Dr Gavin Miller
- Reader in Contemporary Literature and Medical Humanities (English Literature)
telephone:
0141 330 2435
email:
Gavin.Miller@glasgow.ac.uk
Critical Studies - English Lit, Room 504, 2 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3144-8233Biography
Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in 2011, I worked at Edinburgh University and at Manchester Metropolitan University. My undergraduate and PhD degrees are in English Literature (both from Edinburgh University), and so I have mainly worked in Literature departments. But I was from 2010-11 employed within the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, as part of the AHRC-funded Theology and Therapy Project. As my career has developed, so have my research interests changed. My PhD was on the work of the Glaswegian author Alasdair Gray, but since then I have greatly diversified my research interests, moving far beyond contemporary Scottish Literature!
Research interests
Research Interests
Cultural History of UFOs; Critical Management Studies; Contemporary Book History; Medical Humanities; Science Fiction; Contemporary Fiction; Literature And Medicine; History Of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychology; Contemporary Religious Studies.
Current Research
I have a long-standing interest in the overlap between science fiction studies and the medical humanities, often in collaboration with my colleague Dr Anna McFarlane. This has resulted in our 200,000 word co-edited collection The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities. This research parallels my work on the intersection between science fiction and psychology, published in my 2020 Liverpool monograph Science Fiction and Psychology. The book was very positively reviewed by leading journals in science fiction studies, where it was characterised as 'rich, densely argued', 'a unique synthesis', and praised for 'the far-reaching, multifaceted importance' of its scholarship.
I have also for many years worked on the media and publishing history of the psy disciplines in the United Kingdom. This has involved extensive work in the BBC Written Archives Centre and in the Penguin Archive at Bristol University. I am currently working on a minigraph Penguins on the Couch: Penguin Books and the Psychologization of Britain, c.1935-1985 for the series Cambridge Elements in Publishing and Book Culture. This work, and my wider interest in the history of psychotherapy and psychiatry, underpins my standing as Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. My main historical output is my 2020 Edinburgh monograph, Miracles of Healing: Psychotherapy and Religion in Twentieth-Century Scotland, praised in reviews as 'meticulously researched' and as 'truly compelling and a valued asset to anyone involved in religious studies, theology, pastoral counselling or cultural anthropology'.
More recently, I have been conducting RSE-funded work on the cultural history of UFOs in Scotland. You can find out more on my project blog. My book proposal on this topic is in progress.
A further new interest is in the relationship between business guru doctrine and the medical humanities, leading to a well-received article in BMJ Medical Humanities. You can also find shorter blogs piece on this research for WonkHE, The Polyphony, and HEPI.
Research community
I directed the Glasgow Medical Humanities Research Centre (2017-2024) and the Wellcome Trust funded Glasgow Medical Humanities Network (2020-2023), and was also a Steering Group member for the Wellcome funded Northern Network for Medical Humanities
I am lead Editor for the book series Contemporary Cultural Studies of Illness, Health and Medicine (Edinburgh University Press), an Associate Editor for the journal Palgrave Communications, an Editorial Board member for Journal of Posthumanism, and a member of the Comité de lecture for Études écossaises.
I review funding and do panel work for a variety of organisations. I am a member of both the AHRC Peer Review College (third term) and the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Peer Review College, and I was an expert reviewer for the AHRC COVID-19 scheme among other specialist UKRI/AHRC calls. I have also reviewed for various other UK organisations -- including the MRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust and Carnegie Trust -- and was a reviewer for several years for the Scottish Graduate School in the Arts and Humanities.
I have reviewed internationally for the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the National Science Centre, Poland, the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe and the Trans-Atlantic Partnership.
I have peer-reviewed for a wide range of journals across medical humanities, contemporary literature, religious studies, Scottish literature, psychiatry and psychotherapy, and history of the psy disciplines. I have peer-reviewed monographs and collections for various publishers, including Routledge, Peter Lang, Palgrave MacMillan, Bloomsbury, and UCL Press.
Impact
Penguins on the Mind: Using book history to illuminate the risks and opportunities of media work by psychological professionals, this physical exhibition and online exhibition curated Penguin titles on the 'psy' disciplines, c.1940–1980. An article ‘Behind the scenes of the paperback revolution’ was published in print and online in the BPS magazine, The Psychologist. ‘I went behind the scenes of Penguin’s psychiatric titles – what I found was women’s hidden labour’ was published in The Conversation. I'm developed an expanded exhibition for the Royal College of Psychiatrists following publication of ‘Beyond a literacy model for psychiatry in the mass media’ in BJPsych Bulletin.
Scottish UFOs: I have given talks to a general audience on this topic for Edinburgh Skeptics, Glasgow Skeptics, the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, and the Scottish Society for Psychical Research. I have further talks pending, and I am currently working with Falkirk Library service on a Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement project on the 1990/2000s Bonnybridge (or Falkirk) UFO triangle.
External Examining
I welcome invitations to externally examine, including at undergraduate and taught postgraduate level.
I am External Examiner for Birkbeck's MA Medical Humanities: Bodies, Cultures and Ideas (2023-2027).
I have externally examined PhDs in contemporary and modern literature, and medical humanities, for University of Aberdeen, University of Bristol, Monash University, University of Stirling, King's College London, University of Kent, University of Santiago de Compostela, and University College London.
Grants
Royal Society of Edinburgh Small Research Grant. "The narrative history of UFO practice in Scotland: a pathfinding study". August 2023-July 2024. £3 776. Principal Investigator.
Wellcome Trust Humanities and Social Science Small Grant. "Glasgow Medical Humanities Network". January 2019-December 2021. £50 083. Principal Investigator.
British Academy Small Research Grant. "Penguins on the Couch: Penguin publishing on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy c.1935-1990". April 2017 - September 2018. £3 460. Principal Investigator.
Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Small Grant. “Other Psychotherapies – Across Time, Space and Cultures”. March 2016 – August 2017. £5 000. Principal Investigator.
Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Seed Award. "Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities". July 2015 - June 2016. £39 614. Principal Investigator
Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Small Grant. "David Stafford-Clark (1916-1999): Portrait of a Media Psychiatrist". £2 208. Principal Investigator.
Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts & Humanities Small Grants. “DSM-5 and the Future of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Perspectives from Medical Humanities”. July 2014. £668. Principal Investigator.
Carnegie Trust Research Grant. “Psychiatry in the book market: writing on psychiatry and mental health for Penguin (1945-1985)”. July 2013. £551. Principal Investigator.
Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop Award. “Scottish Health Humanities Seminar and Masterclass Series”. March 2013 – February 2014. £4 150. Principal Investigator.
Wellcome Trust Medical History and Humanities Small Grant. ‘"Attentive Writers": Healthcare, Authorship, and Authority'. August 2013. £5 000. Co-Investigator.
AHRC Science in Culture theme Exploratory Award. “Debating the First Principles of Transcultural Psychiatry”. February 2012 – August 2012. £8 500. Principal Investigator.
Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Network Award. “Medical Humanities Research Network Scotland”. April 2011 – March 2013. £9 623. Co-Investigator with Dr David Shuttleton, English Literature, University of Glasgow.
University of Edinburgh Dean’s Fund (College of Humanities and Social Science). “Edinburgh University Medical Humanities Research Network”. January 2011. £750
Wellcome Trust Medical History and Humanities Fellowship. “R.D. Laing: the Medical Doctor as Public Intellectual (1960-1987)”. £168 292. [declined]
AHRC Religion and Society programme Large Grant. “Understanding the Encounter between Christianity, Psychotherapy and Spirituality in Scotland (1945-2000) in Theory and Practice”. Jan 2010 – December 2011. £251 000 [as named R.A. developing bid]
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. “Scottish Psychoanalytic Psychiatry 1880-1990”. Jan 2006 – December 2007. £43 086 + matching funding from host institution. Principal Investigator.
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. Postdoctoral Fellowship. October 2004 - September 2005. £5 000
Supervision
I welcome enquiries regarding postgraduate research supervision in my research areas as explained above. If you email me, please take time to check that your interests correspond with mine.
I currently supervise or co-supervise research postgraduates working on a wide variety of topics, and I often supervise across different subject areas and universities.
Rebecca Alexander, “Class, Health and Region: Narratives of Social Trauma in British Literature Since Thatcher”, PhD English Literature (College of Arts and Humanities Doctoral Scholarship).
Clare Moore, “Tolkien’s Representations of Disability in Middle Earth”. PhD English Literature.
Alicia Colas, “Science Fiction Threats and International Law Solutions to Peace”. PhD Law (external supervision with University of Picardie).
Grace Paizen, “Gendering of Artificial Intelligence in Literature”. PhD English Literature.
Eilidh Bowie, "Narratives of death in horror fiction, 1970-present". PhD English Literature (SGSAH funded; with End of Life Studies, Glasgow, and English, Stirling University)
Laura Donald, "Narrating chronic heart disease in contemporary British and American writing, 1980-present". PhD English Literature. (Wellcome Trust funded; with Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, Edinburgh University)
Deborah Molloy, The Sick Apple: A geocritical investigation into female mental illness in New York fiction set between 1925 and 1955. PhD English Literature.
Completed research degrees that I have supervised and co-supervised include:
Wansah Al-Shammari. “Staging Madness: Communicating Lived Experience of Psychosis in Contemporary British Drama from the 1980s to the Present”. PhD English Literature. University of Hail (Saudi Arabia) Scholarship.
Laura MacDonald. “Depictions of Illness-Related Indeterminacies in Twenty-First Century Scottish Novels”. MLitt Scottish Literature.
Kiation-Qatjon Lanos, “A Transhistorical Phenomenon of Literary Masochism: An Investigation of the Artistic, the Philosophical, and Sociocultural Plurality of the Genre of Literary Masochism”. PhD English Literature.
Oliver Langmead, “Writing at Earth Magnitude: Calypso and Terranauts”. DFA Creative Writing.
Joe Wood, "Cicely Saunders and the Legacies of ‘Total Pain’" PhD English Literature. (SGSAH funded; with End of Life Studies).
Charlotte Orr, Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932): The literary self-fashioning of a colonial medico-scientific researcher. PhD Medical Humanities.
Kevin Smith, Erich Fromm's 'The Art of Loving': An existential, psychodynamic, and theological critiqueSGSAH funded; with Theology and Religious Studies). PhD Theology and Religious Studies.
Sarah Phelan, Reconstructing a twentieth-century Scottish psychiatrist: Thomas Ferguson Rodger, “Wartime psychiatry”, “Eclecticism”, and “Mad dreaming” PhD Medical Humanities.(Glasgow LKAS scholarship).
Dr Alex Campbell, Archipelagic poetics: ecology in modern Scottish and Irish poetry. PhD English Literature.
Dr Mark Gallagher, From mental patient to service user: deinstitutionalisation and the emergence of the Mental Health Service User Movement in Scotland, 1971-2006. PhD Economic and Social History.
Teaching
I convene the Senior Honours option Science Fiction ENGLIT4062, and I co-teach on the Senior Honours option Literature and Medicine ENGLIT4059. My postgraduate teaching includes my specialist option ENGLIT5130 The Tomorrow People on speculative forms of human life in contemporary culture
I founded and still convene as needed Glasgow's intercalated medical humanities degree, the BSc Med Sci (Hons) in Medical Humanities. I also accept medical students as a supervisor on independent SSMs.
I was awarded in 2024 the University's Senior Fellowship of Recognising Excellence in Teaching, the in-house equivalent to the Advance HE Senior Fellowship. I also hold an earlier FHEA.
I am committed to research-led development of learning, teaching, and assessment. I have held two Small Awards under the University's Learning and Teaching Development Fund. The first award, 'Developing a source selection and evaluation Moodle resource for pre-Honours students', created an online self-guided resource to assist students on a large second-year course. The second award, 'Co-designing inclusivity for the assessed oral presentation', created new and more inclusive ways of implementing and supporting the oral presentation, an important and widely used assessment in English Literature.
Additional information
Because of my interest in the history of Scottish psychotherapy, I have been for some years a Co-director of the Sutherland Trust http://www.sutherlandtrust.org.uk/, a registered independent charity (Scottish Charity Number SC22013) promoting the study of human relations in Education, Social Services, and Health Care. 2007 – present
