About Us
Dr Arya Aryan: Founder
I am an assistant professor in English Literature. During my PhD in postmodern and contemporary literature and the medical humanities at Durham University (UK), I had the opportunity to work with my supervisor Professor Patricia Waugh, a leading specialist in postmodern and contemporary literature.
I also carried out a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and had a great time with my mentor Professor Christoph Reinfandt who is an expert in contemporary literature and culture and literary theory at the University of Tübingen.
My research interests are postmodernism, contemporary literature and the medical humanities. I would like to explore how military and medical metaphors are politicised and can negatively shape our cognition. I would also like to examine how fiction can help control our health anxieties.
I am an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
I have published two books entitled The Post-war Novel and the Death of the Author (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and The Postmodern Representation of Reality in Peter Ackroyd's Chatterton (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022) as well as several articles including "The Traumatised Shaman: The Woman Writer in the Age of Globalised Trauma."
Dr Curtis Runstedler: Board Member
Dr Curtis Runstedler is an IRIS-funded (Interchange Forum for Reflecting on Intelligent Systems) postdoctoral researcher in the Department of English Literatures and Cultures at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
He is also a proud medievalist and has published on medieval werewolves, alchemy, Anglo-Saxon saint cults, video games and medievalism, and more.
He was previously a Teach@Tübingen fellow with the Excellence Initiative at Tübingen University, Germany, and was awarded his PhD in Medieval Literature at Durham University, UK, in 2018. Curtis also enjoys fossil hunting, fishing, and exploring the world.
Dr Sophie Franklin: Board Member
Dr Sophie Franklin teaches at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Her research specialises in nineteenth-century literature and culture, with specific expertise in representations of violence, the Brontës, and afterlives.
Her first monograph, Violence and the Brontës: Language, Reception, Afterlives, is under contract with Edinburgh University Press. She is also the author of Charlotte Brontë Revisited: A View from the Twenty-First Century, and her work has appeared in Brontë Studies, Neo-Victorian Studies, and the Journal of Victorian Culture. Sophie's current project explores narratives of violence, health, and contagion in the nineteenth century.
Danielle Quilty: Former Coordinator and Communications Lead
My name is Danielle Quilty, and I am currently studying for a Masters (MA) in Language, Culture, and Communication at the University of Birmingham. My research interests predominantly concern the critical discourse analysis of rhetoric used by politicians and the news media. I am presently especially interested in examining the relationship between conceptual metaphor theory and its impact on the perception of immigration in the UK.
Before embarking on my Masters, I achieved a First Class Honours undergraduate degree in English Literature at Durham University in 2021, where I attended St. Aidan’s College. My first-class dissertation was entitled “‘in faery lands forlorn’: Otherworld narratives in medieval, Romantic, and modern poetry”: an examination of the boundaries of individual and cultural identities, different perspectives on literary realism and idealism, and poetic responses to suffering.
Sude Öner: Promotions Officer and Content Creator
Sude Öner is an English Literature major at Istanbul Aydin University and Journalism and New Media at Ataturk University.
As a passionate reader and writer, Sude founded "The Eudaimonia Chronicles," an art magazine that provides a platform for showcasing the works of talented writers. Her interest in literature stems from her desire to explore themes related to feminism, social justice, and forensic science.
Sude's passion for literature and science has inspired her to pursue further studies in these areas. She hopes to become a leading voice in the field of literature and science, using her skills and knowledge to make a positive impact on society. Through her work, she hopes to encourage others to explore the intersection between literature and science and discover the many ways in which these two fields can enrich people’s lives.