Dr Mari Hughes-Edwards
Senior Lecturer in English Literature
I am currently Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Edge Hill University, having taught at the universities of York, Manchester, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, and, most recently, at the University of Salford, where I lectured in Contemporary British Poetry.
I gained my BA in English Literature, my MA (with Distinction) from Bristol University, and was awarded my PhD from the University of York.
The main focus of my academic research/publications is on gender and sexuality. Originally a medievalist by training, my published work now focuses equally on contemporary British Literature and I have particular interests in contemporary poetry, especially in the work of Carol Ann Duffy and Lee Harwood.
My forthcoming books include a study of medieval anchoritic ideology from c.1080 to c.1500 for the University of Wales Press and the first full-length monograph on the complete poetic works of the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy (for Manchester University Press), a project for which I was awarded a British Academy Grant in 2011. I have also written for the national press, including the Guardian and the Times Higher Education Supplement.
At Edge Hill I supervise doctoral and master’s level work on gender, sexuality and women’s literature. I am also the chair of GenSex, Edge Hill University’s Gender and Sexuality Research Group. I was the programme leader for the former MA in Women's Writing from 2006-9 and now lead modules on the MA in English. My undergraduate teaching is primarily focused on Contemporary English Literature and on the literature of the Middle Ages & Renaissance.
I also co-ordinate all publicity and marketing for the Department of English and History.
Research
- Sexuality, same-sex desire, suffering, space.
- Women’s writing and the development of female authorship.
- Critical & cultural theory, including gender, sexuality & feminisms.
- Contemporary British literature and culture, especially poetry.
- Medieval/Renaissance literature and culture, especially anchoritism.
Research Group Leadership & Conference Organisation
- (2007-ongoing). Chair of GenSex, the Gender & Sexuality Research Group, Edge Hill University: an interdisciplinary research group I established to provide academics & students from Edge Hill University and other Northern universities with a forum for intellectual exchange. I devise, publicise & chair its annual programme of papers, debates, seminars & workshops on topics including sexualities, masculinities, feminism(s), gender theory, LGB studies, queer studies, dissidence narratives, bodily/embodiment narratives & transgendered identities.
- (September 15th-17th 2008). Chair at the 3rd conference for the International Anchoritic Society (I.A.S.), Hiroshima Shudo University, Japan: 'Mapping the Medieval Anchorhold: Dialogue between East & West'.
- July 2005. Chair of session at British Academy funded international I.A.S. conference: 'The Rhetoric(s) of the Anchorhold', Gregynnog Conference Centre, University of Wales.
- July 2004. Organiser & moderator of session at Leeds International Medieval Congress entitled 'Anchorites and Mystics: Models of Community'.
- July 2003. At Leeds International Medieval Congress: 1) Chair of evening debate, 'Feminism and the Academy: Pressing or Passé?'. 2) Moderator of session entitled 'Anchorites & Mystics II'.
- 2002-3. Member of both Manchester University’s Middle English Seminar & Anglo-Saxon Seminar and Chair of Manchester’s Body Conference (May 2003).
Research Papers and Conference Presentations
- (18th May, 2009). ‘Too Lesbian for Laureate?: (Re)Reading the Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, Edge Hill University Research Exchange Seminar Series.
- (June 19th-21st, 2009). '"marvellous creatures, transgender sailors, sex-changing fish": Transgendered Transformation and the Taletelling of Sarah Waters and Cath Nichols’ (at 'Feminist Transitions': 22nd Feminist and Women’s Studies Association Conference, at the Bluecoat, Liverpool).
- (3rd February 2009). 'Space, Suffering and the Work of Carol Ann Duffy', GenSex (at the Gender & Sexuality Research Group), Edge Hill University.
- (September 15th-17th 2008). Paper at the 3rd conference for the International Anchoritic Society, Hiroshima Shudo University, Japan: 'Mapping the Medieval Anchorhold: Dialogue between East & West': ' "I wanted this to happen elsewhere … and in a different way": The abandoned rulemaker and the heartless recluse. Betrayal and anchoritic guidance writing?’.
- June 2007. Paper at the Lesbian Lives XIV: Lesbian Existence and The Lesbian Continuum Conference, University College, Dublin, Thursday 14th – Sat 16th June 2007: ' "She … made him fuck her as a lad": Queer Sexualities, Sexualised Violence and the work of Carol Ann Duffy'. Gave a revised version of this paper in September 2007, at the conference launch of GenSex (the Gender & Sexuality Research Group).
- September 2006. Speaker at one day conference at The Tate, Liverpool, entitled 'Finding the House, Leaving the Home': A series of Conversations Hosted by The Tate Liverpool. I spoke in Session 3 entitled: 'Everybody has a story to tell, but there is only one story: doors opened and doors closed.'
- July 2005. Paper at 2nd conference for the I.A.S. 'The Rhetoric of the Anchorhold', University of Wales: 'Enclosure, Space and Place in Anchoritic Guidance Writing.'
Publications
Monographs
- Suffering, Sexuality and the Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2014).
- Reading Medieval Anchoritism: Ideology and Spiritual Practices (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, forthcoming, 2012).
Book Chapters
- ‘The Role of the Anchoritic Guidance Writer: Goscelin of St. Bertin’ in Anchoritism in the Middle Ages: Texts and Traditions, by Catherine Innes-Parker & Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, forthcoming 2012).
- ‘Anchoritism: the English Tradition’ in Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe, ed. by Liz Herbert McAvoy (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2010), pp. 131-152.
- ' "…love and other obsessions": Lee Harwood and the Poetry of Desire' in The Salt Companion to Lee Harwood, ed. by Robert Sheppard (Cambridge: Salt Publications, 2007), pp. 127-152.
- ' "The house ... has cancer": Representations of Domestic Space in the Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy' in Our House: Representations of Domestic Space in Modern Culture, ed. by G. Smyth & J. Croft(Amsterdam: Rodopi Press, 2006), pp. 121-139.
- ' "Wrapt as if to the third heaven': Gender and Contemplative Experience in Late-Medieval Anchoritic Guidance Writing' in Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs: Intersections of Gender and Enclosure in the Middle Ages, ed. by Liz Herbert McAvoy and Mari Hughes-Edwards (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005), pp. 131-141.
Edited Collections
- Liz Herbert McAvoy and Mari Hughes-Edwards, eds., Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs: Intersections of Gender and Enclosure in the Middle Ages, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005), pp. 226.
Journal Articles
- ' "How good it is to be alone"? Sociability, Solitude & Medieval English Anchoritism', Mystics Quarterly 35 (2009), 31-61
- 'Hedgehog Skins and Hairshirts: The Changing Role of Asceticism in the Anchoritic Ideal', Mystics Quarterly, 28 (2002), 6-26.
Book Reviews & Writing for the Press
- “Albrecht Classen. The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process. The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007" (Book Review for the Society of Medieval Feminist Scholarship) Medieval Feminist Forum, 46 (2010:1), 132-134. Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol46/iss1/15
- ‘Patriarchy Lives On’, Literary Blog for The Guardian Online http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts/author/mari_hughesedwards [accessed 1st Feb 2011].
- ‘The Canon: The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf’, The Times Higher Education Supplement, November 10th 2010, 57. Also available at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=414143&c=2 [accessed 1st Feb 2011].
Additional information:
Teaching Interests & Experience
I have taught the literatures of all periods from Anglo-Saxon to the present day. My specific research-led teaching specialisms include: critical and cultural theory (especially gender and feminist theory), sexuality, the body, enclosure, and space (particularly in domestic space in urban culture). At Edge Hill University I teach primarily medieval / Renaissance, and Contemporary Literature.