The Haunted Surface: The Material Conditions of Spectrality in Victorian Drawing (Working Title)
My doctoral research investigates nineteenth-century British drawing as a distinctively Gothic medium, uniquely attuned to the spectral: the ghostly, the apparitional, and the uncertain. Rather than treating the spectral solely as iconography, my project explores how drawing鈥檚 materials and processes served as a potent site for negotiating experiences of haunting and absence in nineteenth-century Britain, a period defined by Spiritualism, occult inquiry, and fascination with the supernatural. My research aims to develop a material and art-historical hauntology, offering new insights into Victorian spiritual and occult practices as deeply entangled with the textures and materialities of everyday life.
This project is supervised by Dr Caroline Levitt, advised by Dr Tom Young and supported by the . Alongside my academic research, I’m a Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Academy of Arts, and have held roles at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford), National Gallery and Sotheby鈥檚, delivering complex projects across valuations, research, and digital engagement.
Publications
- French, Gianna. 鈥淐orrection to the Cataloguing of a Watercolour by Thomas Stothard RA (1755鈥1834) at Magdalen College, Oxford.鈥 Notes & Queries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, April 2026.
- French, Gianna. 鈥淪ubstrate, Spectre, Subtraction: The Material and the Macabre in Dante Gabriel Rossetti鈥檚 Early Drawings.鈥 The Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians, no. 137 (January 2026): 1鈥5. London: The British Association of Paper Historians.
- French, Gianna. 鈥淜indred Spirits: Reframing Elizabeth Siddal鈥檚 A Woman and a Spectre.鈥 The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, n.s. 34 (Fall 2025): 4鈥19. Toronto: York University.
- French, Gianna. 鈥淚n the Shadow of Certainty.鈥 In The Visual Commentary on Scripture, edited by Ben Quash. London: The Visual Commentary on Scripture Foundation, September 2025.
Research Interests
- Hauntology & Spectrality
- Nineteenth and Twentieth-century British drawings
- Nineteenth-century artists鈥 materials, with a particular emphasis on paper
- British folklore, magic and the occult
- Victorian Gothic
- History of Belief
- Material Culture
Conference Papers
- 鈥淲hen Text Becomes Trace: Drawing as Threshold in Rossetti鈥檚 Works after Poe and Goethe.鈥 Beyond the Threshold: Liminal Spaces and the Gothic Imagination. The Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, February 2026.
- 鈥淢aterial Hauntings: The Sensory Afterlife of Rossetti鈥檚 The Raven.鈥 Beyond the Visual: Full Body in British Art History 鈥 Past, Present and Future. Association for Art History Autumn Symposium, London, October 2025.
- 鈥淎 Visual S茅ance: Materializing the Spectral Imagination in Pre-Raphaelite Drawings.鈥 Folklore and the Senses. The Folklore Society Annual Conference, in collaboration with the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork, Ireland, June 2025.
Grants & Awards
- Tavolozza Foundation PhD Scholar, 2023鈥2029
- Eve Borsook Legacy Fund, 2025
- Friends of the 麻豆视频 Institute Fund, 2025
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), 2024, 2025
- Association for Art History, 2024, 2025
Memberships & Affiliations
- Association for Art History
- British Art Network
- British Association for Victorian Studies
- 麻豆视频 Institute Graphic Arts Group
- Emerging Researchers in British Art
- Hauntology & Spectrality Research Group (York St John University)
Education
- MA Christianity & the Arts, King’s College London in association with the National Gallery (2017鈥2018)