Jennifer Edwards

Dr. Jen Edwards is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, joining in September 2023. She has previously taught at The Queen’s College, Oxford, Shakespeare’s Globe, and Royal Holloway, University of London, reflecting a strong interdisciplinary and performance-oriented academic profile.

Research Interests: Her work bridges early modern literature, medicine, and philosophy, with a central focus on emotion, embodiment, and consciousness. She investigates how literature contributes to early modern understandings of mental interiority and subjectivity, particularly in states of distraction, ecstasy, and emotional disturbance. Her research extends to modern Shakespearean performance, affect, and environmental embodiment.

Recent Publications and Research Trends: Her recent publications reveal a consistent engagement with altered states of consciousness in Shakespeare, including ecstasy, distraction, and out-of-body experiences. These works span literary analysis, medical humanities, and performance studies, showing a strong interdisciplinary trajectory. Her 2023 monograph This Distracted Globe exemplifies her focus on cognitive and sensory engagement in theatrical spaces.

Honors and Research Support:

• Research supported by The Huntington Library (California)
• Supported by Osler Library of the History of Medicine (Montreal)
• Supported by TORCH (Oxford)

Teaching and Collaborative Work: She teaches courses on Shakespearean text and performance and European theatre. She has collaborated with biologists at Oxford on interdisciplinary projects examining fainting and illness in Shakespeare’s theatre, demonstrating a commitment to cross-disciplinary scholarship. She is currently working on a book titled Ecstatic Subjects and a new introduction to Shakespeare’s narrative poems for Oxford World’s Classics.

Labs and Research Groups: While no formal lab is mentioned, her affiliations with TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) and collaborative projects with science departments indicate active participation in interdisciplinary research networks focused on performance, cognition, and medical humanities.