Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor of French and Visual Arts
TW20 0EX
A Professor of French and Visual Arts, I was Head of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (2021-24) and Deputy Executive Dean of the School Of Humanities (2023-2024). I will resume my role as HoD in 2025. Previously I was the Director of the Humanities and Arts Research Institute (2020-23), departmental Deputy Head (2019-21), Impact Officer (2021), Programme Director for our Liberal Arts degrees (2015-2018) and Admissions Tutor (2011-15). I have designed, convened and taught modules across our Modern Languages, Comparative Literature and Culture, History of Art and Visual Cultures, and Liberal Arts degree courses.
I am a first-generation academic and first in my family to go to university. I completed a BA in Modern Languages & European Studies (French and German) at the University of Bath, and my MSc and PhD (the latter supported by the AHRC) as a mature student at the University of Edinburgh. I joined Royal Holloway thanks to the award of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in 2007. Formerly I taught at the Open University and the University of Edinburgh. Prior to academia I led study abroad programmes in Paris, managed distance-learning courses in German at the Open University, and spent time in Salamanca learning Spanish.
My primary research specialism is the avant-garde movements of the early 20th Century, spanning literature, performance and visual arts, with a focus on women and gender. More recently I have been working on manifestations of the avant-garde in the later 20th Century and early 21st Century.
My most recent book, The Poetry of Céline Arnauld: From Dada to Ultra-Modern, was published by Legenda's Research Monographs in French Studies. First brought to light in my book Dada's Women (Yale University Press), Arnauld was afforded renewed attention in an exhibition in Switzerland ('Die Dada La Dada She Dada', Forumschlossplatz Aarau, Oct. 2014 - Jan. 2016) and on stage (Vergessenes Gelächter, Theater Tuchlaube, Aarau, Nov. 2014 - Jan. 2015; Theater National Zürich, June 2016). Subsequently, Arnauld's work featured in 'The Great Monster Dada Show' at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway (Oct. 2019 - Jan. 2020). I have contributed to each of these instances through publications and engagement activities.
My first book Dada's Women was published by Yale University Press in 2009 and was shortlisted and commended for the Gapper Prize in 2010. It was widely reviewed. Comments included:
For a reflection on Dada's Women in the centenary year (2016) read my guest blog hosted by Yale University Press.
Museums
I have worked regularly with museums in the UK and internationally, informed by my research on avant-garde women, as well as by my interests in creative teaching and learning. My work was an Impact Case Study for REF 2021 entitled 'Dada's Women: Legacies at the Dada Centenary and Beyond.'
Activities with arts institutions have included:
Multimedia Performance
For several years I collaborated with the composer and musician Dr Sonia Allori and visual artist Vaia Paziana on mixed-media productions and workshops based on Dada's Women. Please see our project page for further details.
I have supervised postgraduate work on rebellion in Dada and Surrealist women's art; formal innovation in avant-garde women's writing; 20th century women writers and the city; mythologies in surrealist women's visual works; the marvelous in surrealist women's literary works; postwar Danish feminist art and literature; Icelandic women avant-garde artists and writers.
I am pleased to hear from those interested in postgraduate research in avant-garde literature, performance and/or fine arts, especially Dada and Surrealism, but also contemporary arts. Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches are welcome.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Other contribution
Hemus, R. (PI)
1/09/07 → 31/08/09
Project: Research
Hemus, R. (PI), Scheunemann, D. (PI), Schaffner, A. (CoI) & Hopkins, D. (PI)
1/10/02 → 1/10/05
Project: Research
Hemus, R. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
Hemus, R. (Speaker)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
Hemus, R. (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Hemus, R. (Examiner)
Activity: Examination
Brown, K. (Organiser), O'Neill, E. (Organiser) & Hemus, R. (Speaker)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
Hemus, R. (Recipient), 13 Jul 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Hemus, R. (Recipient), 17 Oct 2018
Prize: Other distinction
Hemus, R. (Recipient), 2010
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)