Sally Blackburn-Daniels joined the Centre for Culture and Creativity as a Research Fellow in September 2021. She has previously taught at the University of Liverpool and the University of Bolton, and has been a Postdoctoral Researcher and Impact Consultant for The Open University. Sally completed a degree in English Literature at the University of Manchester, and followed this with an MA in Victorian Literature and a PhD from the University of Liverpool. Sally's thesis focused on the intellectual history of late nineteenth- early twentieth- century writer, Vernon Lee, particularly Lee's engagement with scientific discourse. 

Sally’s research has remained close to the subject of her doctoral thesis: Vernon Lee. Sally has recently co-edited a special issue of Volupté Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies on Lee with Patricia Pulham (Surrey). Earlier in 2021 Sally co-edited a special issue of English Studies with Edmund King on ‘Bookshelves, Social Media and Gaming’. The issue forms part of two outcomes of the ‘Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic’, co-organised with King (OU), Shafquat Towheed (OU) and Corinna Norrick-Rhul (Muenster).

Sally is also interested in Digital Humanities, and has been a member of the ACM Hypertext organiszing committee since 2023. This year they ar co-chairing the Authoring and publishing of interactive and social media content track with Dr Elisa Bastianello (Bibliotheca Hertziana). Sally's recent collaboration for 'The Future of Intelligence' conference (Sept 2023, Italy) with Dr Matthew Bradley (University of Liverpool) connects Vernon Lee's work on aesthetics with AI art. 

In 2017 Sally began a series of practice based collaborations with the associazione culturale il palmerino in Florence. This relationship has led to the development and first theatrical performance of Vernon Lee’s The Ballet of the Nations (2019) and the publication of two articles on the process ‘A Theatrical Performance of Vernon Lee’s The Ballet of the Nations’, in Skenè: Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies (2020) and ‘A Present-Day Morality for the Present Day’ in 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century (2020). Sally’s other collaborations with il Palmerino include In Vernon Lee’s Name: Laboratori e Spettacoli dai Testi della Scrittrice Inglese (2022) and Vernon Lee e il Teatro delle Passioni: Firenze, Arte e Politica at the Accademia delle Arte e del Disegno, Florence (2019).