Staff profile

• Dark Academia
• Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy
• Aesthetic and Genre Theory
• Neoliberalism
• Right-Wing Populism

• 2025 - 2026: The ArkLight Travel and Research Awards: The ArkLight Travel and Research Awards have been established through the generous contributions to the College by David Arkless, the Founder and Chairman of ArkLight Group. Up to 5 grants are awarded annually to Ustinov College (Durham University) postgraduate students to support fieldwork, conference fees, and/or travel to attend conferences, relating to any of the four core themes: Human trafficking, Human rights, Anti-prejudice, Global citizenship.
• 2025 - 2026: Ustinov College Travel Awards: Ustinov College Travel Awards are available to assist current Ustinov students to attend academic conferences, workshops (linked to their studies), University sport or wider student experience (WSE) opportunities (theatre, music etc.). Ustinov College Travel Awards are not available for fieldwork, attending summer schools or career fairs.
• 2023 - 2024: Curtis Brown Creative Klara Nilsson Novel-Writing Scholarship: I was awarded the 'Curtis Brown Creative Klara Nilsson Novel-Writing Scholarship' to attend the 'Writing Your Novel' course led by bestselling author Suzannah Dunn to aid the development of my own dark academia inspired novel.
• 2022: Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society Highest Dissertation Mark in English at Loughborough University: My undergraduate dissertation achieved a mark of 83% which awarded me the Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society's annual award for the highest dissertation mark in English at Loughborough University for 2022.

Conference Paper

• Dark Academia: The Way The Literature and Internet Aesthetic Perpetuates Pseudo and Anti-intellectualism
  
  Paterson, K. (2026, July 10). Dark Academia: The Way The Literature and Internet Aesthetic Perpetuates Pseudo and Anti-intellectualism [Conference paper]. Presented at The Value of Literature Conference, Lancaster University.
• The Value of Dark Academia as a Response to Anti-Intellectualism
  
  Paterson, K. (2026, June 21). The Value of Dark Academia as a Response to Anti-Intellectualism [Conference paper]. Presented at Intercollegiate Summer Research Conference 2026, Durham University.
• Metahemeralism: Finding a Framework for Dark Academia in the Loss of Criticality
  
  Paterson, K. (2026, May 22 – 2026, May 23). Metahemeralism: Finding a Framework for Dark Academia in the Loss of Criticality [Conference paper]. Presented at Saints English Graduate Conference: Lost and Found, University of St Andrews.