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 (SDG3) and the end of life. Steven's monograph, The Language of Disease: Writing Syphilis in Nineteenth-Century France (Oxford: Legenda, 2020; paperback 2023), was described as offering “a compelling argument in favour of […] taking a more global approach to the medical humanities” (Irish Journal of French Studies, 2021) and allowing “the reader to realize the urgency of a truly critical, comparative, and multilingual medical humanities” (French Studies, 2022). 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, Steven is committed to public engagement on the importance of multilingualism and intercultural knowledge in global healthcare, including through policy work. 

Recent book-length publications include:

• Cultures of Palliative Care, guest-edited special issue of Literature and Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024)
• Edited volume, with Piotr Blumczynski, The Languages of COVID-19: Translational and Multilingual Perspectives on Global Healthcare (London: Routledge, 2023), 264pp. [“a key intervention” that makes “a compelling case that any holistic response to (public) health crises, and indeed (public) health more generally, requires a purposeful sensitivity to language and an openness to the dynamics of translation", The Translator, 2023]
• Cultures of Disease in the French-Speaking World, guest-edited special issue of Francosphères (Liverpool University Press, 2023)
• Cultural Languages of Pain, guest-edited special issue of the Journal of Romance Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2022)
• French Thanatology, guest-edited special issue of L'Esprit Créateur (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021)
• The Care (Re)Turn in French and Francophone Studies, guest-edited special issue of the Australian Journal of French Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2020)
• L’Imaginaire médico-religieux: Modern French Literary Perspectives, guest-edited special issue of Modern and Contemporary France (2020)

Steven's research has been funded by the AHRC (Leadership Fellowship), the British Academy, the MHRA and the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR). 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) and a member of the AHRC-funded multilingual, multidisciplinary project on 'Reading Bodies: Narrating Illness in Spanish and European Literatures and Cultures (1870s to 1960s and Beyond)', led by Prof. Katharine Murphy (University of Exeter).

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 has been elected to serve on 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 and Research Support Scheme.

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 Ros 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 Ros Silvester); 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.

Steven Wilson is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), which recognises outstanding achievement in teaching and enhancing the student learning experience, combined with scholarship 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', Steven 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. For several years, he coordinated the R. Gapper undergraduate essay prize, an annual award by the Society for French Studies for the best essay submitted by an undergraduate student at a university based in the United Kingdom or Ireland. 

Contact Details

Office: 10 University Square, Room 301

Tel: +0044 (0)28 9097 1401

Student Feedback and Consultation Hours: Tuesdays 1-3pm (in person or on MS Teams). Appointments for meetings at other times may be made by email: [email protected]