Hi there! I’m Hannah – I’m a PhD candidate at Durham University, researching annihilation, belonging, and poetic self-fashioning in women’s writing of the mid-20th century. My supervisors are Jason Harding and Emma Short (previously Peter Riley) and I am very lucky to be funded by a Durham Doctoral Studentship.
I’m originally from the United States, and have lived between Texas and the United Kingdom for the last five years. I received her BA in English from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where I graduated as valedictorian in 2018. In 2019, I was awarded an MA with Distinction from Durham University for my dissertation entitled, ‘”One of you, one of them”: Fluid Nationality in H.D.’s Helen in Egypt and Beyond’. My PhD thesis expands my investigations of the role of writing in renegotiating physical boundaries of identity beyond H.D. to Jean Rhys and Anne Stevenson, exploring a particular moment in women’s writing centred on the 1950s and 60s. It is also kind of about ghosts.
My goal as an academic is to bring ideas from my research and the broader field in front of wider audiences not traditionally served by academic spaces. I run a TikTok channel based loosely around my work and write freelance with an eye to public engagement and education. Please use this site as you see fit to stay up-to-date with my work and other writing via the blog.