Kate Lister

Dr Kate Lister is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Communication at Leeds Trinity University. Kate primarily researches the literary history of sex work and curates the online research project, Whores of Yore, an interdisciplinary digital archive for the study of historical sexuality. Kate has also published in the medical humanities, material culture, Victorian studies and Neo-Medievalism. She regularly writes about the history of sexuality for inews, Vice, and the Wellcome Trust. Kate won the Sexual Freedom Publicist of the Year Award in 2017.

 My primary research interest is the history of sexuality, with a particular focus on the figure of the sex worker. I have published in the field of Victorian studies and the medical humanities in this area. I am passionate about using applied literary studies, and currently work with several charities, women’s rights organisations, and campaign groups where I use historical research to contextualise current debates around sex work law. I am a board member of the sex work research hub. 

I have formed external research collaborations with the Leeds-based charity, Basis Yorkshire (a charity that supports sex workers in the city of Leeds), and have worked with them on a number of projects.

I also research and apply the digital humanties to my own work. I have designed, coded and built the online interdisciplinary digital media project, Whores of Yore (www.thewhoresofyore.com). This is a public engagement project that works to make research on sexuality and the history of sex work accessible to the general public online by utilising social media. The Twitter feed has (at the time of writing) 190,000 followers and the website averages 60,000 independent visits every month. The website includes over 100 academic articles, archived images, extracts from medical texts, antique erotica, and an independent blog from Basis Yorkshire. The project was won the sexual freedom award 'publicist of the year award' in 2017, has led to numerous television, radio and podcast appearances, has been the subject of several online articles and generated many academic invitations to deliver guest lectures and keynote addresses  (including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cheltenhelm Literature Festival, Bristol 5x15, and the Chalk Valley History Festival.)

I am a journalist with the Inews, where I regularly contribute articles on historical sexuality. I also write for the Wellcome Trust online.

My doctoral was in the field of Victorian Neo Medievalism, and this remains a key research interest of mine. I am currently editing an interdisciplinary collection of essays on Vikings in film with Professor Paul Hardwick, under contract with McFarland, to which I have contributed a chapter.

I am published in the field of Victorian studies and have edited a collection of essays on Victorian material culture for Routledge, which was published in 2018. I am a board member for the Leeds Centre of Victorian Studies and advise on use of the digital humanities.

 I am the course leader for the Creative and Professional Writing course at Leeds Trinity. This is an interdisciplinary, cross school module that allows students to study writing skills within journalism, script writing, blog writing, creative writing and academic writing.