Research interests

I am an early modernist with research interests in the body, the history of emotions, affect theory, and representations of breath in 16^th and 17^th century literature. Relating to breath and affect specifically, I have co-authored the first book on breath in literature (Reading Breath in Literature), and I have by invitation contributed chapters in two important collections of interdisciplinary and international appeal: The Life of Breath in Literature, Culture, and Medicine and Hamlet and Emotions. I am also preparing a book proposal for my next monograph, The Body Inspired: Breath, Emotions, and Ethics in Early Modern England. 

Recent publications 

1. ‘“Let Lovers Sigh Out the Rest”: Witnessing the Breath in the Early Modern Emotional Body’, in The Life of Breath in Literature, Culture, and Medicine: Classical to Contemporary, edited by David Fuller, Jane Macnaughton, and Corinne Saunders (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science, and Medicine, 2021), pp. 174-193. 
2. 'Untimely Breathings in The Rape of Lucrece', Shakespeare (2021): 1-23 DOI:10.1080/17450918.2021.1957995.
3. ‘Hamlet’s “Spendthrift Sigh”: Emotional Breathing On and Off the Stage’, in Hamlet and Emotions, edited by Paul Megna, Brid Phillips, and R.S. White, (Palgrave, 2019), pp. 161-176.
4. 'Wasting Breath in Hamlet,' in Reading Breath in Literature, co-authored by Arthur Rose et al. (Palgrave, 2018). Open-access funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Forthcoming  

Chapter contribution, “Breath in the Closet: Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam” in Early Modern Women’s Literatures and Sciences, edited by Lisa Blake and Whitney Sperrazza  

Chapter contribution: “Animation and Fantasy Film in the Allegorical Tradition”, co-authored with Jason Gulya, for The Oxford Handbook of Allegory, edited by David Parry

Chapter contribution: “All Passion Spent: Affective Worlds in Early Modern Closet Drama” in In and Out of the Closet: New Perspectives on Closet Drama, edited by Aurélie Griffin and Sophie Lemercier-Goddard 

Conference presentation: “Breathing Others: Feminist Politics and the Ethics of Breathing in Early Modern English Literature”, Early Modern Women on Politics and Ethics Conference University of Gothenburg, October 5–7, 2023 

Research supervision

I would welcome enquiries from prospective students interested in early modern literature, esp. religious writing, the history of emotions, bodies and embodiment, air and breath in literature. I am also keen to hear from students interested in engaging with affect theory, the medical humanities, and interdisciplinary research.

External impact and engagement

Consulted and participated in Radio 4’s programme ‘The Sigh’ with Clare Jenkins (broadcast in December 2016)

Edinburgh International Book Festival Speaker, August 2017

Public Workshop: Breathe It Out, Lostwithiel, July 2019

Shortlisted for BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers Scheme, 2020

Media

Contributor and speaker in BBC Radio 4, 'The Sigh', December 2016

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08578tw

Description from the BBC website: Award-winning poet Imtiaz Dharker explores the history, cultural significance, physiology and psychology of sighing. She considers its role in literature, music, religion and life. Contributors - social and cultural historian Hannah Newton of the University of Reading, English Literature scholar Naya Tsentourou (who's an expert on sighing and groaning in religious texts), classical pianist Peter Hill, and cognitive neuro-scientist Lynne Barker from Sheffield Hallam University.

Teaching

In addition to the modules listed below, I contribute masterclasses to the Renaissance pathway modules for the MA in English Literary Studies.

I am a certified Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Modules taught

• EAS1041 - Rethinking Shakespeare
• EAS3003 - Dissertation
• EAS3416 - Feeling Bodies: Emotions in Early Modern Literature and Culture, 1500-1700
• HUM2000 - Humanities in the Workplace
• HUM2001 - Humanities in the Workplace