Kevin A. Morrison is Provincial Chair Professor, University Distinguished Professor, and Professor of British Literature in the School of Foreign Languages at Henan University. He is the author of four monographs, including the MLA-award winning Victorian Liberalism and Material Culture: Synergies of Thought and Place, and, most recently, The Provincial Fiction of Mitford, Gaskell, and Eliot.

Pälvi Rantala is a Finnish researcher and nonfiction writer. She holds a docentship in cultural history at the University of Turku and works in the intersecting fields of history, sociology and cultural studies. Her research projects have combined arts, culture and social science as well as historical knowledge, and she currently works on the cultural history of sleeplessness.