StokerCon 2026

Dr. Nicole C. Dittmer, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor at Delaware Valley University, specializing in nineteenth-century British literature, Gothic studies, and ecofeminist theory. Her research investigates how Gothic fiction—particularly penny bloods and penny dreadfuls—constructs cultural narratives of gender, ecology, and monstrosity, illuminating the ways literature engaged with anxieties about women, the natural world, and the body. She is the author of Penny Bloods: Gothic Tales of Dangerous Women (The British Library, 2023) and Monstrous Women and Ecofeminism in the Victorian Gothic, 1837–1871 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), and co-editor of Penny Dreadfuls and the Gothic (University of Wales Press, 2023). Her essays appear in edited collections such as Ecocritical Menopause: Women, Literature, Environment, “The Change” (2025), Global Perspectives on Eco-Aesthetics and Eco-Ethics: A Green Critique (2018), The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature (2022), Horror and Mother/hoods in Global Cultural Imaginaries: Representations Across Literature, Film, Television, and Art (2026), Lunar Gothic: The Influence of the Moon on the Gothic Imagination (2025), alongside forthcoming chapters for Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury. Dr. Dittmer is currently developing five major research projects—Hexed and Haunted: Witch Tales from Across the Globe (2027), Wendigos, Witches, and Werewolves: Folkloric Tales of the Nineteenth Century (2027), The Handbook of Ecofeminism with Dr. Douglas Vakoch (2027), Ecofeminist Literatures: African, Middle Eastern, and Asian Perspectives with Dr. Douglas Vakoch (2027), and Italian Literature and Ecofeminism (2028)—extending her global ecofeminist approach to folklore and the supernatural. She has presented at leading international conferences, delivered invited lectures and keynotes, and contributed to public scholarship through media appearances on The Folklore Podcast, Victorian Legacies, Dirty Sexy History, Return to the Fire with Wild Women, and NHK Japan’s Mystery Files. Her work has been recognized by the International Gothic Association and nominated for multiple prestigious awards.