Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 3d

We'd love to hear from you about possible ideas for events, talks, or reading groups you might have. This Network is for anyone working on English-language women writers' representations of/engagement with violence from any time period. To join, go to our website here:
wwvnetwork.wordpress.com/join/

1

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 3d

📣 Myself, Lara Ehrenfried, and Nikolina Hatton have established a new literary network, the Women Writing Violence Network, to foster a cross-historical approach.
We're having our launch event on 23 October at 14:00 (CET). All very welcome!
Zoom details here:
wwvnetwork.wordpress.com/meetings-eve...

1 1 3

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 5d

Now that my book is out with EUP, you can also get 30% off when you use the special launch discount code NEW30!

Flyer for 'Violence and the Brontës Language, Reception, Afterlives' by Sophie Franklin

Explores the role of violence in relation to Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s literary productions, receptions and cultural legacies

• The first major study to pinpoint violence as central to initial responses to the Brontës’ fiction
• Reveals how such early receptions continue to inform readings and reimaginings of the Brontës’ literary works and lives
• Brings together criticism from Victorian studies, neo-Victorian studies, and violence studies in an analysis of poetry, prose, reviews, films, stage productions, and TV series
• Suggests, through the case study of the Brontës, the power of literary violence and its
influence on understandings of language
and authorship

Launch discount: save 30%
Visit edinburghuniversitypress.com and use code NEW30 at checkout.

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you, Hannah! I hope all is well with you? x

1 1

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · 9d

🚨Call for Papers!
❓Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day
🗺️Loughborough University
📅27 March 2026
💷 FREE
For full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/studyday/for...
Contact the organiser Anne-Marie Beller (@braddonite.bsky.social) at [email protected] for more information

Mentally ill patients dancing at a ball at Somerset County Asylum. Process
print after a lithograph by K. Drake, ca. 1850/1855.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xswz3swa

CFP: Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities
A VPFA Study Day
Loughborough University, 27 March 2026

The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect in revealing ways, offering insights into how 19th-century literature shaped and reflected contemporary understandings of health, illness, and the body. Popular narratives not only mirrored anxieties surrounding public health and medical progress but also contributed to shaping public perceptions of health and healing. Health Humanities approaches re-examine these texts to uncover how cultural narratives and literary representations influenced attitudes toward physical and mental well-being, gendered experiences of illness, and the ethics of care in an age of rapid scientific change.

Health Humanities is a particularly useful approach to sensation fiction because it illuminates the ways in which these emotionally charged, often morally ambiguous narratives explore and interrogate concepts of the body, illness, and mental health. Sensation fiction, with its focus on secrets, trauma, nervous disorders, and abnormal psychological states, frequently dramatizes the anxieties of Victorian society surrounding health, gender, and identity. By applying the lens of Health Humanities, scholars can uncover how these texts reflect and shape contemporary medical discourse. Interdisciplinary approaches also highlight how sensation fiction critiques institutional medicine, domestic care practices, and the pathologization of women’s experiences. Ultimately, Health Humanities allows us to see sensation fiction not just as entertainment, but as a culturally significant form that negotiates the meanings of illness, morality, and human vulnerability in a rapidly changing world.

20-minute papers are invited on any aspect of the health humanities and sensation fiction. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Madness, Hysteria, and the Sensation Heroine
• The Role of Doctors and Medical Authority in Se…

1 18 21

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 8d

The cover is called 'Lockwood Attacked by Dogs' – it's an etching by Rosalind Whitman, as part of her 'Black and White in Wuthering Heights' series, which I highly recommend:
www.rasama.nl/v-wuthering-...
I'm extremely grateful to Rosalind for letting us use her artwork for the cover!

V. Black and White in Wuthering Heights – RW

www.rasama.nl

1

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 8d

My book, 'Violence and the Brontës: Language, Reception, Afterlives', is out now with @edinburghup.bsky.social! It's the first major study of violence in the Brontës' fiction and afterlives, and I'd be thrilled if you ordered a copy for your library:
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-violenc...

Violence and the Brontës

edinburghuniversitypress.com

2 3 19

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Emily Sharp @emilysharp.bsky.social · 10d

@sophiefranklin.bsky.social’s book on Violence and the Brontës is now available for purchase at edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-violenc... Learn more about the book in Sophie’s blog post below!

1 2

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · 11d

Our call for papers deadline is a week today! #medhums #histmed #histpsych

Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · Sep 9

Delighted to share our Call for Papers for the workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*. Taking place online on 5 December. Pls share and consider submitting an object story! @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham

x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event

www.birmingham.ac.uk

8 8

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 17d

Inspired by Emerald Fennell's upcoming 'Wuthering Heights' adaptation, and in anticipation of my book coming out with @edinburghup.bsky.social this month, I've written a post for the EUP blog about the role of violence in some recent Brontë afterlives:
euppublishingblog.com/2025/09/22/v...

Violence in Brontë Afterlives - Edinburgh University Press Blog

Explore five adaptations of Brontë novels that amplify violence, from Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre, reshaping the Brontës’ enduring cultural impact.

euppublishingblog.com

3

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Ruth-Anne @ruthannereads.bsky.social · Sep 10

✨Call for reviewers ✨

There are lots of new Victorianist books this autumn, and we're looking for reviewers at the @bavs-uk.bsky.social newsletter.

It’s the perfect opportunity for Victorian scholars to read the latest releases and publish a review.

Full details here 👇

bavs.ac.uk/newsletters/

» NewslettersBAVSNewsletters | BAVS

bavs.ac.uk

1 11 6

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Sep 8

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?"

A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.

Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

870 7.9K 31K

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · Sep 10

Hot off the press, the British Academy's Cold Spots: Mapping Inequality in SHAPE Provision in UK Higher Education report. Read it if you care about universities or access to the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the rising generation. 1/5

Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education

This British Academy report reveals that many parts of the UK are becoming subject cold spots – areas with no provision in a subject within a commutable distance. These are often in rural, coastal or ...

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

2 46 65

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · Sep 8

Opening tomorrow: our latest display and exhibit, connecting the life and work of beloved author Jane Austen to rural England!

We'll be opening the exhibit with a gallery tour, led by MERL's Isabel Hughes and @uniofreading.bsky.social's Professor Paddy Bullard:

merl.reading.ac.uk/event/monthl...

5 29 150

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · Sep 5

Notice; An upcoming talk as part of my Schools 10th anniversary seminar series - ‘The Coloniality of Sexual Violence’ by Prof Alison Phipps, Sept, 10, 4pm, UCD - venue details & booking below (through QR code) all welcome #speirgorm

7 12

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Victorian Popular Fiction Association @vpfa.bsky.social · Sep 4

The 2025 prize is now open! (deadline: 30th September 2025). The prize offers the winning scholar two nights' accommodation (with breakfast and dinner) for up to three days' research at Gladstone's Library. To find out more about eligibility and process: victorianpopularfiction.org/mary-eliza-r...

2 4

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · Aug 22

I wrote a blogpost with an update on my DOROTHY MSCA COFUND fellowship, specifically my time @uor-research.bsky.social and @chhuor.bsky.social – it's been a jam-packed 18 months! 💥
dorothy.ie/2025/08/21/d...

Dr Sophie Franklin: Tracing Stories of Violence and Health, from the Past to the Present | DOROTHY

My research explores how violence has often been treated as a public health crisis from the nineteenth century to the present day. I look at

dorothy.ie

1

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Andrew Mangham @andrewmangham.bsky.social · Jun 18

Fab day at the ‘Violence, Health and Health Humanities’ event at the University of Reading today. Congrats to #sophiefranklin.bsky.social, who organised the event as part of her work supported by the DOROTHY MSCA COFUND Fellowship programme.

2 2

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · Aug 18

good morning happy back to school to all who celebrate, happy one week of summer left to all the syllabus scramblers, happy grr to the quarter system people, here's some help for all of us in the college classroom

against-a-i.com

AGAINST AI -

against-a-i.com

7 48 130

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social · Aug 14

Come back from annual leave to discover that Towards An Accessible Academy: Perspectives from Disabled Medievalists is out now! So proud to have been involved with this wonderful project.
wmich.edu/medievalpubl...

Premodern Transgressive Literatures | Medieval Institute Publications | Western Michigan University

wmich.edu

3 11 30

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · Aug 15

Feel like this little sob story *could* have mentioned that Boyne's Polari nomination came five days after he wrote a piece referring to trans-inclusive women as the evil wives in the Handmaid's Tale, "ready to pin a handmaiden down as her husband rapes her".

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

John Boyne says LGBTQ+ fiction prize backlash brought him ‘close to the edge’

Gender-critical novelist urges writers to re-enter prize they boycotted and may ask judges not to shortlist his novella

www.theguardian.com

49 550 1.9K

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · Aug 15

Now on the BARS Blog: CFP for Transromanticism Volume: Romantic Trans Phenomenologies

See all info/how to submit here: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6098

Please share far and wide!

CFP for Transromanticism Volume: Romantic Trans Phenomenologies – BARS Blog

www.bars.ac.uk

7 10

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Rhona Brown @rhonabrown.bsky.social · Aug 8

🚨 @wilcocksonamy.bsky.social and I are excited to announce the publication on 1 September of a new collection of poems in response to Robert Fergusson's life, works, and legacies, published with the brilliant Taproot Press! You can pre-order the book here:
taprootpressuk.co.uk/product/oer-...

'O'er a' my labours sey your skill': Poetic Responses to Robert Fergusson (9781739207762) - Taproot Press UK

Marking two hundred and fifty years since the death of Robert Fergusson, this collection of poems in Scottish, English and Gaelic from Scotland's most celebrated writers and emerging poets alike evoke...

taprootpressuk.co.uk

1 5 11

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

Julia Ditter @juliaditter.bsky.social · Jul 2

📢CFP -- "Mediating Medicine: Health and Illness in the Victorian Age", 5 December 2025, Online Workshop

Send us your proposals for 15min papers or 5min flashlight talks by 30 Sept!⚕️💉👨‍⚕️🚑📖📰

PGR, ERC & NeoVictorian contributions very welcome 🫶

#MedHum #19Century #Victorian

shorturl.at/ePhU5

Mediating Medicine CfP_final.pdf

cloud.uni-konstanz - creative.together

shorturl.at

2 19 26

Reposted by Sophie Franklin

CSECS/SCEDHS @csecsscedhs.bsky.social · Jun 23

Call for papers | Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft at Work

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2026.

www.csecs.ca/en/calls-for...

Call for papers | Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft at Work CSECS | Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

We are seeking contributions for an upcoming volume on Mary Wollstonecraft. Dealine for submissions: January 15, 2026.

www.csecs.ca

7 5