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Ann Heilmann

Professor Ann Heilmann

(she/her)

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Ann Heilmann

Overview

I am Professor of English Literature in Cardiff's School of English, Communication and Philosophy, and am ENCAP’s Director of Research and REF coordinator. I joined Cardiff in 2012 after holding professorial chairs at the Universities of Hull and Swansea.

My research cuts across Victorian to contemporary literature and culture, women’s writing, and gender and sexuality studies. Publications include four monographs and some sixty articles, alongside nine other (mostly co-edited) books and seven guest-edited journal issues on Victorian to contemporary women’s writing, first-wave feminism and the New Woman, neo-Victorianism, literary gender studies and representations of transgender in Victorian to contemporary life-writing.

PhD supervision and ECR mentoring: I have mentored two funded postdoctoral projects on fin-de-siècle and early twentieth-century women’s writing and have supervised 16 PhD students to completion, in doctoral topics that have ranged across the fields of Victorian to contemporary literature and culture: Victorian sensation fiction, the late-Victorian New Woman, Victorian to contemporary women’s writing, literary gender and sexuality studies, neo-Victorian and neo-historical studies.

An elected Fellow of the English Association (EA), the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE), and the Learned Society of Wales (LSW), I currently serve on the Finance Committee of the LSW and the Fellowship Committee of the EA. 

REF service: I was one of the Deputy Chairs of the English Language and Literature sub-panel for REF2021 (Research Excellence Framework; appointed from the criteria-setting phase, 2018-22). Previously I served on the REF2014 English sub-panel (appointed from the criteria-setting phase) and prior to that acted as a Specialist Advisor to the RAE2008 English sub-panel. Currently I am co-chairing the REF2029 PCE Pilot panel for History (UoA28, the sub-panel representing the Humanities in the People, Culture and Environment pilot exercise, the outcome of which will inform the new PCE framework). 

In addition, I have Research Council experience (AHRC Peer Review College, 2004-2013) and served on the LSW Scrutiny Committee for Languages, Literature and the History and Theory of the Creative and Performing Arts from 2016-19. Until 2020 I was also an executive committee member of BAVS (British Association for Victorian Studies), where I was Membership Secretary (2005- 2008) and was involved in setting up the BAVS Book Prize in 2020. Previous executive committee positions include chairing the Women's History Network's Book Prize committee (2009-11), the Feminist and Women's Studies Small Grants Committee (2009-10), and serving as the Vice-President and President of the NCUP (National Council of University Professors (2006-10).

I am the general editor of two Routledge book series (Gender and Genre [previously Pickering and Chatto] and History of Feminism). Advisory board membership of journals has included ELT/English Literature in Transition (2009-20), Memory Studies (2006-), Neo-Victorian Studies (2008-), Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (2008-) and Women’s History Review (2001-). I was also on the board of the Olive Schreiner Letters Project (dir. Liz Stanley, Edinburgh, ESRC-funded project, 2008-12, http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk/ ). 

I have (co-)organised ten academic conferences, most recently the Cardiff BAVS symposium (10-11 Sept. 2024, https://event2024cardiff.wordpress.com/ ), one of five British Association for Victorian Studies symposia that formed part of the overall 17 global hubs which took place in September 2024 in the context of a year-long Victorian Studies EVENT collaboration of BAVS, NAVSA, AVSA, VI and DACH-V (https://www.event2024.org/). Each hub hosted independent face-to-face events which complemented the monthly Zoom events run during the ‘flightless’ conference programme. Prior to this, I oversaw the organisation of the annual BAVS 2016 conference on 'Consuming (the) Victorians' (Cardiff, 31 August to 2 Sept 2016).  

Publication

2024

2023

2018

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

  • Heilmann, A. 1998. Introduction. In: Heilmann, A. ed. The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts.., Vol. 5. London: Routledge, pp. xi-xix.
  • Heilmann, A. 1998. Introduction. In: Heilmann, A. ed. The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts.., Vol. 4. London: Routledge, pp. ix-xxi.
  • Heilmann, A. 1998. Introduction. In: Heilmann, A. ed. The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts.., Vol. 3. London: Routledge, pp. ix-xx.
  • Heilmann, A. 1998. Introduction. In: Heilmann, A. ed. The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts.., Vol. 2. London: Routledge, pp. xi-xviii.
  • Heilmann, A. 1998. General introduction. In: Heilmann, A. ed. The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts.. London: Routledge, pp. ix-xxx.
  • Heilmann, A. ed. 1998. The late-Victorian marriage question: a collection of key new woman texts. History of Feminism. London: Routledge.

1997

1996

1995

1994

Articles

Book sections

Books

Other

Research

Research fields

My fields of expertise are Victorian, especially fin-de-siècle literature, in particular the New Woman and the Anglo-Irish writer George Moore, and contemporary neo-Victorianism. More generally I have research interests in Victorian to 21st-century women's writing, gender and sexuality. I have written monographs on turn-of-the-century feminist literature (New Woman Fiction: Women Writing First-Wave Feminism, 2000, and New Woman Strategies: Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird, 2004). My other two monographs are on neo-Victorian literature, culture, gender and life-writing: a co-authored study of Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century (with Mark Llewellyn, 2010), and most recently a monograph on Neo-/Victorian Biographilia and James Miranda Barry: A Study in Transgender and Transgenre (2018). I am now working on a book on Neo-Victorianism and In/Authenticity.

My edited work includes a critical edition of The Collected Short Stories of George Moore (with Mark Llewellyn, 2007) and (co-edited) essay collections on George Moore: Influence and Collaboration (also with Llewellyn, 2014), the New Woman (Feminist Forerunners, 2003; and New Woman Hybridities, 2004, the latter with Margaret Beetham) and Metafiction and Metahistory in Contemporary Women's Writing (2007, with Llewellyn). I have also (co-)edited four multi-volume anthology sets (The Late-Victorian Marriage Question, 1998; Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand, with Stephanie Forward, 2000; Anti-Feminism in the Victorian Novel, 2004; and Anti-Feminism in Edwardian Literature, with Lucy Delap, 2006).  

For a detailed list that includes journal articles and chapters in books see the Publications page.    

General editor, book series and digital resources:

  • History of Feminism anthology series, Routledge (21 titles since 2000); https://www.routledge.com/History-of-Feminism/book-series/SE0007
  • Routledge Historical Resources: The History of Feminism database, Routledge (2016) [This resource incorporates the History of Feminism anthology series into a comprehensive digital archive of critical and source texts], https://www.routledgehistoricalresources.com/feminism/about/history-of-feminism
  • Gender and Genre monograph and essay collection series, Routledge (formerly Pickering and Chatto) (16 titles since 2009)

Conference organisation

I have (co)organised six international conferences, at

  • Cardiff, 2024: BAVS symposium (10-11 Sept, https://event2024cardiff.wordpress.com/), one of five BAVS hubs and of overall 17 global hubs that accompanied the EVENT year organised by the Victorian Studies associations of the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany and South Korea. 
  • Cardiff, 2016: 'Consuming (the) Victorian', BAVS annual conference 2016 (31 Aug to 2 Sept.)
  • Hull (2011): 'Neo-Victorian Art and Aestheticism' (sponsored by BAVS)
  • Hull (2008): 'George Moore and his Contemporaries' (2008, sponsored by the British Academy and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Ireland)
  • Swansea (2003): 'Hystorical Fictions: Women, History, Authorship’ 
  • Manchester (2000): 'Feminist Forerunners: The New Woman in the International Periodical Press’ 

In addition I have convened symposia and smaller conferences, at the University of Wales Conference Centre in Gregynog (˜Gendering the Subject’, 2004) and for the NCUP in 2006, 2008 and 2009 (˜'RAE2008: The Mentoring and Support of Early Career Researchers', 'Counting on Excellence: Bibliometrics and the Future of Research Funding and ˜Languages and Internationalisation: Globalisation and the 21st-century University'). 

I maintain an international Call for Papers mailing list on 'Women and Gender'. To be added to the list, email me.

Research grants

At present I am one of several international Co-Is on a project on 'Perilous Exposures: Cross-lighting gender and desire in neo-Victorian biofiction' led by PI Sylvia Mieszkowski (University of Vienna) submitted to the Austrian Science Fund's SFB (Special Research Area) 'Gender Invisibilities'. The project has progressed to the second stage.

Previously I have been one of the Co-Is and member of the Associate Team on two Spanish MINECO (Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business) funded projects led by PI Rosario Arias (University of Malaga): ‘ORION - Orientation: Towards a Dynamic Understanding of Contemporary Fiction and Culture (1990s-2000s)’ (MINECO, 2018-2021) and ‘New Critical Approaches to the Trace and its Application to Recent Literature Written in English’ (MINECO, 2014-16).

I have held research grants from the AHRC (under the Collaborative Doctoral Training scheme, and twice the former Research Leave scheme), the ESRC in conjunction with the AHRC and British Academy (AHRC/BA/ESRC Visiting Fellowship scheme), and the British Academy (twice under the AHRC/BA/ESRC Visiting Fellowship scheme; Visiting Professorship scheme; Conference Grant scheme; Overseas Conference scheme) and BAVS (British Association for Victorian Studies, conference grant). 

For invitations, keynotes and public lectures, and public engagement see the Biography page.

Teaching

Since 2012 I have contributed to first-year modules on ‘Critical Reading and Critical Writing’ and 'The Novel' and a second-year module on 'Victorian Worlds'. I have convened and taught three specialist modules: 'Victorian Fiction' (Year 2), 'Gender and Monstrosity: Late-Victorian to Neo-Victorian' (Year 3) and an MA module on 'Neo-Victorian Metatextualities: History in Fiction and Film'.

In the session 2016-17 I was nominated for two teaching awards ('Most effective teacher' and 'Most innovative member of staff'), and in 2017-18 I was shortlisted (as one of three members of Cardiff University staff) for the ‘Most innovative member of staff’ category for the 2018 Enriching Student Life Awards process.

Biography

Overview

I was appointed in Cardiff in 2012, having previously held professorships at the Universities of Hull and Swansea and lectureships at Manchester Metropolitan and Bradford Universities. Born and educated in Germany, I came to the UK originally on a fixed-term instructorship at the University of Leeds, where I taught German while undertaking my doctoral studies in English Literature for the University of Tübingen. 

During this time I also worked in Adult and Further Education and for the WEA (Workers' Educational Association). Prior to that, while reading for my degree in English and French Language and Literature at Tübingen, I spent six months studying at what was then University College Cardiff: an inspiring experience which determined my later decision to return to the UK. 

Appointments                                                          

  • 2012-:        Professor of English Literature, Cardiff University
  • 2005-12:    Professor of English, Dept. of English, University of Hull
  • 1999-2005 Lecturer (B), Senior Lecturer (2001-4), Professor (2004-5), Dept. of English, Swansea University
  • 1996-99:    Lecturer (full time, permanent) in English, Manchester Metropolitan University (Crewe & Alsager Campus)
  • 1994-96:    Lecturer (fixed term) in Women’s Studies, University of Bradford
  • 1991-94:    Tutor (part time), WEA, Yorkshire North branch, Leeds
  • 1991-94:    Tutor (part time) in Adult and Further Education (three AE/FE colleges, Leeds); language instructor for Leeds Metropolitan University
  • 1987-92:    Language instructor (‘Lektorin’) and (from 1990) sessional tutor in the German Dept., School of Modern Languages, Leeds University           
  • 1985-86:    Research Assistant, School of English, University of Tübingen, Germany (working for Professor Dr. Hans-Werner Ludwig; additional 2 month contract in the summer of 1987)

Education                                                                            

March 1998: Dr. Phil. (Eng. Lit.), University of Tübingen, Germany (‘Magna cum laude’, 11 March 1998); Thesis title: 'New Women and Novels with a Purpose: Fin-de-siècle Feminism and the British Woman Writer'; supervised by Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Ludwig, then Vice-Chancellor of Tübingen 

May 1986: ‘Staatsexamen’ (MA-equivalent qualification inclusive of BA studies) in English and French Language and Literature, University of Tübingen (MA dissertation on Thomas Hardy and Naturalism), Grade 1.5 (lower first) 

Oct. 1981 to March 1982: Sorbonne, Paris (scholarship funded by the DAAD / German Academic Exchange Service)

Oct. 1980 to March 1981: University College Cardiff (scholarship funded by the DAAD)

October 1978 to May 1986: English and French Language and Literature, University of Tübingen 

    Honours and awards

    Fellowships 

    • Fellow, Learned Society of Wales (elected 2014), currently member of the LSW Finance Committee; previously service on the Scrutiny Committee B1 (Languages, Literature and the History and Theory of the Creative and Performing Arts)
    • Fellow, English Association (elected 2008); currently member of the Fellowship Committee 
    • Fellow, IAUPE (International Association of University Professors of English, elected 2008)

    Research grants

    • Awaiting outcome (Austrian Science Fund): Co-I on 'Perilous Exposures: Cross-lighting gender and desire in neo-Victorian biofiction' led by PI Sylvia Mieszkowski (University of Vienna) and submitted to the SFB (Special Research Area) 'Gender Invisibilities'.  
    • 2018-21: Co-I and member of the Associate Team on Spanish MINECO (Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business) funded project led by PI Rosario Arias (University of Malaga): ‘ORION - Orientation: Towards a Dynamic Understanding of Contemporary Fiction and Culture (1990s-2000s)’
    • 2014-15: Co-I on Spanish MINECO funded project led by Rosario Arias (Malaga) on ‘New Critical Approaches to the Trace and its Application to Recent Literature Written in English’ 2011: £372, BAVS Funding Grant, for postgraduate bursaries for ‘Neo-Victorian Art and Aestheticism’ conference, University of Hull 2011
    • 2010: £200, BA Overseas Conference Grant for ‘Fashioning the Neo-Victorian’ conference, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, 8-10 April 
    • 2009: £7,450, BA Visiting Fellowship (BA/AHRC/ESRC Middle East and South Asia scheme), PI, for third visit by Dr Galia Ofek, Hebrew University, Israel: ‘The New Woman’s Testament: Biblical Narratives, Allusions and Imagery in “New Woman” Fiction’, Feb.-Jul. 2010)  
    • 2008: £11,812, ESRC Visiting Fellowship (BA/AHRC/ESRC Middle East and South Asia scheme); PI, for follow-on research visit by Dr Ofek (‘The New Woman’s Testament’, Jul.-Nov. 2008)
    • 2008: EUR 414.18, Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Ireland, for ‘George Moore and His Contemporaries’ conference (5-6 Sept. 2008)
    • 2008: £1,703, BA British Conference Grants scheme, PI, ‘George Moore and His Contemporaries’ conference, University of Hull 2008
    • 2007: £7,437, BA Visiting Fellowship (BA/AHRC/ESRC Middle East and South Asia scheme), PI, for first visit by Dr Ofek (‘The New Woman’s Testament’, Aug.-Oct. 2007)
    • 2006: £14,013, AHRC (Research Leave Scheme; project: Vols 1, 2 and 4 of 5-vol. scholarly edition, The Collected Short Stories of George Moore, Pickering and Chatto, 2007) 
    • 2004: £3,000, BA Visiting Professorship, PI, for research visit by Dr Sue Thomas, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia (‘Gender, Anglo-Imperialism and the West Indies’)
    • 2004: £1,059, AHRB Collaborative Research Training Scheme (PI, lead research student Mark Llewellyn); PGR conference on ‘Masculinity as Masquerade’ (Gregynog, 25-26 Apr. 2005)   
    • 2001-2: £13,750, AHRB Research Leave Scheme (New Woman Strategies: Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird, MUP, 2004)

    Public engagement 

    2020    Interviewed by D-M Withers for her blog post on ‘Carmen Callil, Cats and Feminist Generations’, British Library ‘English and Drama Blog’, 2 Nov. 2020, Carmen Callil, Cats and Feminist Generations - English and Drama blog

    2020    ‘Transgender in the Long 19th Century: The Chevalier D’Eon and James Barry’, contribution to ‘A Look into the Trans Archive’ event, part of the ‘Unfinished Business’ exhibition, British Library, 10 Nov. 2020, https://www.bl.uk/events/a-look-into-the-trans-archive-november-2020 - BL Player - A Look into the Trans Archive - The British Library

    2019    Interviewed for Alison Flood’s Guardian article on ‘New novel about Dr James Barry sparks row over Victorian’s gender identity’, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/18/new-novel-about-dr-james-barry-sparks-row-over-victorians-gender-identity

    2016    Short talk on ‘Transgender, Sexology and the 19th century’ (on James Barry and the Chevalier D’Eon) and contribution to panel discussion following a screening of The Danish Girl, ‘Tinted Lens’ series of events curated by Katie Featherstone, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff  (National Cinema for Wales http://www.chapter.org/) in collaboration with the British Film Institute (Film hub Wales http://www.chapter.org/welcome-film-hub-wales), 25 January 2016  

    2016    Chair and introducer, with talk on neo-Victorianism, Cardiff Book Talk session on neo-Victorianism, with authors Gaynor Arnold and John Harding, 7 March 2016

    2016    ‘Transgender in historical perspective: The “case” of James Miranda Barry’: Public engagement activities and talk on James Barry, learning and discussion session in strand on ‘Inheriting Liberation’, at ‘World Emergenc(i)es’: Control and Calculation: Inheriting Liberation: Improvised Publics’  event, Bristol, Trinity Centre, 14 June 2016, http://3ca.org.uk/whats-on/2016/ann-heilmann-transgender

    2015    Interviewed (on the New Woman, romance and the bicycle) by Lucy Worsley for second episode (‘Victorian Love Stories’) of three-part BBC programme A Very British Romance (interview date, Haddon Hall, 9 June 2015), broadcast on BBC4 on 15 October 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06hht8v/a-very-british-romance-with-lucy-worsley-episode-2

    2015    Public lecture on ‘Hardy, Women and Marriage’, Dorset County Museum, National Trust, 30 July 2015, https://www.facebook.com/events/810811332300409/

    2013    Introductory talk on The Prestige, ‘Victoriana: The Art of Revival’ film series in conjunction with an exhibition at Guildhall Art Gallery, Birkbeck School of Arts Cinema, Birkbeck, University of London, 5 November 2013, http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/victoriana-the-art-of-revival-exhibition-and-film-series

     2012   Contribution (alongside Professor David James and Dr Stephanie Ward) to Cardiff Book Talk series with a presentation on Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger, 30 October 2012, http://vimeo.com/54436328

    2012    Contribution on Victorian section to ‘My best bit of historic Britain: historians’ and authors’ top tips’, The Guardian, 17 August 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/aug/17/historic-britain-historians-authors-tips

    2009     Annual Tennyson Lecture: ‘The Afterlives of Tennyson’, Tennyson Society, Lincoln, 6 June.

    2004-5 Management Board, Swansea Multicultural Women’s Centre (2004-5)

    Postgraduate and undergraduate awards

    • 1990-92:  Full German doctoral scholarship ('Graduiertenförderung'™), with a top-up grant by the DAAD for doctoral studies undertaken in the UK (Leeds) 
    • 1981-1982: Sorbonne, Paris: scholarship funded by the DAAD / German Academic Exchange Service
    • 1980-1981: University College Cardiff: scholarship funded by the DAAD

    Professional memberships

    Executive committee membership

    • BAVS (British Association for Victorian Studies): Membership Secretary 2005-8, Executive Committee 2001-8, 2015-20 
    • EA (English Association): currently member of the Fellowship Committee
    • FSA (then FWSA, Feminist and Women’s Studies Association): Coordinator of Small Grants scheme (2009-10)
    • LSW (Learned Society of Wales) Finance Committee; previously Scutiny Committee B1 (Languages, Literature and the History and Theory of the Creative and Performing Arts), 2017- 
    • NCUP (National Council of University Professors): Immediate Past President, 2010-12, President 2008-10, Vice-President 2006-8, executive committee member 2005-15
    • WHN (Women’s History Network): Chair of judges, WHN Book Prize (2009-11), invited panel member (2008-9), member of WHN Steering Committee (2009-11) 

    Ordinary membership of: CWWA (Contemporary Women Writers Association), MLA, NAVSA (North American Victorian Studies Association), Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society, Fawcett Society

    Academic positions

    Previous academic posts

    • 2005-2012:   Professor of English, Department of English, University of Hull
    • 1999 - 2005: Lecturer (B), Senior Lecturer (2001-4), Professor (2004-5), Department of English, Swansea University 
    • 1996 - 1999: Lecturer in English, Manchester Metropolitan University
    • 1994 - 1996: Lecturer (fixed term) in Women's Studies, University of Bradford
    • 1991 - 1994: Tutor (part time), WEA, Leeds
    • 1991 - 1994: Tutor (part time) in Adult and Further Education (3 AE/FE colleges, Leeds); language instructor for Leeds Metropolitan University
    • 1987 - 1992: Language instructor ('Lektorin') and (from 1990) sessional tutor, German Department, School of Modern Languages, University of Leeds 
    • 1985 - 1986: Research Assistant, School of English, University of Töbingen, Germany (employed by Professor Dr. Hans-Werner Ludwig; additional 2 month contract in the summer of 1987)

    Administrative and management roles

    Cardiff University: 

    • School service: REF2021 UoA lead for English Language and Literature; Director of Research (responsible for English, Communication and Philosophy), Aug. 2016-; previously subject DoR for English Literature and Critical and Cultural Theory (2012-2013; 2014-2015; 2016; Senior Management Team (2016-); Research Strategy committee, ENCAP (2012-; chair from 2016); ENCAP promotions panel (2012-13, 2014-15); ENCAP research leave panel (2012-13, 2016-); ENCAP School Board (2012-13, 2016-17) and SMT (2017-21); ENCAP appointments panels (2012-13) 
    • College of Arts and Social Sciences service: DoR committee; Humanities Connect (College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) committee (2012-Dec.2013, Oct. 2014-July 2015)
    • University service: Rolling REF (2016-17, 2017-18): ‘Critical Friend’ to MLANG, WELSH, SHARE, JOMEC   

    University of Hull: 

    • Departmental service: Director of Research (2007-12); REF co-ordinator (2008-11); Director of Graduate Studies (PGT and PGR, sem. 2, 2010-11; PGT, sem.2, 2011-12); events and public lectures convenorship: Annual English Lecture (Elaine Showalter, 2007; Patricia Duncker, 2008; Ahdaf Soueif [with Catherine Wynne], 2009); Annual Victorian Lecture (Elaine Showalter, 2010; Margaret Stetz, 2011); convenor of departmental research seminar series (Spring 2008; Spring/Autumn 2009; coordinator of four research strands 2009-11); MA convenor, Women, Gender and Literature (2006-11)
    • Faculty/University-wide service: Contributions to Staff Development Training (Preparing Evidence for Professional Advancement: External and professional contribution, 2007; Supervision of Research Students in the Arts and Humanities, 2008, 2009, 2010; AHRC Fellowship Application: From the perspective of the peer reviewer, 2009; AHRC Research Grant Evaluation and Peer Review, 2011); University REF Working Party (2010- spring 12) and ‘critical REF friend’ (Business Studies, History and Politics); Faculty REF working party (2010-11); Founding Director, Centre for Victorian Studies (2009-11); Faculty Research Executive (2007-12); Faculty of Health and Social Care Review Group (2006-8); Senate (2007-10); Faculty Board (2006-8); RAE appeals panel (2007)
    • Leadership training: Leadership Programme (Hull 2007-8), Head of Department training (Hull, 2007); Senior Strategic Leadership Programme, 2007 (Leadership Foundation for Higher Education). 

    Swansea University:

    • Departmental service: Implemented and convened research seminar strand (‘Women and Gender’, 2003-5) with international mailing list (ongoing); Founding Director, Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society (2003-5); implementation and convenorship of MA in Gender and Culture (2003-5); implementation of BA in English with Gender (2004, with Sarah Gamble)
    • Faculty and University service: Committee memberships (2001-5): Council; Senate; Human Resources; Research Committee; Academic Staffing (SL promotions); Academic Development and Training; Equal Opportunities.implemented and convened research seminar strand (‘Women and Gender’, 2003-5); Member and chair of appointments committees since 2004

    Bradford University: Admissions Tutor, BA Women’s Studies and Social Policy (1994-96)

    Senior Staff Development training 

    • Aurora Women’s Leadership Programme: Role Model (2016-17, 2017-18)
    • Leadership Programme (Hull 2007-8), Head of Department training (Hull, 2007)
    • Senior Strategic Leadership Programme, 2007 (Leadership Foundation for Higher Education)
    • Contributions to Staff Development Training (Hull: Preparing Evidence for Professional Advancement: External and professional contribution, 2007; Supervision of Research Students in the Arts and Humanities, 2008, 2009, 2010; AHRC Fellowship Application: From the perspective of the peer reviewer, 2009; AHRC Research Grant Evaluation and Peer Review, 2011)

      Speaking engagements

      Keynotes, invited lectures, research seminars and invited workshop papers (last 20 years)

      2023    Research seminar: ‘Rewilding heterotopic space in neo-historical art film: The Piano and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, Glasgow English Literature Research Seminar, 8 March 2023

      2023     Keynote lecture: ‘Re-membering Lucy’s Nose: Neo-Victorian Memoir Fiction and Cecily Mackworth’s Reimagination of Freud, Lucy R. and Vienna’, ‘Furthering Transnational Neo-Victorianisms in an Entangled Word’ symposium, University of Malaga, 8-9 May 2023

      2022    Public lecture: ‘Who is Afraid of James Miranda Barry? Reflections on the Representational Politics of Historical Transgender Performance and Identity’, Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University Visiting Professor lecture, 26 October 2022.

      2022    Keynote lecture, ‘Lucy's Nose: On the trail of Freud, his Scottish governess patient, and Vienna in the 1890s, 1940s and 1980s’, ‘Victorian Resurrections’ conference, University of Vienna, Austria, 22-24 September.

      2022    Keynote lecture, ‘Heterotopic spaces of female transgression in neo-historical women’s film: The Piano and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, ‘(Re)Mapping the Victorian Household: Locating Liminal Spaces and Identities’ ECR conference, University of Hildesheim, Germany, 28 April 

      2022    Guest lecture, ‘Reading Neo-Historical Film: Heterotopia and Female Transgression in The Piano and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, University of Malaga, Spain, 4 May

      2021    Guest lecture, ‘Neo-Victorian Biofiction and the Pre-Raphaelites: Representations of Elizabeth Siddall - Poet, Painter and Tragic Muse’, School of Foreign Studies, University of Science and Technology, Beijing, 7 April 2021.

      2020    Guest lecture, ‘Faking It: Neo-Victorian Games with In/Authenticity in Representations of Lizzy Siddall and the PRB’, ‘Celebrity & Memory: Victorian & Neo-Victorian Perspectives’ Ring Lecture, School of English, University of Vienna (online), Q&A session 29 Oct. 2020.

      2019    Keynote, ‘Trans/Studies, Trans/Lives’ symposium, UCL, London, 25 May 2019

      2019    Guest lectures, ‘Infamous Wives: The Intemperate Female Body in Mid-Victorian Divorce Trials’, English Department, University of Hildesheim, Germany, 3-5 June 2019  

      2019    Contribution to workshop for mid to senior career academics on ‘Building Research Capacity in Victorian Studies and Beyond: Implementing Structures and Strategies for Supporting Colleagues and Institutional Research Cultures’, annual BAVS conference 2019 (‘Victorian Renewals’), University of Dundee, 29 August 2019.

      2019     Keynote, ‘Neo-Victorian “Orientations” in the Twenty-First Century’ conference, University of Malaga, Spain, 15-17 May 2019

      2019     Guest lecture, ‘Games with Neo-Victorian In/Authenticity: Representations of Victorian Transgender’, ‘Trans/genre, Trans/narrative’ workshop, University of Szczecin, Poland, 25 April 2019

      2018    Invited paper, contribution to closing President’s Panel, annual BAVS conference 2018: ‘Patterns of Neo-Victorianism’, ‘Victorian Patterns’ conference, University of Exeter, 29-31 August 2018.

      2018     Keynote, ‘Victorian Body Politics and Neo-Victorian Body Poetics: The Contested Body of the Wife in Mid-Victorian Divorce Trials’, Victorian Literary Meetings: Rising Stars 1 conference, University of Warsaw, Poland, 20 April 2018

      2017    Keynote, ‘“Tell me your secret Doctor James”: Gender-crossing, life-writing and the case of James Barry’, Bi-ennual conference on English Studies, ‘From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th century British literature and culture’ conference, University of Warsaw, Poland 27-29 September 2017.

      2017    Invited paper: ‘Writing the 19th-century Crossdresser: James Miranda Barry in Life-Writing’, ‘Writing Women’s Lives: Past and Present perspectives’ workshop, Portsmouth University, 15 June 2017.

      2017    Guest lecture: ‘Trans/formations in Gender and Genre: James Miranda Barry in Neo-Victorian Life-Writing’, University of Hildesheim, Germany, 27 June 2017.

      2017    Guest lecture on ‘Performance Games with Dr James: Remediating historical transgender and the case of James Barry’, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, 23 March 2017.

      2017     Keynote: ‘Cross-dressing and/in Life-writing: Transgender, Transgenre and the Case of James Miranda Barry’, conference on ‘Cross-Dressing in Fact and Fiction: Norms, Bodies, Identities’, University of Toulouse, France, 20-21 April 2017.

      2016    Keynote: ‘From James Barry to Mary Braddon: Writing Gender Imposture and Madeline’s Mystery (1882)’, ‘From Brontë to Bloomsbury III: Reassessing Women’s Writing from the 1880s and 1890s’ conference, International Centre for Victorian Women Writers, Canterbury Christ Church University, 25-26 July 2016.

      2016    Guest lectures, ‘Charles Dickens and Women: Revisionary Readings in Biography and Biofiction’, School of International Studies, UIBE, Beijing, 6 June, and ‘The (Neo-)Victorians Today: The Nineteenth Century in the Contemporary International Imagination’, English Department, Foreign Studies University, Beijing; 7 June 2016, China.

      2016    Guest lecture on ‘Writing Games with Doctor James: James Miranda Barry in Neo-Victorian Life Writing’; contribution to research workshop on Impact (‘Generating and assessing Impact across the Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative Arts’, http://hrc.anu.edu.au/sites/hrc.anu.edu.au/files/ImpactSymposiumFl), Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 1-2 Nov. 2016.

      2015    Keynote: ‘The New (Other) Victorians: Reimagining the Global Nineteenth Century’, ‘Literature and Transnational Studies: An Encounter between East and West’ conference, Hunan University of Business and Technology, Xiangtan, China, 28-31 May 2015.

      2015    Keynote: ‘Re/Tracing James Miranda Barry in Neo-Victorian Biographilia: Performances in Gender/Genre Hybridity’, ‘Material Traces of the Past in Contemporary Literature’ conference, University of Malaga, Spain, 6-8 May 2015.

       Visiting Professorships, ECR and doctoral training lectures and Masterclasses 

      2014-24 Annual Masterclasses and doctoral training lecture, Department of English, French and German, University of Malaga, Spain (annual 4-5 May 2022; 10-11 May 2023, 6-7 May 2024)

      2021    Visiting Professor, Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University (March 2021: ‘Capitalising on Opportunities from Doctoral Research’)

      2018    ECR training lecture, ‘Navigating the REF’ event organised by BAVS/BARS-funded 19th-Century Matters Fellow Claire Stainthorp, Cardiff University (19 May 2018)

      2018     ECR REF training: ‘Environments of Excellence’, delivered at the ‘Environments of Literature and Science’ British Society for Literature and Sciences Winter Symposium, Cardiff University (24 Nov. 2018)

      2017     PGR/ECR training session on academic job applications & preparation for interviews, BAVS conference 2017, ‘Victorians Unbound’ conference, Bishop Grosseteste, Lincoln (22 Aug. 2017)

      2016     Masterclass on James Barry, ANU, Canberra, Australia (1 Nov. 2016)

      2011    PGR training: ’Research Planning: Moving strategically from (post)doctorate to academic career’, PGR training day, Dept of English, Leeds University (12 April 2011) 

      2010  PGR training: ‘Academic Publishing and Careers in Contemporary Women’s Writing’, PGCWWN (Postgraduate Contemporary Women Writers’ Network) event on ‘Theory and Practice in Contemporary Women’s Writing’, University of Leicester, 23 October   

      2009-11 Masterclasses, Women’s and Gender Studies Institute, University of Granada, Spain (Dec. 2009, Dec. 2010, Oct. 2011)

      2005    Visiting Professorship, Department of British and American Studies, University of Debrecen, Hungary (April)

       

      Committees and reviewing

      Research and Funding Councils:

      • 2025: Co-chair of PCE pilot UoA28 (History) 
      • 2018-22: Deputy Chair, REF 2021 sub-panel 27 (English Language and Literature), appointed from criteria-setting phase
      • 2011-2014: Member, sub-panel 29 (English Language and Literature)
      • 2008: Specialist Advisor to sub-panel 57 (English Language and Literature), RAE 2008
      • 2015-20: Member, ARC (Australian Research Council) College of Assessors
      • 2004-14: Member, AHRC Peer Review College; Strategic Reviewer from 2013; panel member (Fellowship scheme, Oct. 2014; Fellowship scheme Jan. 2011)
      • 2009: Invited assessor, OTKA (Hungarian RC, Research Grants scheme)
      • 2008: Invited assessor, ESRC (Research Grants scheme)
      • 2005: Invited assessor, SSHRCC (Canada; Research Grants scheme)
      • 2004: Invited assessor, IRCHSS (Irish RC; Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme)

      Research consultancy/REF advisor

      REF2029

      • Chair of REF-similar research review of a multi-disciplinary School of English, Arts and Media, Republic of Ireland (2024-25) 
      • REF advisory role for: St Andrews (2024), Nottingham Trent (Oct. 2022-) 
      • Contribution to REF workshops: Edinburgh (2023), Surrey (2022) Strathclyde (2022)
      • REF workshops: Surrey (2025), Edge Hill (2023), Hull (2023), Leeds Trinity (2022)

      REF2021

      • (English) School of Music, Humanities and Media, University of Huddersfield (REF training and outputs assessment, 2015-18)
      • English Department, University of Durham (Research review, Sept.-Oct.2015)
      • English, University of Exeter (Research event, 7 Jan. 2016)
      • Humanities, Bishop Grosseteste, Lincoln (REF workshop, 18 February 2016)
      • English, National University of Ireland, Republic of Ireland (outputs assessment, spring 2016)
      • English, University of Bristol (REF workshop, 10 May 2016; REF outputs assessment, Feb. 2017)
      • English, University of Greenwich (REF workshop, 16 June 2016; REF outputs assessment, Feb. 2017)
      • English, University of Strathclyde (REF outputs assessment, spring 2017)
      • English, Edinburgh University (REF outputs assessment, 2017-18)
      • English, University of Surrey (REF workshop, 7 June 2017)
      • English and Humanities, Brunel University (REF workshop, 13 Dec. 2017)
      • As Deputy Chair of REF2021 SP27: REF2021 overview, University English AGM, University of York, 13 April 2019

      • Alongside other REF2021 panellists: Contribution to REF panel session, English Shared Futures 2022, Manchester, 8 July 2022

      Editorial and advisory boards

      • ELT/English Literature in Transition (2009-20)
      • Memory Studies (2006-)
      • Neo-Victorian Studies (2008-)
      • Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (2008-)
      • Women’s History Review (2001-)  
      • Advisory board, Olive Schreiner Letters Project (dir. Liz Stanley, Edinburgh, ESRC-funded project, 2008-12), http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk/

      Peer reviewing 

      • Academic journals: C21 Literature; English; Gothic Studies; History of the Family; Journal of American Studies; Journal of Gender Studies, Journal of Victorian Culture; Journal of Women’s History; Literature & History; Modernism/Modernity; Nineteenth Century Contexts, Nineteenth-Century Literature; Studies in the Novel; Texas Studies in Language and Literature; Victorian Periodicals Review; Victorian Review; Victorian Studies; Women’s Writing)
      • Publishers: Ashgate; Broadview Press; Ohio State University Press; Palgrave; Pearson Education
      • Entries for encyclopedias: Blackwell Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature

      Invited pre-publication reviews for book covers:

      • Julia Novak and Caitríona Ní Dhuill (eds), Imagining Gender in Biographical Fiction (Palgrave, 2022). 
      • Jessica Cox, Neo-Victorianism and Sensation Fiction (Palgrave, 2019)
      • Rachel Carroll, Transgender and the Literary Imagination (Edinburgh UP, 2018); Jessica Cox, Neo-Victorianism and Sensation Fiction (Palgrave, 2019) 
      • Kirsti Bohata, ed. Stranger Within the Gates: A Collection of Short Stories by Bertha Thomas (Honno, 2008)
      • Constance D. Harsh, ed. Edith Johnstone, A Sunless Heart (Broadview Press, 2008)
      • Iveta Jusová, The New Woman and the Empire (Ohio State University Press, 2005)

      External assessor, promotions and appointments

      • UK:Kingston University; University of Wales Aberystwyth; University of Wales Bangor; University of Liverpool; University of Salford; University of Glasgow; Lincoln University; Portsmouth University; University of Leicester; University of Glamorgan; University of Aberdeen
      • International: Indiana University Southeast, USA;  Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada; Kent State University, USA;  ANU, Australia  
      • Professorial promotions panel (Soutenance), Sorbonne, Paris (Dec. 2017)  

      External validation of MA programmes

      • MA English Literature, University of Westminster (2005)
      • MA Women’s Studies, University of Wales Bangor (2005)
      • MA English, Bishop Grosseteste, Lincoln (internal pre-validation event, 2015)

      External examiner, under/postgraduate

      • BA Gender Studies and Social Policy pathway, University of Bradford (2001-4)
      • MLitt in Victorian Literature, University of Glasgow (2006-10)
      • MA/MSc in Gender, Sexuality and Culture, Birkbeck, University of London (2010-11)

      External examiner, PhD theses

            ·         2020: Birkbeck (‘“The spectres of past lessons, imperfectly erased”: Queer History and the Palimpsest in the Fiction of Sarah Waters’)

      ·         2020: Glasgow (‘Oscar Wilde’s Queer Afterlives: Sexuality in Post- and Neo-Victorian Wildeana’)

      ·         2020: Surrey (‘Sartorial Spectres: Re-Fashioning the Past in the Neo-Victorian Novel’)

      ·         2013: Royal Holloway (‘Individualism, the New Woman, and Marriage in the Novels of Mary Ward, Sarah Waters, and Lucas Malet’)

      ·         2013: Exeter (‘Female Sexuality in French Naturalism and Realism, and British New Woman Fiction, 1850-1900’)

      ·         2013: Leicester (‘The Negotiation of Feminisms and Queer Theories in the Novels of Sarah Waters, 1998-2009’)

      ·         2010: Lancaster University (‘Epistolary Encounters: Diary and Letter Pastiche in Neo-Victorian Fiction’)

      ·         2010: Leeds Metropolitan University (‘“But puppets themselves have passions”: The Ventriloquial Influence of Oscar Wilde on Angela Carter, Will Self, and Sarah Waters’)

      ·         2008: University of Exeter (‘Empire of the Imagination: Victorian Popular Fiction and the Occult’)

      ·         2008: Manchester Metropolitan University (‘The Yellow Book and Fin-de-Siècle Magazines: Gender, Journalism and Urbanity’)

      ·         2008: University of Queensland, Australia (MPhil, ‘Feasts, Fiends and Feminists: The Performance of Aberrant Female Appetite in Neo-Victorian Fiction’)

      ·         2005: University of Haifa, Israel (‘Transforming Paradigms: The Witch Stereotype in Modern Female Writing’)

      ·         2005: La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia (‘Legends of the Fall: Sensational Press Events of Fin-de-Siècle Melbourne’)

      ·         2005: Birkbeck College, University of London (‘New Woman and Suffrage Drama by Women, 1880-1928’)

       

       

      Supervisions

      Fields

      • Women's writing, Victorian to contemporary
      • Gender and sexuality, Victorian to contemporary
      • The New Woman and Victorian feminism 
      • Fin-de-siecle literature and culture
      • Neo-Victorianism; neo-historical studies

      Current research students (primary supervision)

      • Karen Power, ‘George Egerton: Constructions of Identity at the Fin de Siècle’’ (part-time; 2016-)
      • Arwa Al-Mubaddel, ‘The Feminist Metaself and Metamodernism in British Women’s Writing, 1960s to 1990s’ (2019-)

       Postdoctoral mentoring

      I am keen to work with postdoctoral scholars interested in my fields, and have previously mentored two externally funded projects (on motoring in turn-of-the-century women's writing, funded by the SSHRCC, and on the New Woman and religion, funded by three AHRC/BA/ESRC Visiting Fellowships).

      Current supervision

      Karen Power

      Karen Power

      Emma Mary Kirby

      Emma Mary Kirby

      Arwa Al-Mubaddel

      Arwa Al-Mubaddel

      Contact Details

      Email HeilmannA@cardiff.ac.uk
      Telephone +44 29208 75619
      Campuses John Percival Building, Room 2.29, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

      Research themes

      Specialisms

      • 19th century
      • 20th-21st century
      • Women writers
      • Victorian literature
      • Gender and sexuality

      External profiles