Hetta Howes

Dr Hetta Howes serves as Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Programme Director for the BA in English at City, University of London, specializing in medieval women's writing and water-body relationships. As a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, she communicates medieval research through broadcasts (BBC Radio 3/4), TLS, BBC History Extra, and The Conversation.

• PhD from Queen Mary University of London (2016)
• BA/MPhil from University of Cambridge

Her research bridges medical humanities, history of emotions, and ecocriticism through themes of fluidity and transformation in devotional texts. Key publications include the monograph Transformative Waters in Medieval Literature (2021) and trade book Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife (2024). She leads the Women at Sea interdisciplinary project.

Notable awards:

• Outstanding Staff Contribution (2019)
• Academic Impact Award (2019)
• Wolfson History Prize nominee

Dr Howes supervises PhD topics in late-medieval devotional literature, history of emotions, and modern medievalism. Her work engages with twenty-first century water governance and feminist reclamation of medieval narratives.