School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Staff Profile

Professor Anne Whitehead

Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature

Background

Background

Anne is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature with particular interests in medical humanities, trauma and memory studies, literary representations of grief and loss, and feminist theory. She is currently writing her next book, Relating Suicide (Bloomsbury), which draws on her experience of her sister's suicide and combines personal and critical writing. She is also developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary project on reproductive loss.



Roles and Responsibilities

In the first semester of 2020-21, Anne will be Deputy Head for the School of English, as well as Director of Impact. She will be on research leave in the second semester. 



  






  

 

 

Research

Research Interests

Anne's research focuses on modern and contemporary literature, and she has particular interests in medical humanities, trauma and memory studies, the literary representation of grief and loss, and feminism and affect. Anne is currently working on a contracted book, Relating Suicide (Bloomsbury), which draws on her experience of her sister's suicide and combines personal and critical writing. Anne is also developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary project on reproductive loss, working with colleagues in the medical sciences and with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Anne's most recent publications include Medicine and Empathy in Contemporary British Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2017) and the co-edited Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities (Edinburgh University Press, 2016). Her other books include Memory: New Critical Idiom (Routledge, 2008), Theories of Memory: A Reader (Edinburgh University Press, 2007), W. G. Sebald: A Critical Companion (Edinburgh University Press, 2004), and Trauma Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2004). She has also co-edited a special issue of Feminist Theory on feminism and affect (2012). Anne's articles on a range of contemporary writers have been published in Modern Fiction Studies, Contemporary Literature and Textual Practice. 


Doctoral Supervision

Anne is an experienced supervisor of doctoral projects and welcomes applications in any area of her expertise. She was Director of Postgraduate Studies for the School of English (2013-16) and she acted as Interim Director of the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Consortium (2015-16).


External Activities 

Anne is a regular national and international examiner and reviewer. She is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2017-2020) and she reviews applications for, amongst others, the Wellcome Trust, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Anne sits on the steering committee of the Wellcome funded Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research. She was the project lead on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Seven Stories: The National Centre for the Children's Book, which was the recipient of the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award for Knowledge Exchange Project of the Year, 2017.    



Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

SEL3362, English Literature Dissertation (module leader and supervisor)

SEL3364/5, Independent Essay I and II (module leader, supervisor and lecturer)

SEL2206, Contemporary Cultures (lecturer and seminar leader)

SEL1023, Transformations (lecturer)

 

Postgraduate Teaching

MA Research Matters: 'Disability Studies' (MA in English Literature)

Thinking Theories and Methods: 'Medical Humanities' (Doctoral Training Programme, Faculty of Arts and Humanities)

 

External Examining

Cardiff University (2011-2014), Bristol University (2016-20).

Publications