Claudine van Hensbergen

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests 

My research interests lie in English print and visual culture from the 1660s to the 1730s. My work breaks down the traditional generic boundaries (between drama, poetry and prose), and between disciplines (Literature and History of Art) to better understand the wider correspondences of literature of this period. I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2020-2023), and I am the co-founder (with Dr. David F. Taylor, Oxford University) of the 18th-Century Literature and Visual Culture Research Network.

Current and Recent Projects 

My current project, Learning through the Art Gallery: Art, Literature and Disciplinarity, is funded through an AHRC Leadership Award (2019-2022). The project explores the relationship between visual and textual culture during the period 1660-1735. Alongside publishing a number of articles related to the project's concerns, I am writing a monograph: The Making of Monument in Britain, 1660-1736. The project involves a collaboration between Northumbria English staff and the learning teams of the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead. Our project is creating a new learning offer through which KS4/5 pupils studying English can visit the Laing and Shipley for educational workshops. We aim to demonstrate how art collections can help pupils to develop and improve their study of language, literature and creative writing, whilst inspiring their wider interest in the Arts. To find out more about the project please visit our website. 

In recent years I have edited Nicholas Rowe’s late plays, The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714) and The Tragedy of the Lady Jane Gray (1715) for Routledge, and seen a number of articles to publication which related to two major-funded projects with which I was involved between 2010-2012, these being the Leverhulme-funded Digital Miscellanies Index and the AHRC-funded Court, Country, City: British Art, 1660-1735.

New projects include an edition of Aphra Behn's selected works for the Oxford University Press Twenty-First-Century Authors series, a forthcoming special issue of 'Women's Writing' exploring women writers and their connections to the wider Arts, and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque for Mary Astell (1666-1731) in her hometown of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Funding Awards and Fellowships 

AHRC Leadership Award (ECR), ‘Learning through the Art Gallery: Art, Literature and Disciplinarity’ (PI), March 2019-Feb 2021. This grant (£189,346) supports my research for a monograph and underwrites a collaborative project with the Laing and Shipley art galleries. 

Museum-University Partnership Initiative Award, Arts Council England (PI), May 2017. I was the lead applicant on two successful bids for seed funds to initiate collaborative projects with the Laing Gallery, Newcastle (£600), and the Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond (£800). 

UK ‘Being Human’ Festival of Humanities, Regional Hub Award (PI), April 2015. Funding awarded by the School of Advanced Studies, London, and underwritten by the AHRC and British Academy. 

Visiting Fellowship, Chawton House Library, June 2014. 

UK ‘Being Human’ Festival of Humanities Award (PI), April 2014. Funding awarded by the School of Advanced Studies, London, and underwritten by the AHRC and British Academy. 

Roberto Scipioni Bursary, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, Sept 2010.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award, Sept 2006-August 2009.

Collaborations with External Partners 

I have been collaborating with the Laing Art Gallery for several years. The origins of this partnership lie in my teaching for the second-year option, ‘Working with our Cultural Heritage’, for which I lead teaching on the relationship between literature and visual culture, and which involves a visit to the Laing. In recent years our collaborative activities have extended to supervision of MRes projects working on literary resonances with the Laing’s collections, opportunities for Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) advertised through the AHRC-funded Northern Bridge Consortium, and public lectures at the gallery given by Northumbria staff. 

The next phase of this collaboration will be undertaken with funding from the AHRC for our project ‘Learning through the Art Gallery’. Northumbria staff are collaborating with the Laing and Shipley Art Galleries to create a new learning offer [https://laingartgallery.org.uk/whats-on/literature-through-art] through which KS4/5 pupils studying English can visit the Laing and Shipley for educational workshops. We aim to demonstrate how art collections can help pupils to develop and improve their study of language, literature and creative writing, whilst inspiring their wider interest in the Arts.

Teaching Interests 

At Northumbria, I teach on the following modules: 

* Research Methods: Traditional and Digital (Masters-level core module) 

* Writing Women: Aphra Behn in Focus (3rd-year optional module) 

* Working with our Cultural Heritage (2nd-year optional employability module) 

* Historical Fiction (2nd-year optional module)

Lead for Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies Research Group

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) Partnership Lead

Humanities Departmental Impact Lead