Elsa Richardson

Dr. Elsa Richardson is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde and holds a Chancellor’s Fellowship in the History of Health and Wellbeing at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH). Her research bridges medical and cultural history, focusing on heterodox practices, science-supernatural intersections, and Victorian/Edwardian dietary and mental health practices. She co-directs the CSHHH and leads projects on nutrition, vegetarianism, and the gut-brain axis. Richardson teaches courses on 'Madness and Society,' 'Disease and Society,' and the history of emotions. She was honored as a BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker (2018/19) and collaborates on public events with institutions like the Wellcome Collection.

• Education: PhD (Queen Mary University, 2014), M.Litt (Glasgow University, 2009), B.Litt (Glasgow University, 2007)
• Key Research Projects:
  • Co-Director, CSHHH (from 2023)
  • Scottish Gut Project (2021–2023)
  • Eating On The Go: Cultures of Consumption (2019–2025)

Her work explores topics like vegetarianism in fiction, feminist consciousness-raising, and the occult’s influence on psychology. She has published widely on these themes, including her monograph Second Sight in the Nineteenth Century (2017) and the forthcoming Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut (2024).