Undercover Agents: Women, Crime, and Detection in the Global Nineteenth Century
University of St. Andrews
28-29 August 2025
Female detection in the nineteenth century took many forms. In Britain, America, Australia, and India, amongst other countries, women worked with the police to uncover crime. Many were employed by private enquiry offices or ran their own agencies; rode buses, trains, and trams detecting crime; were store detectives; or independently pursued cases that affected them personally. Concurrently, fictional counterparts arose on the Victorian stage and page, whose daring exploits quickly became popular. The “female policeman,” “the lady ’tec,” and the “girlspy,” fascinated Victorian readers and viewers, whether they saw these figures as admirable or absurd. Both in fiction and real-life, the female detective’s connection with contemporary debates on gender, class, caste, and religion thus make her a figure worthy of sustained critical engagement.
This conference aims to build on conversations about the female detective that have flourished in recent years. Lucy Sussex redefined the sub-genre with her focus on female crime writers and the origins of the mystery genre and pushes the envelope further with her new book on the writer of the “longest-running early detective serial,” Mary Fortune and her son; Clare Clarke has directed fresh attention to L.T. Meade and other creators of female detective heroines at the fin-de-siècle; Isabel Stowell-Kaplan has renewed interest in female detectives as characters in theatre from the 1860s onward. Meanwhile work by Nell Darby, Caitlin Davies, and Sara Lodge on real Victorian female detectives has challenged the long-held belief that the female sleuth was a product of fiction alone. Concurrently, ongoing research is revealing the existence of policewomen and investigators outside Britain, work vital to uncovering hidden histories and silenced voices. This growing body of knowledge is destabilizing established hierarchies, diversifying the field, and creating non-linear or “rhizomatic” networks.
Located at a disciplinary cross-roads, this conference will bring together scholars from multiple fields and orientations. It will explore the global presence of women within the field of detection, including local and indigenous figures and acknowledging the importance of race and empire in shaping the female detective, both in fiction and in reality.
Featured Speakers
- Dr. Lucy Sussex
Author and Honorary Associate
Humanities & Social Sciences
La Trobe University - Dr. Clare Clark
Associate Professor
School of English
Trinity College Dublin - Dr. Sara Lodge
Senior Lecturer
School of English
University of St. Andrews
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, 10-minute flash talks, roundtables, and full panels on topics that include but are not limited to:
- Women, Crime, and Policing
- Female Detection and the Role of Private Inquiry Agencies
- Fiction and the Female Sleuth
- Theatrical Representations of the Female Detective
- Gender and Crime in the Periodical Press
- The New Woman Female Detective
- Representation of Female Detection in non-Anglophone Literatures and Cultures
Please submit an abstract of 300 words and a short bio-note (150 words) to undercoveragentsconf2025@gmail.com by 30 April 2025.
The event is free to attend for postgraduate students and precarious researchers (those without permanent employment), barring travel and accommodation costs.