Dr Emma Penney

Emma is cofounder of the Working-Class Writing Archive and lead organiser of Ireland's first Working-Class Studies Conference. Her first monograph Women Writing the Margins (2023) is forthcoming with Liverpool University Press. As a Fulbright-NUI Scholar, Emma will travel to Howard University in Washington DC where she will consult the archives of the National Welfare Rights Organisation paying special attention to the creative writing produced by grassroots women’s groups as part of a welfare rights movement. She will be based at the Cathy Hughes School of Communication where she will work closely with Dr Monica Ponder and Dr Loren Saxton-Coleman on their CDC Foundation-funded project, Project REFOCUS, which addresses social stigma related to COVID-19 and racism. Through transnational archival practice, Emma will explore how writing cultures can be collectively transformative and could offer a non-traditional response during public health crises, where the experience of racism impacts significantly on people’s mental well-being, health behaviour and access to health care services.