Rate My Professor Peter Simonsen

Simonsen's research explores how literature shapes the world through acts of reading by ordinary readers, using interdisciplinary methods including empirical approaches. His specializations include literary gerontology and ageing studies (novels on retirement and menopause, lyric gerontology), literature's relations to the welfare state in Denmark and the UK (ageing, precariat experiences), Health Humanities and Narrative Medicine (shared reading impacts on retirement transitions and dementia), and British Romanticism (Wordsworth, ekphrasis, book culture, third-generation poets). Key publications encompass recent works such as 'Approaching Literary Connectivity: Early Reflections on a Shared Reading Intervention in the Light of Postcritical Thought' (2024, Orbis Literarum, with M.-E. Pihl et al.), ''You come as a human being…': exploring sense of equality in arts interventions' (2025, Medical Humanities, with M.M. Kristensen et al.), and 'Enhancing ethical self-efficacy among dementia caregiver staff' (2025, International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, with S. Lauridsen et al.). He has produced 114 research outputs, including three monographs and editorships. Awards include Syddansk Universitets Innovationspris (2023, shared), Innovationsprisen SDU for Narrative Medicine teaching development (2023), and Dembo Prize (2021, shared). Simonsen has delivered 132 talks and presentations, edited research journals, and contributed to committees and boards.