Katharine Craik

Katharine Craik is Professor in Early Modern Literature (1500–1750) and Director of Research at Oxford Brookes University, where she is affiliated with the School of Education, Humanities and Languages. Her research investigates the intersections of literature, emotion, sensation, and embodiment, with a focus on Shakespeare and critical-creative writing. She has published widely on early modern affect, sensory experience, and theatricality, and is currently completing two monographs under contract with Oxford University Press: Lifelike Shakespeare and Shakespeare and the Senses.

• BA, MPhil, PhD – University of Cambridge
• Lectureships – Worcester College (University of Oxford), University of Leeds, University College London

Her research interests center on the affective and sensory power of early modern literature. She explores how texts generate vividness, simulate lifelikeness, and engage readers’ embodied responses. Her work bridges literary criticism and creative practice, as seen in her poetry publications and collaborative projects with theatre practitioners and visual artists. She is particularly interested in the intersections of literature with medicine, performance, and material culture.

The most recent publications reflect a sustained engagement with Shakespearean rhetoric, emotional representation, and the poetics of presence. Her articles span topics from sympathetic sonnets to anatomical discourse in poetry, demonstrating a consistent focus on how literature mediates human experience. The keywords across her work include Shakespeare Studies, Affect Theory, Sensory History, and Literary Embodiment, with subfields ranging from rhetorical vividness to confessional discourse and performance studies.

She has received significant recognition for her interdisciplinary scholarship and creative output:

• Fellow of the English Association
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the AHRC Peer Review College
• Longlisted for the National Poetry Prize (2020, 2022)
• Shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Dermot Healy Poetry Competition

Katharine Craik has led major research projects funded by the Wellcome Trust, British Academy, and Arts Council England. Her Wellcome Trust-funded project Watching explored the history of sleep through a collaboration between academics, scientists, and theatre practitioners, culminating in site-specific performances. She co-wrote Marina, a play based on Shakespeare’s Pericles, developed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She supervises doctoral research in Shakespeare and early modern literature and has examined PhDs at institutions including Cambridge, King’s College London, and the University of Sydney. She is Executive Secretary of The Malone Society and co-edits the experimental critical-creative series beyond criticism with Boiler House Press.

She leads and collaborates on interdisciplinary research groups including the Poetry Centre at Oxford Brookes and the Gender and Technologies research group. Her project Unbelonging, a critical-creative collaboration with visual artist Catriona Dooley, is funded by Arts Council England. She also participates in networks such as the Life of Breath project and the Shakespeare Association of America, organizing seminars and conferences on topics like 'Shakespearean Sensations' and 'Class and Emotion in Shakespeare'.