Dr Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston
2020
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| Bio | Dr Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston is a non-binary academic, journalist, and gender consultant, specializing in the cultural politics of sexual health, queer history and culture, and gender-diversity and trans inclusion. Their first monograph, Irish Modernism and the Politics of Sexual Health (OUP, 2023), explores the ways in the ways in which authors, politicians, and activists in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland harnessed debates over sexual hygiene, venereal disease, birth control, fertility, and eugenics to envisage competing models of Irish identity, culture, and political community. Other research interests include the social history of medicine, queer modernisms, and the cultural politics of censorship and obscenity. Their work has appeared in the Review of English Studies, the Journal of Medical Humanities, and the Irish Studies Review, and has been featured in The Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Times¸ and on RTÉ.
Lloyd (Meadhbh) received their BA, MSt, and DPhil at the University of Oxford, have lectured in English at Oxford, Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, and English and History Fordham University’s London Centre, have held a Banting Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in English at the University of Alberta. They currently hold a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in English at the University of Cambridge where they are working on a project entitled Early Twentieth-Century Literary Culture and the Medicalization of Sex: Sexual Health Beyond Modernism. |
| Areas of expertise | Modern and Contemporary British and Irish Literature; Modern and Contemporary British and Irish Theatre; Gender and Sexuality Studies; History of Sexualities (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries); Medical Humanities; Literature and Medicine; Literature and Science; Social History of Medicine (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries); Irish Cultural History (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries); Obscenity and Censorship; Queer Modernisms. |
| Keywords | Irish modernism; Irish sexual history; Irish medical history; sexual health; medicalization and politicization of sex; obscenity; censorship; birth control; eugenics; fertility; venereal disease; sexual hygiene; social hygiene; nineteenth century; twentieth century; queer history; queer culture; gender and sexuality studies; medical humanities; modernist studies; social history of medicine; literature and medicine; literature and science |
| Nickname | Dr Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston |
| Membership Type | Professional Historian |
| Education | 2016–2020: DPhil English, Hertford College, University of Oxford Title: “Irish Modernism and the Politics of Sexual Health”. Supervisor: Prof David Dwan. Examiners: Prof Emilie Morin (University of York); Prof Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (University of Oxford). 2014–2015: MSt English Studies (1900–Present), Brasenose College, University of Oxford 2010–2013: BA (Hons) English Language and Literature, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford |
| Employment | 2023–2026: Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher, Trinity College, University of Cambridge. 2023–2026: Leverhulme Early-Career Fellow in English, University of Cambridge. 2021–2023: Banting Post-Doctoral Fellow in English, University of Alberta. 2020–2021: Stipendiary Lecturer in English (1830–Present), Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. 2020–2021: Associate Lecturer in Film, Literature, and Media, University of West London. 2019–Present: Associate Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, Goldsmiths, University of London. 2017–Present: Adjunct Assistant Professor in English and History, Fordham University, London Centre. 2017–2021: Foundation Year Tutor of English, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
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| Consultancy work | 2022: Play On! by Cheryl L. West, dir. Michael Buffong, Talawa Theatre Company (forthcoming, c. 2024) – Gender Consultant. 2021–2022: Scandaltown by Mike Bartlett, dir. Rachel O’Riordan, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London (November 2021–April 2022) – Dramaturg and Gender Consultant. 2019: Breakfast on Pluto (Work in Progress) by Bob Kelly and Duke Special, dir. Des Kennedy, Galway International Arts Festival (April–July 2019) – Academic Advisor and Gender Consultant.
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| Management & Administrative experience | 2019–Present: International Yeats Studies – Editorial Assistant (Reviews). 2018–Present: Oxford Critical Theory Network – Convenor. 2017 & 2018: University of Oxford, Hertford College, English Undergraduate Admissions – Interviewer. |
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| Committees & Associations | 2021–Present: Be Her Lead (Feminist Education Initiative) – Advisory Board Member and Workshop Facilitator. 2017–Present: British Association of Irish Studies – Council Member, PGR Representative, and Communications Officer. 2018–2021: University of Oxford, Faculty of English Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team – PGR Representative. 2017–2021: University of Oxford LGBT+ Staff Network – LGBT+ Staff Role Model. 2016–2019: Association for Medical Humanities – Council Member and PGR Representative. |
| Awards | 2020: The Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize for the best doctoral thesis in English literature at the University of Oxford – Winner. 2018: Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Kirkpatrick History of Medicine Award – Shortlisted. 2018: Review of English Studies Essay Prize – Shortlisted. 2017: British Association of Irish Studies Essay Prize – Winner. |
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