Alexis Harley's research compasses literature from the late eighteenth century on, with particular focus on Victorian scientific literature and literary engagements with the idea of nature, animals, and evolutionary theories. Her doctoral research explored the autobiographies of Victorian atheists and agnostics, and she is currently completing a book about the influences of evolutionary theories on nineteenth-century autobiography. She has abiding interests in animal rights discourse and all forms of autobiography (from logbooks to microblogs), and an emerging interest in literary responses to climate change.