Laura Blunsden

I joined the University of Birmingham in 2024, after studying for my PhD, Master’s, and undergraduate degrees at the University of Liverpool. At Liverpool, I taught on a range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature modules. My research informs my teaching, and my teaching informs my research: my primary interest lies in pedagogical relationships between writers. My work focuses on literary communities, creative influence, the history of emotion, and makes use of psychoanalytic approaches to art.

I am currently developing my PhD thesis, ‘Mentoring Relationships in the Lives and Literature of Eighteenth-Century Prose Writers’, for publication as a monograph, Mentoring the Mind. In it, I argue that the concept of ‘mentorship’, which was first developed in the eighteenth century, is founded on voluntary, reciprocal engagement that nurtures mutual respect, esteem, and affection in a pedagogical context. Beyond mere knowledge transfer, I suggest, mentorship is critical for fostering personal and social development, emotional growth, and mutual enrichment. The first chapter of my thesis is published as an article, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Mentor Book’, in the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies: <https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12937>.

My research makes use of psychoanalytical and psychotherapeutic frameworks in its approach to literature. I am always interested in new developments within these traditions, and to this end, I also reviewed Allan V. Horwitz’s Personality Disorders: A Short History of Narcissistic, Borderline, Antisocial, and Other Types for The British Society for Literature and Science.