Hetty Taylor

About

Hetty completed her BA at the University of Warwick in 2012, with a joint honours degree in English Literature and French. As part of this programme, she studied for a year at the Université de Bordeaux III, Michel de Montaigne. After several years working as a communications consultant, Hetty returned to education, undertaking an MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at University College London under the supervision of Professor Sophie Page. She graduated in 2018 with distinction.

Beginning her PhD in 2019, Hetty balances research time with continuing work as a communications consultant, specialising in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical education.

Research interests

Hetty’s doctoral research centres around ‘non-medical’ charms and experimenta in late-medieval manuscripts, with a particular focus on those which seek to control aspects of social relations. With texts reflecting practices such as conquering enemies, winning friendship and favour, uncovering adultery, and preventing or detecting theft, her research explores what these reveal about the prominent concerns of the period and how they resonate with our broader understanding of social attitudes and anxieties in the Middle Ages.

Alongside the primary focus of her doctoral research, Hetty is also interested in medical manuscripts and medical practice in the Middle Ages more broadly, as well as magic, particularly the common tradition of magic, and how the medical and magical intersect.

Hetty's thesis is supervised by Dr Ryan Perry and Dr Suzanna Ivanič.

Teaching

Hetty currently teaches on the undergraduate module EN337 – Thinking Through Theory, and has also taught on the undergraduate module EN338 – Write/Right to the World: Displacement, Social Movements, Political Action.