The spooky is a hugely popular phenomenon in British culture, demonstrated in what now seems like a month-long Halloween celebration, a rich tradition of horror cinema and a growing interest in the uncanny. But, there are other manifestations of haunting.

At York St John University, the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group explores the ways in which the past continues to shape literature, film and all other aspects of contemporary culture and everyday life.

Drawing upon philosophy, cultural theory, media studies, literature, health care and sociology, our group examines how traces of what we might think has disappeared often remain present in subtle and unexpected ways. Our work is concerned with ghosts, not in the conventional supernatural sense, but rather with the broader question of how absence can nevertheless exert a powerful presence.

Central to our research is the concept of hauntology, a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in Specters of Marx (1993). Hauntology challenges the assumption that the past can ever be fully left behind. Instead it suggests that histories, memories, ideas and unrealised possibilities linger within the present, shaping contemporary experience.

Closely related is the concept of spectrality, which examines the ways in which absent people, places, cultures and futures continue to make themselves felt – what sociologist Avery Gordon described as Ghostly Matters........

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