Dr Anna McFarlane

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in 2022 as a lecturer in medical humanities. Before this I held a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Glasgow for a project entitled ‘Products of Conception: Science Fiction and Traumatic Pregnancy, 1968–2015’. I am a Visiting Collaborator on the Wellcome Trust-funded Future of Human Reproduction project at the University of Lancaster. I have a long-standing interest in the intersections between science fiction and the medical humanities; from 2015–2017 I was the research assistant for the Wellcome Trust-funded Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities project with Dr Gavin Miller, and with Miller and Donna McCormack I co-edited The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities (forthcoming). I hold a PhD from the University of St Andrews and my thesis, which explored gestalt psychology in William Gibson’s science fiction novels, formed the basis of my first monograph, Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshades (2021). I have also worked with Dr Lars Schmeink and Dr Graham J. Murphy, editing The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (2020) and Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture (2022). 

Research interests

My current research explores the use of fantastic motifs and genres (e.g. science fiction, fantasy, horror) in representations of traumatic pregnancy. I look at both representations of traumatic pregnancy in these genres, and the use of fantastic motifs in women’s writing on their own experiences. This research area allows me to pursue my interests in medical humanities, gender and the body, film, contemporary literature, and life writing. I also have interests in the representation of artificial intelligence (AI) and Silicon Valley in literature, and science fiction as innovation and ideology. 

Professional memberships

• British Association for Contemporary Literature Studies (BACLS)
• British Science Fiction Association

Student education

Postgraduate Supervision

I welcome postgraduate research application in my areas of interest and expertise. 

Teaching

I primarily teach twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature. My teaching aims to be research-led, so I ensure students have access to key concepts needed to engage with the literature while also putting them in touch with recent scholarly developments.

Current postgraduate researchers

• Lizzie Wright