Dr Claudine van Hensbergen

Associate Professor

Department: Humanities

Humanities Departmental Impact Lead

I joined Northumbria in 2012 having worked as a postdoctoral researcher on a History of Art project run between the University of York and Tate Britain. Prior to this I completed my PhD in English Literature at the University of Oxford and where I also taught undergraduates and worked on the Leverhulme-funded 'Digital Miscellanies Index' project.

Campus Address

Office: Lipman 020

Email Claudine

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I work on literary culture of the period 1640–1740, 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.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Women Writers and the Creative Arts in Great Britain, 1660–1830, van Hensbergen, C., Moss, H. 2023, In: Women's Writing
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
The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe: The Late Plays, Bernard, S., van Hensbergen, C. 26 Oct 2016
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
The Female Wits: Gender, Satire, and Drama, Van Hensbergen, C. 30 Jul 2019, The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century Satire, Oxford, Oxford University Press
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
Unlocking The Cabinet of Love: Rochester, Reputation and the Eighteenth-Century Miscellany, van Hensbergen, C. Jan 2017, In: Eighteenth-Century Life
Public Sculpture of Queen Anne: The Minehead Commission (1715), van Hensbergen, C. 3 May 2016, Court, Country, City: Essays on British Art and Architecture, 1660--1735, Yale University Press

Professional Activity

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

PGR Supervision

Malcolm Clements The Politics and Principles of Taste and Display in the Homes of Sir Lawrence Dundas (1712-1781) 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