Postgraduate research students

This interdisciplinary project puts early nineteenth-century theatre context in dialogue with the history of breathing science including the performers’ personal medical histories, developing methodologies applicable to contemporary experiences with problematic breathing.

My research asserts that Regency theatre history (1790s-1820) was an era of performative cultural change and re-defines Coleridge’s contribution. Audiences and casts experienced new London theatres as dysfunctional, shared respiratory spaces and literally breathed differently. S.T. Coleridge’s completed plays and projected sketches were bound up in prison poetics with suffocation metaphors, and his personal history of respiratory ill-health. Coleridge was also invested in this period’s new theatricality in breathing experiments along with good friend Humphry Davy and their circle. Breath and breathing had cultural capital, and Coleridge contributed to the respiratory climate via his writing for the stage and his own performances when lecturing.  

The result is a re-reading of Regency theatre atmosphere as one of performative cultural change during which the audience and cast breathed differently – and one we can apply to contemporary experiences with problematic breathing.

• Professor Dahlia Porter
• Professor Nigel Leask
• Dr Megan Coyer

AHRC Scholarship for SGSAH AHRC Doctoral Training Programme (2020-2027) £21,000

Friends of Coleridge bursary (2018 and 2022) £750

University of Glasgow Research Training Support Grant (2020 and 2021) £600

Australasian Association for Literature travel grant (2017) AUD$1,600

University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Support Scheme (2015-2018) AUD$9,000

Aug 2022     ''‘Withering in the sickly and tainted gales of a prison’'? An Embodied Look at John Thelwall’s 1796 Correspondence.' and contributor to 'Coleridge at 250' Closing Roundtable on 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner in a Covid-19 classroom' at Friends of Coleridge International Summer Conference, Kilve Court, Somerset.

June 2022  'Visceral and Dangerous: Shared Breathing Spaces in Romantic Theatre.' MLA International Symposia, Glasgow.

June 2022  'A New Voice Formed - the 1796 Correspondence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Thelwall.' University of Glasgow, College of Arts 'Voice' Conference. 

Aug 2021     'Shared Vitalist Language. Respiratory Physiology and Romantic Literature.' BARS Online Conference,  Romantic Connections/Disconnections. 

Aug 2018       ‘Rheumatic Fever and Romantic Poetry. Coleridge Biennial Summer Conference. Jesus College, Cambridge University, Aug 6-8.

 Sept 2017  ‘Miasmatic Legacy: Stephen Hales’ Ventilators and Coleridge’s Dramas.’ Australasian Association of Literature: Literary Environments – Place, Planet and Translation, Griffith University.

March 2017  ‘Peripherality of Breath and Musical Motif in The Eolian Harp by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.’ Peripheralities Conference, University of Sydney. 

July 2022  Creator and facilitator of 'Creative Collaborations' creative writing and art collaborations between mainstream school teens and at Royal Free Hospital School.

Sept 2019- ongoing  Teacher of English & Senior Tutor. North Bridge House Senior (0.6) Delivery, evaluation and edit of medium term plans, internal assessments, writing reports; pupil guidance. Differentiation for SEND issues. 

Autumn 2021 & 2020  Online seminar participant  'Embodiments' in Medical Humanities course (PGT) and 'Ecological Humanities' (Lit 2A) University of Glasgow

Jan2017- July 2017 Course Tutor: University of Sydney, Department of English Prepare and deliver weekly tutorials for undergraduate course: 'Art of Narrative' on Romance, epic, myth, ethics, gender relations and intertextuality using Greek and Roman poets, Old and Middle English, Shakespeare, 18^th Century novel.

 2014-2015   Teacher of English. Sydney Girls Grammar Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia Research, course design/co-design and delivery of study programmes. Report writing and parent consultations. 

 2006-2013    Head of Careers inc. H.E. applications & Teacher of English. Queen’s Gate School, London 

Teacher of English Literature & Language. Programme design/delivery, essay writing, study skills, creative writing. Head of Careers. Responsible for successful pupil admissions to U.K/international universities including entrance test and interview preparation. 

Shiatsu therapy. Diploma in the Japanese medical massage treatment of Shiatsu (2003) from the London College of Shiatsu. U.K. 3 years part-time course (500 hours). Examined modules on anatomy, physiology, pathology, Chinese Medicine. Written case studies and practical assessments including public clinics. Post-graduate MRSS Shiatsu Society qualification (2004) involving 100 hours of treatments and final examination. Set up volunteer shiatsu clinic at the Hammersmith Carers Association (2005).