Sarah Parker
@profsarahparker.bsky.social
230 followers 170 following 39 posts
Professor of Literature, Sexuality and Visual Culture, Loughborough University; 19th-20thC literature (esp. poetry), genders/sexualities (esp. queer femininities), portraiture, photography, fashion & celebrity. She/her.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Michael Field in Context (Cambridge University Press) is out today! I'm so excited that this volume is finally out in the world. It features 35 chapters on so many different aspects of Michael Field's lives and work. Find out more/order for your library here: www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
profsarahparker.bsky.social
If you want to celebrate the launch of Michael Field in Context, save the date for a hybrid launch/roundtable event on Thurs 27 Nov, 18.30-20.00: bads.gold.ac.uk/future-fields
Reposted by Sarah Parker
healthhumslboro.bsky.social
CFP 📣 Join us in Loughborough 📍 for a day of Sensation fiction and health humanities organised by our very own @braddonite.bsky.social. ✨ See post below for details 👇
vpfa.bsky.social
🚨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…
Reposted by Sarah Parker
culturalcurrents.bsky.social
2/2 Followed by
Dr Nick Freeman
"Yesterday, When I was Mad": Arthur Symons and Writing from the Asylum

In collaboration with @healthhumslboro.bsky.social
Wed 29 Oct, 16.15-17.30 - hybrid, DM for Teams link.
Reposted by Sarah Parker
culturalcurrents.bsky.social
On Wed 29 Oct, 16.15, join us for our first event of 2025-26, feat. two @lboroenglish.bsky.social legends:

1/1 Dr Anne-Marie Beller @braddonite.bsky.social
"We regret to learn that Miss Braddon is out of her mind": Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Life and Fiction
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Michael Field in Context (Cambridge University Press) is out today! I'm so excited that this volume is finally out in the world. It features 35 chapters on so many different aspects of Michael Field's lives and work. Find out more/order for your library here: www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
Reposted by Sarah Parker
lboroenglish.bsky.social
If you're on LinkedIn, please follow our page: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/....
We've posted an update on @profsarahparker.bsky.social's 5-year project '100 Years of the Well of Loneliness', funded by the AHRC. PI is Prof Jana Funke and the other CIs are Dr Elizabeth English and Dr Hannah Roche
Reposted by Sarah Parker
profsarahparker.bsky.social
This evening at 7-8pm, really looking forward to discussing Alice Meynell's poetry and prose. Come along and join us (link below 👇)
carcanet.bsky.social
Join us to launch Selected Poems and Essays by Alice Meynell on 3 September, with the book's editor Alex Wong, Meynell's great-granddaughter, the renowned feminist critic and theorist Laura Mulvey, and literary critic Sarah Parker! 📔

🎟️ www.carcanet.co.uk/events/selec...
Reposted by Sarah Parker
wellofloneliness.bsky.social
Come along to @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social on 10 Sept to hear all about the new edition of Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness: fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk/events/100-y...
profsarahparker.bsky.social
'The humane beauty, sensitivity and moral force of her work, [...] depend significantly on this open-eyed and generous acuity. The balance, or harmony, of sharpness with sympathy is one of Meynell’s finest features' - Alex Wong on Alice Meynell carcanet.substack.com/p/selected-p...
Reposted by Sarah Parker
modernistudies.bsky.social
We're delighted to share that the CFP for the joint @modernistudies.bsky.social and @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 conference, Weird Modernisms, is now live!

1-4 July, Loughborough University @lborouniversity.bsky.social

More info here: moderniststudies.org/conference/MSA2026/CFP/
Image of 'The Empress' tarot card by Pamela Coleman Smith, depicting a figure with long hair, crown, and sceptre. Text: Weird Modernisms, BAMS/MSA 26, 1-4 July 2026, Loughborough University, UK.
Reposted by Sarah Parker
carcanet.bsky.social
Join us to launch Selected Poems and Essays by Alice Meynell on 3 September, with the book's editor Alex Wong, Meynell's great-granddaughter, the renowned feminist critic and theorist Laura Mulvey, and literary critic Sarah Parker! 📔

🎟️ www.carcanet.co.uk/events/selec...
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Come and get Weird with us in Loughborough! Save the date for 1-4 July 2026 (also coincides with my birthday!) @lboroenglish.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social @modernistudies.bsky.social
moderniststudies.bsky.social
In 2026, the MSA Conference will look a bit different-- weird, even! That's because we're having a joint conference with BAMS @modernistudies.bsky.social in Loughborough, UK from July 1- 4, 2026. The CFP will be out soon! But in the meantime, please save the date.
Tarot card image of the empress with a crown of stars. Text reads Weird Modernisms BAMS/ MSA 1- 4 July 2026 Loughborough University, UK
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Just looking at scanned copies of The Ladder with an article on Romaine Brooks and the images are accidentally (yet appropriately) inverted. Aren't they cool?
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Research Assistant (unpaid, unless biscuits count)
Reposted by Sarah Parker
ka-od.bsky.social
29th Lesbian* Lives Conference will take place in University College Cork, Ireland from 15-17 May 2026.

CfP & more info available here:

(Spread the word—)
#LGBTQ #Lesbian #Queer #Feminist #Speirgorm

www.ucc.ie/en/lesbianli...
Call for Proposals | University College Cork
Proposals for individual papers, panel sessions, round table discussions, workshops and visual presentations for Lesbian Lives should be submitted by 24 Sept 2021
www.ucc.ie
Reposted by Sarah Parker
rrrjournal.bsky.social
We're delighted to announce that the CfP for our 2026 conference @stir.ac.uk, 'Sex in the Long C19', is now LIVE!

We are grateful to have received generous funding from @bavs-uk.bsky.social, allowing us to award travel bursaries to some delegates.

Abstracts due 22 September 2025. Share widely!
Reposted by Sarah Parker
dremilyvincent.bsky.social
The #BAVS2025 @bavs-uk.bsky.social conference kicked off with the ECR/PGR Professionalisation Day @engfac.bsky.social - an insightful pedagogy & careers panel, a fun Victorian Parlour Games session, productive peer review workshops & a fantastic séance magic show from @careenafenton.bsky.social 📚👻
profsarahparker.bsky.social
I love this take. If only Barnes had written about brussels sprouts...
profsarahparker.bsky.social
Really looking forward to tomorrow's ECR Professionalisation Day, kicking off the amazing @bavs-uk.bsky.social conference! Careers advice, jigsaw puzzles, séances all in one day - what more could you want?
dremilyvincent.bsky.social
1 week today the @bavs-uk.bsky.social ECR committee will be kicking off the BAVS Conference by hosting the ECR Professionalisation Day! We have talks from experts on #C19 pedagogy, careers, peer review workshops, immersive Victorian games & even a séance magic show from @careenafenton.bsky.social 🎉
profsarahparker.bsky.social
So sad to miss this! Everyone looks amazing and like you all had a brilliant time. Well done to our fantastic students!