Lizzie Wright

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in 2018 and graduated with a BA in English Language and Literature in the summer of 2021. My MRes focuses on portrayals of disability and disfigurement in 21st-century comic-book adaptations, with emphasis on how these interact with hero and villain stereotypes. This encompasses both Marvel and DC film projects. I am supervised by Drs Stuart Murray and Emma Trott in the School of English.

I am currently a Research Support Assistant on the LAHRI ‘Sensory Storytelling, Imagination, and Wellbeing’ project which forms part of the Sadler Seminar Series for 2021–22.

From summer through to autumn 2021, I interned with Dr Amelia DeFalco on the ‘Imagining Posthuman Care’ project in collaboration with the Thackray Medical Museum. I assisted with gathering material for the ‘Can Robots Care?’ exhibition, as well as conducting interviews for the project website. 

My undergraduate dissertation, ‘Fighting for my death: Disability and Euthanasia in Me Before You and Million Dollar Baby’ explored the right-to-die argument in contemporary literature and their respective film adaptations. I used Mitchell and Snyder’s theory of narrative prosthesis to explore how the disabled characters in both narratives only serve to further the emotional growth of the able-bodied characters before their eventual deaths by euthanasia. 

Research interests

• medical humanities in literature and film
• bioethics and the issue of consent
• death and dying

My current research into disability and disfigurement in comic-book adaptations posits that the origin story of heroes and villains serves the same purpose as the account of how the disabled person ‘became’ disabled; it creates demand for a story that explains bodily differences to able-bodied or ‘normal’ people. In this way - and others that my research will explore - the superhero and the villain’s powers and disfigurements mean they interact much like disabled people are made to (following the social model of disability).

Qualifications

• BA English Language and Literature, University of Leeds

Research groups and institutes

• Medical Humanities Research Group