Tessera

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer

@hannahpalmer.bsky.social

Working on abortion, maternal histories, & women’s health in 19&20c Britain. Interests include histmed & surgery, obs and gynae, lived experience, & women's writing. Also posting on @healthhumslboro.bsky.social 🫀🦋🧚‍♀️

22 Posts190 Follower 244 Folgt

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Absolutely cannot wait to see this wonderful book out in the world!!!!

Dr Joanna Turner@coppertapestry.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Prepare to be Corellied @vpfa.bsky.social conference-goers! In the pack there’s a special offer for delegates to pre-order this beauty (is she winking? I like to think so!), and I’ll be speaking in panel two on Monday. The book can be ordered from EER next month www.eerpublishing.com/turner-marie...

The cover of Marie Corelli by Joanna Turner. Part of the Key Popular Women Writers Series. The cover depicts an illustration of a dark haired woman in Victorian clothing standing on a rock, pointing into the distance with the sea behind her and the wind in her hair.

Lisa Climie-Somers @lisaclimieofficial.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Big congratulations to @hannahpalmer.bsky.social Dr Hannah Palmer, who passed her Viva yesterday. Hannah's thesis is entitled 'Abortion in Nineteenth-Century British Literature'. An extra extraordinary piece of work. 👩‍🎓👩‍🎓👩‍🎓🎓🎓🎓

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I am so pleased to share that I passed my viva yesterday!! Working on my PhD thesis (‘Abortion in Nineteenth-Century British Literature’) at @lboroenglish.bsky.social has been a wonderful experience thanks to my incredible supervisory team @drclaireocall.bsky.social @braddonite.bsky.social 💕🦋🫀

Dr Anne-Marie Beller FRHistS @braddonite.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Registration is now live for my VPFA Study Day on 'Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities'. It's free to attend, thanks to funding from the VPFA and the Health Humanities Hub at Loughborough University. The programme and the link to register here: victorianpopularfiction.org/sensation-fi...

Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: 27th March 2026

A VPFA Study DayHosted by Loughborough University Registration now open! Click here to register Scroll down for the Study Day Programme The Health Humanities and Victorian popular fiction intersect…

victorianpopularfiction.org

Saraband Books @saraband-books.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Today we are celebrating all things Emily Brontë 🤎 And we are delighted to reveal the cover for the expanded and updated edition of Emily Brontë Reappraised by @drclaireocall.bsky.social, publishing in 2026! Discover more here: saraband.net/sb-title/emi... #Booksky #emilybronte 📚💙

Emily Brontë Reappraised: Expanded and updated edition by Claire O’Callaghan, publishing in 2026 from Saraband.

Kate Lister @k8lister.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Today on #BetwixtTheSheets, I am talking all things Brontë with the marvellous @drclaireocall.bsky.social Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My new article was published earlier this week!! It focuses on the gynaecological health of Mrs Glover, the subject of several letters in Elizabeth Gaskell's correspondence between 1853–54, and reveals Glover's original patient record that I found at the wonderful @bharchives.bsky.social. ✨

Verification of a Date in the Gaskell Letters: Mrs Glover’s Original Patient Case Notes

‘Poor Mrs Glover’, wrote Elizabeth Gaskell, ‘[…] the operation is to be today’.1 There are nine letters featuring Mrs Glover and her diagnosis and treatmen

doi.org

The next special issue of Victorian Popular Fictions Journal is “Human–Animal Relations in Victorian Popular Literature and Culture” and will be guest-edited by Dr Bethany Dahlstrom & Dr Helena Esser. For full CFP and submission guidelines, please see: victorianpopularfiction.org/wp-content/u...

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Very much looking forward to sharing my work on pregnancy and motherhood following gynaecological surgery in the mid-19th century as part of this fantastic programme! It is online and free - links in posts below about how to register. Thank you for including me @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social !! 🫀💫

Voices of Motherhood@voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Just three weeks to go until our conference! If you've not done so already, you can sign up via the link below. Please email any queries to voicesofmotherhood@worc.ac.uk 📩

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 8mo ago

So so proud of my lovely friend and colleague, the new Dr Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social !!! 💕 Jo's thesis on Marie Corelli is truly spectacular, not to mention groundbreaking. Beautifully written & expertly designed - thank you for letting me read it! X

Dr Joanna Turner@coppertapestry.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I’m bursting with pride to say I passed my viva @lboroenglish.bsky.social last week! Thank you to my examiners @andrewkingc19.bsky.social & @drclaireocall.bsky.social for such a positive experience and my supervisors @profsarahparker.bsky.social & @braddonite.bsky.social for a truly memorable day!

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 10mo ago

This week I submitted my PhD thesis! ✨I have loved this project and feel so lucky to have spent the last 3 years researching & writing. I have found new narratives about the realities of women’s reproductive health inside and outside of medicine, and uncovered histories of real lived experiences 🩺📚✍🏼

Dr Joanna Turner @coppertapestry.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Coming very, very soon… Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited a special issue of @edinburghup.bsky.social Victoriographies - titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. There are clues to its contents in the beautiful cover image, below… we can’t wait for the work of our contributors to be out in the world!

The cover image of Victoriographies journal volume 15, number 3, 2025, titled Marie Corelli Reconsidered. The image of an ornate’V’ is paired with a collage picture that includes an image of Marie Corelli with representations of ancient Egypt, mesmerism, provincial newspaper mastheads, Japanese text, and subtle references to twins.

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 11mo ago

🔈📚🕰️🩺 Join us for a Loughborough Health Humanities x Cultural Currents event on Weds 29 October, 16:15. Taking place in a hybrid format - DM us (or DM @culturalcurrents.bsky.social) for link and details. See post below for more info on our wonderful speakers👇

@culturalcurrents.bsky.social · 11mo ago

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

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 11mo ago

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 👇

🚨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 a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk 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…

James Kneale @jameskneale.bsky.social · 11mo ago

This is a great post and a wonderful project, which features a little pub history - I'm fascinated by pubs responding to tourist opportunities in this period - and even a temperance hall. Loughborough was a decent temperance town, and you'd need somewhere to go on holiday!

Victoria County History@vch-home.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Pamela Fisher - @leicsvcht.bsky.social - has written for the @ihr.bsky.social 'On History' blog about her recent community history project on the minute holiday resort of Nanpantan. A handful of farms, a pub, a crossroads, a leisure space for the working people of #Loughborough. #Skystorians

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · last yr.

The exhibition is interactive and diverse, and such a wonderful representation of the kind of research going on in the Health Humanities at Loughborough. A big congratulations to all involved in this fantastic event. ✨ Also, a moment of appreciation for the mini plague doctor...

This image is a picture of a miniature plague doctor figure. The figure is small (just a few inches tall) and it is a person dressed in all black with a black hat and the iconic plague mask.

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · last yr.

Our wonderful researchers are exhibiting 'Materials of pandemic care across time' today and tomorrow at the British Academy Summer Showcase. Tickets are free and available through the link below 👇

Summer Showcase 2025 - Exhibits

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Loughborough English @lboroenglish.bsky.social · 2y ago

Our Health Humanities colleagues shared some of their research with the VC today, including transcribing Victorian medical archives, cycles of care from the Victorian asylum to post-war care homes, 17C midwifery practices, and early modern plague treatments (a sponge with vinegar on the nose!)

Sophie Franklin @sophiefranklin.bsky.social · 2y ago

📣 *Women Writing Violence, from the 16th to the 21st century* – online workshops 📆 3–4 April & 10–11 April 2025 Join us for four online events spotlighting English-language women writers and their associations with violence. Sign up to each event here: womenwritingviolence.eventbrite.co.uk

Poster for online workshops, 3rd and 4th April 2025, and 10th and 11th April 2025, on the topic of "Women Writing Violence: from the 16th to the 21st century".
The first workshop, titled 'Language and Forms of Violence', is dated 3rd April 2025, 14:00 to 17:00 CET.
The second workshop, titled 'Witnessing/Inflicting Violence', is dated 4th April 2025, 14:00 to 16:30 CET. This workshop includes a keynote by Carol Acton, based at St Jerome's University, University of Waterloo, Canada.
The third workshop, titled 'Domesticity, Motherhood & Violence', is dated 10th April 2025, 13:30 to 15:00 CET.
The fourth and final workshop, titled 'Violent Women', is dated 11th April 2025, 14:00 to 17:00 CET. This workshop includes a keynote by Erin Murphy, based at Boston University, US.
The workshops are organised by Lara Ehrenfried (LMU Munich), Sophie Franklin (UCD and University of Reading), and Nikolina Hatton (LMU Munich).
For a full schedule and session links, see the webpage link:
womenwritingviolence.eventbrite.co.uk/

Dr Hannah Victoria Palmer @hannahpalmer.bsky.social · 2y ago

Really looking forward to this! I'll be speaking online on 10 April about abortion, unborn lambs, fur coats, and celebrity feuds in Barbara Comyns's novel The Skin Chairs - one of my favourite books of all time. Tickets are free and available via link below 👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-writ...

Health Humanities Research Group @healthhumslboro.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hi friends, Loughborough's Health Humanities research group has finally made it over to bluesky ⛅🦋. Follow for updates from our wonderful researchers in the Health Hums. You can also use the link below find out more about who we are and what we do! www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/eng...