Christian Gelder

Christian Gelder is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University's School of Humanities, focusing on the intersection of American literature and twentieth-century psychiatry. His work examines the epistemology and politics of the 'mental hygiene' movement through literary and psychoanalytic frameworks.

• PhD in English, University of Cambridge (2022)
• Master of Arts, University of New South Wales (2016)
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours 1), University of Melbourne (2013)
• Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe University (2012)

Research interests include the role of aesthetic thinking in psychiatric history, with a focus on figures like Clifford Whittingham Beers, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. His upcoming monograph The Search for a Science of Verse, 1880 to the Present (CUP, 2026) explores the relationship between poetry and scientific thought.

Recent publications track trends in literary psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and their cultural implications, including critiques of therapeutic culture and analyses of adaptation frameworks. His work spans journals like Modernism/modernity, Literature and Medicine, and Psychoanalysis and History.

• Australian Postgraduate Award (2014)
• Cambridge International Scholarship (2018)
• Professor Morris Prize (2013)
• UNSW Top Up Scholarship (2014)

Gelder contributes to editorial work, including guest editing Australian Humanities Review and organizing the Aesthetics of the Clinic conference series. His research connects literary analysis with historical developments in mental health discourse.