Dr Claudine van Hensbergen

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests 

I work on literary culture of the period 1642–1742, with a particular interest in sculpture and visual culture, history of the book, theatre and women’s writing. Current projects include: a monograph, The Making of Monument in Britain, 1660-1736, exploring the emergence of public monumental culture; an edition of Behn's selected works for the Oxford University Press 21st-Century Authors series; and a short monograph for Cambridge University Press, "Behn's Two Bodies: A Cultural History of Aphra Behn's Grave".

I have an ongoing research interest in better connecting the scholarly recovery of women writers with the wider public and led on the 2023 unveiling of a commemorative plaque for Mary Astell (1666–1731) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Between 2019-2023 I was an AHRC Leadership Fellow for the project “Learning through the Art Gallery: Art, Literature and Disciplinarity” for a project run in partnership with the Laing Art Gallery. Our project developed a new learning offer for KS4/5 English pupils visiting the Laing. We aim to demonstrate how art collections can help pupils to develop and improve their study of language, literature and creative writing, whilst inspiring their wider interest in the Arts. To find out more about the project please visit our website.

PhD Supervision

I welcome enquiries from students interested in developing research projects on any aspect of English literary culture 1600s-1700s, or on projects that explore gender or interdisciplinary connections between literature and the visual arts.

I am currently supervising the following students:

Malcolm Clements, 'The Politics and Principles of Taste and Display in the Homes of Sir Lawrence Dundas (1712-1781)', (first supervisor, started 2023).

Abby Hammond, 'Women in the Ledger Stones, 1640-1815: New Histories at Newcastle Cathedral' (second supervisor, started 2023).

Olivia Colborn-Clark, 'Consuming Modernist Cultures in Newcastle, 1910-1939' (second supervisor, started 2023).

Rachel Boyd, 'Historicizing Nerys Johnson' (second supervisor, started 2022).

Helen James, 'Beyond the Obvious: The Role of Quiet Photographs in Memoir Essays' (second supervisor, started 2022).

Completed projects:

Ella Nixon, 'The Regional Art Gallery and Strategies for Collecting, Displaying and Integrating Women’s Art in Britain, 1970-2021' (first supervisor, completed 2025).

Joanne Edwards, ‘Recontextualising “The Gay Delavals”: Women’s Lives and Family Narratives at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall' (second supervisor, completed 2025).

Daisy Winter, 'Inconstant Forms: The Emergence of Women's Memoir in Britain, 1663-1748' (first supervisor, completed 2023).

Montana Davies-Shuck, ‘Follower of Fashion: Mapping the Social and Political Genealogy of the Literary Fop, 1660-1790' (second supervisor, completed 2020).

Nicole Cochrane, ‘Appropriating Antiquity: Greco-Roman Sculpture and the British Public 1770-1900’ (second supervisor, Heritage Consortium studentship, completed 2019).

John Hemy, ‘Samuel Johnson and British Drama' (first supervisor, completed 2018). 

Danielle McDonnell, ‘Rape in Law and Literature, 1700-1765’ (second supervisor, completed 2017).

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Placing poets: Cowley’s ‘Dust’, Thomas Sprat and the making of Poets’ Corner, 1667–1713, van Hensbergen, C. 1 Dec 2025, In: Sculpture Journal
• From Honour to Honesty: Desiring eyes in Aphra Behn’s Poetry and Sir Peter Lely's Portraiture, van Hensbergen, C. 2023, In: Women's Writing
• Aphra Behn: Portraiture and the Biographical Account, Van Hensbergen, C. 1 Jun 2021, In: The Review of English Studies
• The "Scaene of Elysium": Painters, Plaintiffs and Paradise in John Dryden's 'Tyrannick Love' (1669), van Hensbergen, C. 7 May 2021, In: Theatralia
• Print, Poetry and Posterity: Grinling Gibbons’s statue of Charles II (1684) for the Royal Exchange, van Hensbergen, C. 1 Dec 2020, In: Sculpture Journal
• Carving a Legacy: Public Sculpture of Queen Anne, c.1704-1712, van Hensbergen, C. 1 Jun 2014, In: Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Anne Oldfield’s Domestic Interiors: Auctions, Material Culture and Celebrity, Van Hensbergen, C. 20 Jun 2018, Intimacy and Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Literary Culture, Springer
• Women Writers and the Creative Arts in Great Britain, 1660–1830, van Hensbergen, C., Moss, H. 2023, In: Women's Writing
• The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe: The Late Plays, Bernard, S., van Hensbergen, C. 26 Oct 2016
• The Female Wits: Gender, Satire, and Drama, Van Hensbergen, C. 30 Jul 2019, The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century Satire, Oxford, Oxford University Press

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Water Works 2022

• Malcolm Clements The Politics and Principles of Taste and Display in the Homes of Sir Lawrence Dundas (1712-1781) Start Date: 21/06/2023 End Date: 17/10/2025
• Malcolm Clements Sir Lawrence Dundas’ Material World: Design, Collecting, and Display (1760-1781) Start Date: 21/06/2023
• Ella Nixon The Regional Art Gallery and Strategies for Collecting, Displaying, and Integrating Women’s Art in Britain, 1970-2021 Start Date: 01/10/2020 End Date: 29/01/2026
• Ella Nixon The Regional Art Gallery and Strategies for Collecting, Displaying, and Integrating Women’s Art in Britain, 1970-2021 Start Date: 01/10/2020 End Date: 17/10/2025

Teaching Interests 

At Northumbria, I teach on the following modules: 

• Research Methods: Traditional and Digital
• Writing Women: Aphra Behn in Focus
• English Dissertation
• Literature in the Museum: Working with our Cultural Heritage
• Literary Revolutions: Eighteenth-Century to Romanticism
• Geneses of English Literature
• Historical Fiction
• Public Humanities: Academic Research in the Wider World

• BA (Hons)
• MSt
• DPhil
• Associate Fellow Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• In the Englishes, our research on literature, gender, commemoration and heritage has fed into a series of projects that look at how women have been commemorated in public spaces. In particular, we address inequalities around how women’s achievements have been commemorated in the UK landscape.
• My AHRC-funded project, Learning through the Art Gallery, involves a collaboration between Northumbria English staff and the learning teams of the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead.