Dr Hetta Howes

Overview

Website: https://hettahowes.co.uk/

As well as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London, I am a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. I regularly present and contribute to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as publications such as Times Literary Supplement and BBC History Extra. My first book, 'Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature', is now available: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843846123/transformative-waters-in-late-medieval-literature/

After studying for my BA and MPhil at the University of Cambridge, I joined Queen Mary in 2012 to begin my doctoral thesis. The project was supervised by Professor Julia Boffey and examined the role of water as a literary metaphor in late-medieval devotional prose, with a special emphasis on writings for and by women. After a one-year lectureship at Queen Mary I moved to City in September 2017.

I have published on a range of topics, including tropes of crying and cleansing in Aelred of Rievaulx’s spiritual treatise 'A Rule of Life for a Recluse', the relationship between fluids and emotions in medieval lyrics, and the role of the senses in fourteenth-century alliterative verse.

I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and I teach on a number of different modules on the BA and MA at City, including two research-led modules on women's writing throughout history.

PhD supervision: I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students interested in late-medieval devotional literature, particularly writing by and for women; the history of the emotions; fluidity and transformation; modern preoccupations with the medieval world.

Qualifications

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Queen Mary, University of London, Jul 2017
• PhD, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom, Sep 2012 – Jun 2016
• MPHil, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Sep 2011 – Jun 2012
• BA, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, Sep 2008 – Jun 2011

Administrative role

• Recruitment Officer for Department of English, City, University of London

Employment

• Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature, City, University of London, Sep 2017 – present
• Lecturer in medieval and early modern literature, Queen Mary, University of London, Sep 2016 – Aug 2017
• Teaching Associate, Royal Holloway University of London, Jan – May 2016
• Teaching Associate, Queen Mary, University of London, Sep 2013 – Jun 2016

Awards

• City University of London, Widening Participation Team (2019) Outstanding Staff Contribution
• City, University of London, School of Arts and Social Sciences Academic Impact Award (2019)
  Nominated, shortlisted

Research Interests

- Women's literary culture in the Middle Ages
- Environment as metaphor in late-medieval literature
- Modern preoccupations with the medieval
- History of the Emotions
- The medical humanities, especially sex difference in the Middle Ages

Forthcoming Publications

- 'Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature', due for publication with Boydell and Brewer in 2021
- ‘‘Make me a good woman’: reflections on becoming in a fifteenth-century prayer sequence’ (article in progress)
- ‘A hunt for the Nun of Watton in Late-Medieval Translations of 'De Institutione Inclusarum’ (article in progress)

Current Research

- Fluid imagery in medieval devotional writings by and for women
- New approaches to medieval water studies
- Medievalisms in Maria Davhana Headley's 'The Mere Wife'
- Solitude in medieval religious literature

Publications by category