Laura Brook
Thesis title: ‘That drop of blood is my death-warrant’: John Keats and the Construction of Early Nineteenth-Century Patienthood
English Literature
Year of study: 4
- English Literature
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Contact details
- Email: laura.j.brook@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisors:
Background
Laura’s PhD research focuses on the representation of patienthood in the works and letters of John Keats in the context of the Romantic era’s rapid developments in both medical science and patient rights. Using an approach that blends developments from medical history and second-wave medical humanities with Romantic literary studies, this project seeks to provide a better understanding of early nineteenth-century patient experiences using Keats as a key case study.
Laura’s research interests also include trauma theory, women’s literature of the Great War, and neurodiversity studies.
Qualifications
MA English Literary Studies, Durham University, 2020
MA (Hons), English Literature, University of Edinburgh, 2017
Undergraduate teaching
Literary Studies 1A Tutor, Semester 1 - Sept 2022 – Jan 2023
Literary Studies 1B Tutor, Semester 2 - Jan 2023 – May 2023
Invited speaker
'Romantic Poetry: An EARN Forum' — with Yu-Hung Tien (University of Edinburgh), Pauline Hortolland (Université de Paris), and Charlotte Evans (University of Birmingham) via Skype (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), May 2021
Papers delivered
‘Physician, Poet, Patient: John Keats, Epistemic Violence, and Contemporary Medical Journals’, Work in Progress Conference, University of Edinburgh, 2023
‘Deathwards progressing | To no death’: Keatsian immortality and the two Hyperions’, British Association for Romantic Studies Early Career Researchers Conference, University of Edinburgh 2023
‘”The Patient/Patriot K.”: John Keats, Guy’s Hospital and the Politics of Power’, British Society of Literature and Science Annual Conference, Edinburgh Napier University, 2023
‘‘Coffin’d bones, and funeral stole’: Keats’s Isabella and the Politics of Bodysnatching’, British Society of Literature and Science Winter Symposium, online, 2022
‘Quarantining Keats: Palliation, Isolation and the Poet-Patient’, Keats Conference, Keats Foundation, Keats House, 2022
‘John Keats, Romantic Medicine, and the Anxiety of Mortality’, Castle Conference, Durham University, 2019
‘Breaking the Rules: Autistic-Led Pedagogy in Literary Studies’, The Polyphony (blog), 26 July 2024, https://thepolyphony.org/2024/07/26/autistic-led-pedagogy-literary-studies/.