Sophie Franklin
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sophiefranklin.bsky.social
Sophie Franklin
@sophiefranklin.bsky.social
260 followers 280 following 33 posts
DOROTHY MSCA postdoc at UCD and University of Reading • Victorian literature, violence, health, contagion, afterlives • Associate Editor of Brontë Studies • 'Violence and the Brontës', out now with EUP • she/her
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sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 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...
October 8, 2025 at 8:35 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
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.
October 6, 2025 at 8:33 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
💥 'Violence, Health, and the Health Humanities' workshop, hosted by @uniofreading.bsky.social Centre for Health Humanities! Join us for this event, feat. an in-person & online keynote by @drclaireocall.bsky.social, on health, ageing, and violence. 

📣 All welcome! See poster for details.
Poster for an upcoming workshop, 'Violence, Health, and the Health Humanities', hosted by the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities. The workshop takes place on Wednesday 18th June between 13:00 and 17:00. There will be flash talks given by University of Reading staff and postgraduates, alongside a keynote by Dr Claire O'Callaghan, which will also be available to join online. The event is primarily in-person. All very welcome! To attend, email Sophie Franklin on sophie.franklin@reading.ac.uk.
May 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 Upcoming online talk: tune in to hear @drhick.bsky.social give a paper on 'Sensing the Multispecies Hospital: Exploring More than Human Encounters in and around the Early Twentieth-Century TB Sanatorium'

📆 13:00 BST Wednesday 14th May

✉️ Email chh@reading.ac.uk for Teams link or see details below
Online talk as part of the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities' seminar series. This talk is by Dr Clare Hickman (Newcastle University), on ‘Sensing the Multispecies Hospital: Exploring More than Human Encounters in and around the Early Twentieth-Century TB Sanatorium’. The talk will take place online via Microsoft Teams at 1pm UK time on Wednesday 14th May. The talk abstract is as follows: On 6 March 1945 an anonymous female patient who had just been admitted to a sanatorium for treatment for tuberculosis recorded her first impressions: ‘Well, I'm here. Huge place in nice grounds amongst pine trees. My room not small, very pleasant - big french windows divided into halves like stable doors, looking onto part buildings (not too near) and birds to be seen and many heard. […] It is a really nice atmosphere.’ This short description highlights how the sensory institutional experience of the open-air hospital with its open windows set in a rural landscape included natural features such as the sound of birds – which are explicitly recorded here plus the implicit scent of pine from the surrounding trees. This highlights that the sensory environment, or sensescape, was created through the carrying of sounds and smells on the air as well as physical proximity to more-than-human elements, such as birds who were even fed by hand. In this paper, Dr Clare Hickman will discuss the various ways in which such close encounters impacted on the patient experience of the sanatorium and consider how this might be relevant for future hospital design in relation to the climate and biodiversity crises. The Microsoft Teams Info is as follows: Meeting ID: 342 516 027 777| Password: so7BF2in Or email chh@reading.ac.uk for the link.
May 7, 2025 at 10:06 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 Online talk: @ailise-bulfin.bsky.social and Giulia Scapin (UCD), ‘Investigating fictional representations of child sexual abuse and using the Shared Reading method to work with people with difficult lived experience’

📆 13:00 BST Wednesday 23rd April

✉️ Email chh@reading.ac.uk for Teams link.
Online talk as part of the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities' seminar series. The talk is by Dr Ailise Bulfin and Giulia Scapin (University College Dublin); and the title is: ‘Investigating fictional representations of child sexual abuse and using the Shared Reading method to work with people with difficult lived experience’. The talk takes place at 13:00 BST Wednesday 23rd April 2025. This talk discusses the nature and social impact of fictional representations of child sexual abuse (CSA) and using the Shared Reading bibliotherapy method. Although CSA is a critical and growing issue, it remains relatively taboo and this social avoidance negatively impacts survivors’ wellbeing and prevention efforts. Yet CSA is widely represented in fictional works (e.g. novels, TV series and films), which potentially affect both survivors’ and wider public understandings of the issue. The talk introduces the European Research Council-funded CSAReps project, ‘Investigating Fictional Representations of Child Sexual Abuse in Contemporary Culture: Myths and Understanding’, which sets out to explore these representations – which to date are quite understudied in cultural scholarship. Bulfin and Scapin will also outline the possible benefits of using the Shared Reading practice in research on child sexual abuse representations. They will present what Shared Reading is (and is not), and previous research that employed it in the medical humanities. They will then describe the potential applications in this and future research projects, for example to address stereotypical ideas against marginalized populations and normalize the discussion around child sexual abuse. Email chh@reading.ac.uk for Teams meeting information.
April 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 Online talk –

⚖️ Dr Janet Weston (LSHTM), ‘Immoral, unjust, and simply ruining the nation: Public Health Law and Public Fury in Post-war Britain’

📆 13:00 GMT Wednesday 9 April

✉️ Email chh@reading.ac.uk for Teams link (see poster below for Teams meeting ID and password)
University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities is hosting the second online talk of its seminar series: Dr Janet Weston (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), ‘Immoral, unjust, and simply ruining the nation: Public Health Law and Public Fury in Post-war Britain’. The talk takes place at 1pm (BST) on Wednesday 9th April. Public health laws might bring to mind rules about clean water, fly tipping, or health and safety at work – unlikely to provoke too much controversy. But issues including compulsory vaccination or the fluoridation of water are also matters of public health law, and are apparently endlessly divisive. While some argue against such laws by challenging the science that supports them, for others, their standpoint is fundamentally a moral one about individual freedom, choice, coercion, and the proper limits of state intervention. In this paper, Dr Weston takes a look at some of the controversies over public health laws in post-war Britain, focusing on the use and content of moral arguments for and against new legislation. When new laws touched on these deeply held matters of principle, reactions could be particularly furious. Looking at the examples of mandatory motorcycle helmets, seat belts, fluoridation, and air pollution, Dr Weston reflects on what was considered relevant to these moral arguments; what principles were held to be especially important; and how conflicts were resolved (or not, as the case may be). Framing this as a contribution to ‘moral history,’ she will draw some conclusions about moral feeling in late 20th-century British public health and society. Microsoft Teams Info: Meeting ID: 357 784 167 672 | Passcode: 4Ma7cZ7H Or email chh@reading.ac.uk for the link.
April 7, 2025 at 8:35 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 Join us at the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities for Dr Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril's talk, ‘Crip Doulas and Cripistemologies of Chronicity – Lessons for Long COVID’.

📆 13:00 GMT Wednesday 26 March (online)

Email chh@reading.ac.uk for further information, including the Teams link.
University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities is hosting the second online talk of its seminar series, by Dr Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril (University of Sheffield), titled ‘Crip Doulas and Cripistemologies of Chronicity – Lessons for Long COVID’. The talk is at 13:00 GMT on Wednesday 26 March 2025. Here is the abstract: Disabled people have been supporting each other forever, offering companionship and guidance to navigate uncertainty, systemic vulnerability, and self-identity. In the tradition of doulas who attend to the transformative process of pregnancy and birth, crip doulas (Park Milbern, cited in Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2017) accompany those who are making the transition to a disabled (or differently disabled) life. Doulas are not usually medically trained, yet they exist within healthcare broadly speaking and exemplify a different kind of expertise: one that is based in an intimate knowledge of being disabled in biomedical, financial, social, spiritual, and material systems. My work seeks to draw out what it means for people living with long COVID in the UK to engage in crip doula relationships. I situate this project within a broader cross-disability landscape where cripistemologies – knowledge produced based on living as disabled in an ableist world – are anchored in various cultures of chronic illness. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of our current chronic care landscape and cover my use of crip theory and associated concepts like crip time. I will also discuss the importance of paying attention to the histories of HIV doulas and HIV care trajectory when analysing current long COVID doulaships. Finally, I will lay out my plan to develop cripistemologies of chronicity. The poster also includes a brief bio note of Dr Gauthier-Mamaril. Microsoft Teams Info Meeting ID: 318 004 105 60| Password: r46N9Nx9 Or email chh@reading.ac.uk for the link.
March 4, 2025 at 3:04 PM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 *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/
February 27, 2025 at 11:55 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
📣 Join us for Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh's hybrid talk on doing public engagement with sensitive historical research!

📆 13:00 (GMT) Wednesday 26th February

Email chh@reading.ac.uk for further information.
Poster with details of a talk given by Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh, titled '"Important, bold and brave": Doing public engagement with sensitive historical research'. The talk is hosted by the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities and takes place at 13:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 26th February. In this session, Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh will talk about the challenges and benefits of doing public engagement with sensitive historical topics. From one-off events to full partnership working with people with lived experience, undertaking engagement initiatives with sensitive research has the potential to create significant and meaningful impact for people and communities affected by your research. But it’s not without challenges. From safeguarding, payments and ensuring equitable conditions to managing emotional labour and researcher wellbeing, there are numerous factors that influence whether a project will be successful. More often than not institutional support is incomplete at best. In this session, Rhea will use her experience of designing and stewarding projects with sexual violence survivors and supporting lived experience involvement in a social sciences context to explore why engagement with sensitive research is so valuable, how to do it well, challenges and ways to overcome them, and ultimately how to make a difference with your research. Rhea is a trained historian and experienced public engagement professional based at King’s College London where she is a Research Associate and Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB) Coordinator at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH). She has previously held public engagement roles at Birkbeck, University of London, and Oxford, has taught and supervised in the history of medicine at Oxford and Imperial, and sits on a range of committees supporting innovative and ethical research engagement. Microsoft Teams Info Meeting ID: 388 370 762 829 | Password: Z2Kk3dj9 Or email chh@reading.ac.uk for the link.
February 6, 2025 at 10:41 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
The University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities is hosting an *online* seminar series this spring – with talks on public engagement, disability studies, public health law, shared reading & representations of CSA, multispecies encounters, and more! Join us by emailing chh@reading.ac.uk.
Poster for the University of Reading's Centre for Health Humanities's online seminar series. The poster reads: Please join us for our seminars, held on Wednesdays 13:00 to 14:00 (UK time), via MS Teams. The joining link for each event will be circulated nearer the time, as well as the venue for hybrid talks. For more information or to request a calendar invitation, please email chh@reading.ac.uk. Feel free to circulate to any of your contacts who may be interested! 26 February 2025 (hybrid – online and in Carrington 101): Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh (King’s College London), ‘“Important, bold and brave”: Doing public engagement with sensitive historical research’ 26 March 2025: Dr Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril (University of Sheffield), ‘Crip Doulas and Cripistemologies of Chronicity – Lessons for long COVID’ 9 April 2025: Dr Janet Weston (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), ‘Immoral, unjust, and simply ruining the nation: public health law and public fury in post-war Britain’ 23 April 2025: Dr Ailise Bulfin and Giulia Scapin (University College Dublin), ‘Investigating fictional representations of child sexual abuse and using the Shared Reading method to work with people with difficult lived experiences’ 14 May 2025: Dr Clare Hickman (Newcastle University), ‘Sensing the Multispecies Hospital: Exploring more than human encounters in and around the early twentieth-century TB sanatorium’
January 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
The Literature and Science Forum is back for a Winter series of talks! Join us for a fantastic line-up focusing on the medical and digital humanities, from 19th-century mesmerism to ageing narratives, reproductive rights to heart disease.
For the Zoom link, see: literaturesa.co.uk
October 29, 2024 at 9:26 AM
sophiefranklin.bsky.social
Had a wonderful time in Odense last week for the "Research at the intersection of public health and the humanities" at the University of Southern Denmark. Met so many wonderful scholars and learnt a lot about public health humanities. Also enjoyed the Danish baked goods, of course!
September 24, 2024 at 9:54 AM