Dr Jo Parsons
Lecturer in English and Creative Writing
Dr Jo Parsons has been a Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University since 2019. Originally a Victorian Literature specialist with interests in masculinity, the body, Wilkie Collins, and Victorian Sensation Fiction, Jo is now leading Falmouth’s move into the area of Erotica and Romantic Fictions and is currently working on a new project on popular women’s writing from 1970–2000, with a particular focus on the Bonkbuster. Her research, both Victorian and contemporary, is grounded in gender and cultural studies. Jo is also a co-editor (with Ruth Heholt) of both the Gender and the Body in Literature and Culture and Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures book series with Edinburgh University Press, as well as assistant editor of Revenant and editor of the Wilkie Collins Journal. Jo is also a creative writer, who also has a successful freelance business as a professional editor and ghost-writer. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
External Links
Qualifications
Qualifications
| Year | Qualification | Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | PhD | Bath Spa University |
| 2017 | Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Learning in Higher Education | Bath Spa University |
| 2012 | Post Graduate Certificate of Education with Distinction in Life Long Learning and Skills | University of the West of England |
| 2009 | Masters in English | University of the West of England |
| 2008 | BA(Hons) English | University of the West of England |
Membership of external committees
Fellow of the Higher Education AcademyResearch Interests
Research interests and expertise
- Romance and erotica
- 20th and 21st Century commercial women’s fiction
- Genre fiction
- Victorian literature, with particular reference to the novel
- Sensation fiction, in particular the work of Wilkie Collins
- Gender and the body
- Neo-Victorian fiction
I am also interested in supervising and examining PhDs in the above areas.
Areas of teaching
- 18th-21st Century Literature
- Gender Studies
- Crime Fiction
- Gothic
- Theory
Research Students
Current research students
- Duncan Yeates ‘John Harris: Cornish Poet’
- Vik Gill ‘The Ghost of Vicarage Row: Crossing the Threshold of Cornish Gothic, Crime and Feminist Noir’
- Lydia Hounat ‘Intergenerational Trauma in Kabyle Women’s Isefra’
Professional Engagement
Independent professional practice
Special Issues of Peer-Reviewed Journals
- Heholt, Ruth and Joanne Ella Parsons (eds.) Women’s Writing, Special Issue: 19th Century Women Writing Men 28.2 (May 2021)
- Muller, Nadine and Joanne Ella Parsons (eds.) Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Special Issue: The Male Body in Victorian Literature and Culture 36.4 (September 2014)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- Parsons, Joanne Ella. ‘Surtees’ ‘Eating Englishness and Causing Chaos: Food and the Body of the Fat Man in R. S. Surtees’ Jorrocks’ Jaunts and Jollities, Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall’ Nineteenth-Century Contexts 36.4 (September 2014)
Edited Collections
- Parsons, Joanne Ella and Ruth Heholt (eds.) Women Writing Men: 1689–1869. Historical Women’s Writing, Routledge (June 2022)
- Parsons, Joanne Ella and Ruth Heholt (eds.) The Victorian Male Body Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (hardback April 2018; paperback August 2019)
Chapters in Edited Collections
- Parsons, Joanne Ella and Ruth Heholt ‘Introduction’ in Parsons, Joanne Ella and Ruth Heholt (eds.) Women Writing Men: 1689–1869. Historical Women’s Writing, Routledge (June 2022)
- Parsons, Joanne Ella. ‘Fosco’s Fat: Transgressive Consumption and Bodily Control in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White’ The Victorian Male Body Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (April 2018)
Entries
- Parsons, Joanne Ella ‘Food’ Companion to Victorian Popular Fiction ed. Kevin Morrison. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland (October 2018)
- Parsons, Joanne Ella ‘The Occult’ Companion to Victorian Popular Fiction ed. Kevin Morrison. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland (October 2018)
- Parsons, Joanne Ella ‘Valeria Brinton/Woodville/Macallan’ 100 Greatest Literary Detectives ed. Eric Sandberg. Lanham MA: Rowman & Littleford Publishers (May 2018)
- Parsons, Joanne Ella ‘Mrs Gladdon’ 100 Greatest Literary Detectives ed. Eric Sandberg. Lanham MA: Rowman & Littleford Publishers (May 2018)
Other Media
- ‘Therapeutic Fasting: Dr. Henry S. Tanner (1831–1919)’ Damaging the Body, 2012. http://damagingthebody.org/downloads/2012-panel-discussion-films/extraordinary-eaters/
- This short documentary was created for the 2012 Damaging the Body series as one of four Wellcome Trust funded public engagement shorts.
Reviews
- Review of Poets and the Peacock Dinner: A Literary History of a Meal by Lucy McDiarmid, Irish Studies Review 24.4, 483–4
- Review of The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale by Caroline Sumpter, Irish Studies Review 22.4, 1–2
- Review of Jolly Fellows: Male Milieus in 19th Century America by Richard Stott, Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 6.1, 45–6
Social, community and cultural engagement
- Invited expert, Mentally Yours, Metro Podcast, April 2023
- Invited Speaker, ‘“She had ideas of her own”: Wilkie Collins, Women, and the Law’ Wye Arts Association, 15th October 2018
- Invited Speaker, ‘“Great Guzzling” Gourmands and “Lubberly Lump[s] of Humanity”: Food and Fat in Surtees’ Fiction’ R. S. Surtees Society AGM, 2014
Engagement with professional associations and societies
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Co-Founder, Scholarly Association of Menopausal Studies
- Executive Committee, British Association of Victorian Studies
- Book Prize Judge, British Association of Victorian Studies
Professional esteem indicators
| Year | Description |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Invited Speaker, Detective and Crime Fiction (2 sessions), Bristol University ELCE course |
| 2022 | Invited Speaker, ‘Wilkie Collins' The Frozen Deep and the Franklin Expedition’ MA Dickens Studies (University of Buckingham) |
| 2017 | Invited Speaker, ‘“Great Guzzling” Gourmands: Food, Gender and (Un)Civilised Behaviour in R. S. Surtees’s Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour, Young Tom Hall, and Hillingdon Hall’ (Pescara, Italy) |
| 2013 | ‘Fosco’s Fat: Bodily Control and Transgressive Consumption in The Woman in White.’ Wilkie Collins: New Directions and Readings, Victorian Popular Fiction Association Research Seminar Series (Senate House) |
