Science of the Seance

While there has been a considerable academic interest in Victorian Spiritualism and séance room phenomena, the 1918–1939 period has been less well served. Beth Robertson’s Science of the Seance helps to redress that imbalance ... [S]he provides a useful introduction to some of the work exploring the boundary between this world and the next in the period. Tom Ruffles, Fortean Times

It’s a rare treat when I get to indulge my interest in the paranormal through such a well-researched and argued work as Beth A. Robertson’s Science of the Seance … it will appeal not only to those studying the paranormal, but also to scholars of technology, gender, and sexuality, and those who are interested in the origins of new sciences and the construction of knowledge ... It takes its subject matter seriously (which shouldn’t be underestimated), and makes far-reaching conclusions that cross disciplinary boundaries. It draws together a number of seemingly disparate threads into a concise framework that, for me, transformed how I thought about paranormal research. I look forward to more work like this. Matthew Hayes, The Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent University, American Review of Canadian Studies

In this provocative book, Robertson contends that the study of mediumship impacted both empirical methods and gender studies … A major contribution of this work is its description of how women, both as participants and researchers, debunked the stereotype that had linked femininity with ‘intellectual ineptitude.’ Robertson’s work can serve as a model for further inquiries on the contributions psychical research can make to scholarship, methodology, and philosophy. S. Krippner, Saybrook University, CHOICE

Beth Robertson’s engaging study not only takes the classic Victorian story of psychical research into the transnational twentieth century but also makes a forceful case for grounding its inquiries in the gendered bodies of researchers and mediums alike. Michael D. Gordin, author of Scientific Babel: The Language of Science from the Fall of Latin to the Rise of English

Focusing on scientific investigations of psychic phenomena in the interwar period, Robertson provides a highly nuanced account as she explores the role gender, technology, and the contested meanings of subjectivity and objectivity play in determining scientific legitimacy and marginality. Sherrie Lynne Lyons, author of Species, Serpents, Spirits, and Skulls: Science at the Margins in the Victorian Age

Science of Seance so captured my attention and imagination that I could not put it down. This book reads like a novel even though it is an eminently scholarly text. I was literally enthralled. David Howes, editor of A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age, 1920–2000

Beth Robertson brings the spirits, mediums, and psychical researchers of the twentieth-century seance out of the dark and into the light. An outstanding book – original, insightful, spooky, and smart. Robert MacDougall, author of The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age

Combining excellent scholarship with lively narrative, Beth Robertson explores the intertwined histories of the body and the senses on the one hand and of the history of technology on the other. Science of the Seance is a fascinating read that adds considerably to critical debates over the place of both religion and science in contemporary society. Joy Dixon, Department of History, University of British Columbia