Dr Rachael Grew

PhD (University of Glasgow)

Pronouns: She/her
  • UG Programme Lead (Liberal Arts)
  • Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture

Rachael is a visual culture historian specialising in concepts of genders, bodies, and identities, particularly in relation to concepts of hybridity and the ‘monstrous’. Working across art, costume, and film from the mid-19th century to the present day, she explores bodies which blur boundaries not only of gender but between different forms of organic and inorganic matter. In other words, if it has strange, macabre, and/or composite creatures – from witches to cyborgs – Rachael will like it and probably use it in her teaching!

She has a particular interest in Surrealism and is a member of the editorial collective for the International Journal of Surrealism. Her surreal interests cluster around the artist, designer, and writer Leonor Fini, and she has published extensively on this little-known figure.

Rachael obtained her PhD in 2010 from the University of Glasgow, where her doctoral research explored the motif of the alchemical androgyne in Symbolist and Surrealist art. She has previously held a Lectureship at Plymouth University and teaching posts at The Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, and the University of Glasgow before joining Loughborough University in 2016.

Rachael completed her postgraduate certificate in academic teaching practice in 2017 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Her term-time office hours are Mondays 12-2. No appointment is required.