Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation)
Ruth was appointed Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation in 2023 having served as Head of the Department of English since July 2020 and before that in a number of roles across the University leading work on doctoral training, research excellence, and EDI.
In her current role Ruth works in partnership with the APVC of postgraduate research and colleagues in Research and Innovation to support the continued success of Royal Holloway as a research-intensive University. She has led the development of the research and innovation workstream of the RH2030s University strategy and its emphasis on fostering inclusive research culture and knowledge exchange with and for social purpose. Working with the PVC Academic Strategy, Planning and Resource she is responsible for University preparation for and returns to the Research Excellence Framework, Knowledge Exchange Framework and partnership development with external research and innovation organisations. She is a longstanding strategic peer review college member and regular panel chair for UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council, UKRI cross-council Future Leaders Fellowship scheme and chairs the Advisory Board of the UKRI FLF Development Network: a national training programme for UKRI-funded research leaders.
Ruth has been Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway since 2017 and her books and articles explore the literature and culture of the Victorian era with an emphasis on gender, place, and nineteenth century infrastructures. Since 2018 her research has focused on one of the University’s most famous alumnae, the writer George Eliot who attended lectures at Bedford College in the 1850s. Fellowships and awards from UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council enabled her to co-create an innovative immersive reimagining of Eliot’s novel Middlemarch, staged in four locations around Coventry Cathedral close during its year as City of Culture (2021-22) with partner Dash Arts. More details on her research and impact collaborations can be found here.
