insolvency Law Review, Volume 2, 2010

Conference Papers
Raids, Raves and Rap: (Counter)Public Order and the Policing of Music Subcultures, Critical Legal Conference, University of Durham (September 2023) (co-authored with Dr Clare Young)

Scares, Spies and Cold War Anxieties: Contextualising the Path to Gay Liberation, The Neglected Decade: Legal Issues of the 1950s, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Online Conference, November, 2022

"This is still an ugly world": Conversion Therapy, Erasure and Resistance in American Teen Narratives, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, University of York (April 2022)

Performance Poetry and Participatory Culture, Lines of Enquiry: Poetry Symposium, University of York (July 2021)

Witness to an Unbroken Spirit: Poetry From the AIDS Epidemic, Arts in Eras of Emergency Conference, University of Cambridge (July 2020) 

Allies, Advocacy and Appropriation: Bisexuality in Twenty-First Century Pop, Celebrity Studies Conference, University of Winchester (June 2020, CANCELLED)

Coming of Age: LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction and Teen Media, LGBT History Month Day of Talks, York Explore Library (February 2020)

Boybands and the Pink Pound: From '90s Homoerotics to One Direction and Homosocial Desire, Queer Celebrity Conference, University of Portsmouth (June 2019)

Transgender Performance Poetry and The Ghosts of Childhood, Queer Art of Feeling Conference, University of Cambridge (May 2019)

This Paper is Problematic: The Impact of Changing Platforms on Fandom Content, Fan Studies Network Conference, Cardiff University (June 2018)

Tales of the City: America's Queer Geographies in Gay Male Authored Fiction, York Explore Library (2018)

Homoerotics, Homonormativity and Big Gay Hogwarts: Queer Perspectives on the Internet's Biggest Slash Fandoms, University of York (2018)

Queer Temporalities and Gay Male Identities in Twenty-First Century American YA Fiction, University of Northampton (2017)

Queerbaiting, Queer Coding and Queer Visibility from Sherlock to Stranger Things, University of York (2017)

Harry Potter and the Quest for Family: Heteronormativity and Homonormativity in Canon and Fandom, ‘Leviosa’ Harry Potter convention, Las Vegas (2016)

Queer Identity in Contemporary YA Fiction at ‘Let’s Hear it for the Girls’ interdisciplinary conference, Warwick University (2016)

All Publicity is Good Publicity? On Selling and Silencing Fanfiction at the ‘Annual Great Creative Writing Conference,’ Imperial College London (2015)

Cross-Border Fannish Interaction: The Boundless Internet and Participatory Culture in the Harry Potter Fandom at ‘Cross Boundaries: Translations and Migrations’ the 33rd IBBY International Congress, Imperial College (2012)

Queer Pleasure in Participatory Culture: Slashing and Shipping the ‘Boy Who Lived’ at ‘The Pleasures of Romance’ Fourth Annual International Conference on Popular Romance Studies, University of York (2012)

Dealing with Death: Tough Topics in Poetry for Children at the IBBY/NCRCL Annual Conference, Roehampton University (2011)

Numerous panel roles at fan conventions, including Nine Worlds Geek Fest (London, England (2012, 2013, 2015)), Dragon*Con (Atlanta, Georgia, USA (2012)) and Leviosa (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (2016)).  Panel topics have included queering popular culture, slash fiction and feminism, ageism and body image in femmeslash and queer representation in young adult fiction.