Current PhD Student

Tom Spencer

Thesis Title:

Misrule: A Creative-Critical Study of History, Place and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Supervisor:

Dr Sophie Coulombeau

Description:

Misrule is a creative-critical project addressing the interplay between ideas of history, place, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The creative component of the project is a radical narrative of OCD, an 80,000-word novel charting a journey into the condition’s darkest extremities and the exhilarating process of rebuilding an identity through dissent, collective action and cultures of resistance. The critical component of the project is a 40,000-word thesis exploring these cultures of resistance and their relation to the treatment of obsessive-compulsive conditions in both the historical archives and present practice of the 230-year-old Retreat facility in York.

I am a member of the 2023 WRoCAH cohort, receiving funding through an AHRC Open Competition Studentship. I completed a BA in English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London in 2017 and an MA (with Distinction) in English Literature at the University of Warwick in 2019.