Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Steven Wilson is Professor of French Studies and Medical Humanities in the School of Arts, English and Languages. He was first appointed to a Lectureship at QUB in 2013, having previously taught at the Universities of Manchester, Exeter and Leicester.
Situated at the interface of French Studies and the Critical Medical Humanities, his research explores the ways in which modern French literature and thought, from the nineteenth century to the present, inform and respond to healthcare crises and the end of life. His monograph, The Language of Disease: Writing Syphilis in Nineteenth-Century France (Oxford: Legenda, 2020; paperback 2023), was described as demonstrating "the urgency of a truly critical, comparative, and multilingual medical humanities” (French Studies, 2022).
Other recent publications include a book co-edited with Piotr Blumczynski, The Languages of COVID-19: Translational and Multilingual Perspectives on Global Healthcare (London: Routledge, 2023; open access here), described as “a key intervention” that makes “a compelling case that any holistic response to (public) health crises [...] requires a purposeful sensitivity to language and an openness to the dynamics of translation" (The Translator, 2023), 7 journal special issues, an état présent on 'French Studies and the Medical Humanities', and a 'Manifesto for a Multilingual Medical Humanities'.
Steven's research has been funded by the AHRC (Leadership Fellowship), the British Academy, the MHRA and the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (ILCS). He is a member of the Peer-Review College of the AHRC, the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) Scheme and the British Academy's Knowledge Frontiers Programme: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects. He is also an advisor to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). He collaborates in a range of international scholarly networks, including as a member of the Advisory Board of Loire Val-Health, an €11.8M research project based at the Université de Tours. Having led multidisciplinary research projects across languages, cultures and societies, he is committed to public engagement on the importance of multilingualism and intercultural knowledge in global healthcare, including through policy work.
Steven is in his second term as a member of the Editorial Board of Modern and Contemporary France, an internationally prominent peer-reviewed journal offering a multidisciplinary view of all aspects of France from 1789 to the present day, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for French Studies (SFS), the longest-established and largest association in French Studies. He coordinates the Society's Visiting International Research Fellowship.
Postgraduate Research Supervision
Steven Wilson is a highly experienced PhD supervisor, having supervised to successful completion doctoral theses by James Illingworth (2018; with Prof. Margaret Topping), Poppy Boyd (2018; with Dr Rosalind Silvester); Mathew Rickard (2020; with Dr Claire Moran); Helen McKelvey (2021; with Prof. Maeve McCusker); Rachael Stockdale (2021; with Dr Claire Moran); Jayne Duff (2022; with Dr Claire Moran); Jordan McCullough (2023; with Dr Rosalind Silvester); and Mark O'Rawe (2024; with Dr Dominique Jeannerod).
He is currently supervising 6 PhD theses and would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in pursuing postgraduate (MRes, PhD or postdoctoral) research in nineteenth-century French literature, especially as it engages with questions of medicine, gender and/or religion; or in intersections of literary studies (19th century to the present) with the Medical/Health Humanities.
Teaching
Steven Wilson is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), which recognises outstanding achievement in teaching, enhancing the student learning experience and academic leadership. The recipient of a QUB Teaching Award in the student-nominated category and a QUB Students' Union Education Award for 'Best Feedback', he was also shortlisted for the 'Excellent Use of Feedback Award' at the Students' Union Education Awards in 2019 and nominated for a Staff Excellence Award in 2022 in the 'Delivering Excellence in your Support to Students' category. He offers undergraduate modules on 'Paris, City of Modernity' (at Level 2), 'Ideologies of Death in Modern French Literature' (at Level 3) and a final-year filière on 'Figures de l’altérité'. He also teaches a session on Medical Humanities on the MRes Research Methods in Modern Languages module.
Steven has been an Invited Lecturer at the Oxford Medical Humanities Summer School and an MA programme on Medical Humanities at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. He is an External Examiner at the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster.
Particulars
Contact Details
Office: 10 University Square, Room 301
Tel: +0044 (0)28 9097 1401
I am on research leave in semester 2, 2024-25.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 4 Finished
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R1272AEL: The Language(s) of Covid-19: Implications for Global Healthcare
Wilson, S. (PI) & Blumczynski, P. (CoI)
06/07/2020 → 05/10/2021
Project: Research
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R1749AEL: The Textual Construction of Disease: French Medico-Literary Cultures
Wilson, S. (PI)
27/03/2017 → 31/03/2018
Project: Research
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R1399MLA: French Autopathography: Disability, Disease and Disorders from First-Person Perspectives
Wilson, S. (PI)
08/04/2014 → 30/11/2014
Project: Research
Research output
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The language of disease: writing syphilis in nineteenth-century France
Wilson, S., 28 Sept 2020, Oxford: Legenda. 158 p. (Research Monographs in French Studies ; vol. 62)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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The languages of COVID-19: translational and multilingual perspectives on global healthcare
Blumczynski, P. (Editor) & Wilson, S. (Editor), 30 Nov 2022, London and New York: Routledge. 264 p. (Routledge Studies in Health Humanities)Research output: Book/Report › Edited book › peer-review
Open Access -
French Autopathography
Wilson, S., 04 Jul 2016, 2 ed. Johns Hopkins University Press. (L'Esprit Créateur)Research output: Book/Report › Book
8 Citations (Scopus) -
French Thanatology
McCaffrey, E. (Editor) & Wilson, S. (Editor), 30 Mar 2021, In: L'Esprit Createur. 61, 1, 138 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Special issue › peer-review
Open Access -
Cultural languages of pain
Wilson, S. (Editor) & Elsner, A. M. (Editor), 19 Dec 2022, In: Journal of Romance Studies. 22, 4, p. 421-593 173 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Special issue › peer-review
Prizes
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ASMCF Initiative Fund Award
Wilson, S. (Recipient), 17 May 2024
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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ASMCF Schools' Liaison and Outreach Award
Wilson, S. (Recipient), 24 Sept 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Elected as Membership Secretary of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes (SDN)
Wilson, S. (Recipient), 2012
Prize: Election to learned society
Activities
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ASMCF (Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France) 2025 Annual Conference
Wilson, S. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
02 Sept 2025 → 03 Sept 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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TONGUES: Medical Humanities across linguistic and cultural frontiers, NNMHR Congress 2025
Wilson, S. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
21 May 2025 → 23 May 2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Invited Roundtable Discussant: Endings & Meanings: Existential Suffering in the 21st Century, University of Zurich
Wilson, S. (Invited speaker)
09 Apr 2025 → 10 Apr 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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QUB Open Learning World Literature Lecture: Epidemic and Ecology in Véronique Tadjo’s En Compagnie des hommes (2017)
Wilson, S. (Invited speaker)
22 Jan 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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China Medical University, Shenyang
Wilson, S. (Advisor)
23 Nov 2024 → 27 Nov 2024Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
Press/Media
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Is cara dúinn an dátheangachas nuair a théann an intinn agus an corp in aois
09/01/2019
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Linking Medicine, Narrative, and French
12/10/2016
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
Impacts
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Languages and Cultural Knowledge in Global Healthcare
Wilson, S. (Participant)
Impact: Societial Impact, Cultural Impact