The research areas of Shelley Trower lie in the 19th and 20th centuries literature and culture. Specific interests include the relationship between literature and science, place and nation, sound studies, oral history and most recently reading too. Her first monograph Senses of Vibration is an investigation into how vibration took on key importance in many areas of the 19th century literature and culture, signaling a change in how people thought about the world and their own bodies and minds. She has recently extended this work into the 20th century with a collection, Vibratory Modernism, edited with Anthony Enns. Her interests in oral history, place and nation have taken shape in various publications.