Susan Watkins

Susan Watkins is Professor of Women's Writing in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University, where she also served as Director of the Centre for Culture and the Arts for 10 years. Her research specializes in contemporary women's fiction and feminist theory, with particular expertise in dystopian and apocalyptic narratives, ageing studies, and intergenerational futures.

Her investigations examine how women writers reimagine apocalyptic scenarios differently from male authors, focusing on works addressing climate change, globalization, and technoscience impacts. Current projects analyze relationships between ageing, cultural industries, and speculative fiction. She has published extensively on Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and 20th-century women novelists.

Watkins' teaching includes modules on Alienation and Dystopia in Twentieth-Century Literature, Feminist Theory through Women Novelists, and Contemporary Apocalyptic Fictions. She actively mentors PhD candidates in women's writing and feminist theory.

• Founder Member and Former Chair of Contemporary Women's Writing Association
• Former Co-Editor of Journal of Commonwealth Literature