Dr Hetta Howes

Overview

Dr Hetta Howes is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at City, University of London and Programme Director for the BA in English. As a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker she is committed to communicating her research to a wide audience, regularly contributing to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4 as well as publications such as the Times Literary Supplement, BBC History Extra, and The Conversation. 

Hetta is interested in the stories that women were telling in the Middle Ages as well as the conceptions (and misconceptions) of women that still inform our thinking today. Her research focuses on women's writing in medieval literature, and especially on the relationship between women's bodies and water. Her academic monograph, 'Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature' was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2021. It focuses on devotional writings by and for women, and draws on a range of disciplines, including medical humanities, the history of the emotions, and ecocriticism. Her trade book, 'Poet, Mystic, Widow. Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women', was published by Bloomsbury Continuum and University of California Press in 2024. It aims to show that, despite the patriarchal infrastuctures of the time and the challenges they faced, there were still plenty of medieval women who were leaders and innovators - women who managed to change the world.

Hetta is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches on a number of different modules on the BA and MA programmes in MCCI at City. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from Queen Mary University of London. She welcomes applications for PhD supervision from prospective applicants interested in late-medieval devotional literature, particularly writing by and for women; the history of the emotions; fluidity and transformation; modern preoccupations with the medieval world.

Qualifications

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Queen Mary, University of London, July 2017
• PhD, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2012 - June 2016
• MPHil, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, September 2011 - June 2012
• BA, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, September 2008 - June 2011

Employment

• Senior Lecturer in English Literature, City, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2017 - present
• Lecturer in medieval and early modern literature, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2016 - August 2017
• Teaching Associate, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom, January - May 2016
• Teaching Associate, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom, September 2013 - June 2016

Administrative roles

• Programme Director, BA in English, BA in English and Creative Writing, BA in English and Publishing, City University of London, August 2025 - present
• Deputy Programme Director for BA English, City, University of London, September 2024 - present

Awards

• City University of London, Widening Participation Team (2019). Outstanding Staff Contribution
• City, University of London, School of Arts and Social Sciences Academic Impact Award (2019)
  Nominated, shortlisted

Research Interests

- Women's literary culture in the Middle Ages
- Environment as metaphor in late-medieval literature
- Modern preoccupations with the medieval
- History of the Emotions
- The medical humanities, especially sex difference in the Middle Ages

Forthcoming Publications

- 'Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature', due for publication with Boydell and Brewer in 2021
- ‘‘Make me a good woman’: reflections on becoming in a fifteenth-century prayer sequence’ (article in progress)
- ‘A hunt for the Nun of Watton in Late-Medieval Translations of 'De Institutione Inclusarum’ (article in progress)

Current Research

- Fluid imagery in medieval devotional writings by and for women
- New approaches to medieval water studies
- Medievalisms in Maria Davhana Headley's 'The Mere Wife'
- Solitude in medieval religious literature

Publications by category