Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal Statement
I currently hold a Chancellor’s Fellowship in the History of Health and Wellbeing at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH). Working at the intersection between the medical and cultural history, my research considers the relation of heterodox practices, beliefs and movements to mainstream society and culture, with particular focus on the interaction between medicine and the imagination, science and the supernatural, psychology and the occult. My current research examines histories of nutrition, vegetarianism, other alternative dietary cultures, mental stress and gastric disorders in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. With the help of a Small Grant from the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, I am working on a project looking at the life and influence of Eustace Hamilton Miles, the author and owner of several vegetarian and health food shops post-WW1.
My first monograph, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017, examined the place of extraordinary visionary experience in the Victorian scientific and popular imaginary. Specifically, it investigated the phenomenon of second sight, a species of foreknowledge associated with the Scottish Highlands and Islands and described how tales of this strange visionary ability came to impact on the formation of psychological theories, scientific methodologies and dominant cultural forms. Outside of these projects, I have also researched and published on women’s life writing, British modernism, vegetarianism in fiction, performance and psychology, feminist consciousness-raising and psychoanalysis.
In addition to lecturing in the history of medicine at the University of Strathclyde and developing my own research, I also curate arts and science events for public institutions. Working with an arts curator, Alice Carey, I have programmed several large-scale events at the Wellcome Collection in London. In 2018/19 I was named one of the BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinkers.
Research Interests
Science and the supernatural, the history of psychiatiry and psychology, vegetarianism, utopian social movements, stress and the stomach, work and food, second-wave feminism and psychoanalysis.
Teaching Interests
I have experience teaching on the history of medicine and the history of psychiatry, and I have co-authored undergraduate courses on the history of the supernatural and the history of the modern self. At Strathclyde I teach on 'Madness and Society', convene second-year course, 'Disease and Society' and a fourth-year special subject 'From Ancient Passions to Modern Feelings: The History of Emotions'.
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, Queen Mary University
1 Oct 2009 → 1 Apr 2014
Award Date: 1 Apr 2014
Master of Letters, Glasgow University
1 Sep 2008 → 1 Jul 2009
Award Date: 1 Jul 2009
Bachelor of Literature or Bachelor of Letters, Glasgow University
1 Oct 2003 → 1 Jul 2007
Award Date: 1 Jul 2007
Keywords
- vegetarianism
- supernatural
- occult
- Psychology
- feminism
- medical history
Network
Projects
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Eating On The Go: Cultures of Consumption and the Railway in Britain, 1840-1940
AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
1/10/19 → 30/09/22
Project: Research - Studentship
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The First Health Food Empire: Eustace Miles and Life Reform, 1900-1930
1/10/17 → 31/10/19
Project: Research
Research output
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Man is not a meat-eating animal: vegetarians and evolution in late-Victorian Britain
Richardson, E., 1 May 2019, In: Victorian Review. 45, 1, p. 117-134 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Second Sight in the Nineteenth Century: Prophecy, Imagination and Nationhood
Richardson, E., 30 Jul 2017, London. 260 p. (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)Research output: Book/Report › Book
Activities
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They have not our thoughts of weight and measure’: Second Sight, History and Subjectivity
Elsa Richardson (Speaker)
3 Jul 2019Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Love at the Crank's Table: Sex and the Natural Diet
Elsa Richardson (Speaker)
11 Jun 2019Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation