Queen Mary, University of London
Graduate Student, Centre for the History of the Emotions
Wellcome Trust Studentship holder
Thesis Title: 'Unable to give any account of himself': Male experiences of Stanley Royd asylum, Wakefield, c.1880-1900.
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Rhodri Hayward
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About
I studied for my BA and MA at the University of Leeds, where I focused particularly on social/cultural history and gender.
My thesis focuses on Wakefield (West Riding, also known as Stanley Royd) Asylum between c.1880 to c.1900, and investigates the interplay of popular and alienist discourses about masculinity and insanity - particularly, how these were 'pathologised' in an asylum context. The thesis charts the path of male patients through the asylum, from the external evidence of insanity cited at admission to the covert pathological evidence in muscles, brains and bones that was made visible by technologies such as microscopy. The general paralytic (neurosyphilitic) patient is a key element of my thesis, with men making up the bulk of this class of patients which left physical traces of its existence on the body, both inside and out.
Alongside this, I occasionally write on film history - mostly British film.
