DoctorRachel Williamson

I teach in the English department with interests in gender studies, cultural studies, popular culture and cinema studies. My background is in secondary and tertiary education, as well as family violence prevention and policy. My doctoral research looked at representations of maternal ambivalence in contemporary visual and literary texts by mothers and forms the basis of my book '21st Century Narratives of Maternal Ambivalence', which was published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan as part of their (Re)Presenting Gender series.

I remain interested in investigating mothers’ embodied experiences, particularly as these intersect with and are informed by broader cultural anxieties, ideologies and discourses. In addition, I’m also interested in exploring depictions of gender-based violence in popular culture and literature, looking at the ways in which recent shifts in sociocultural perspectives post-#metoo and legislative reforms have impacted on these.