Rate My Professor Ruth Hemus

Ruth Hemus is Professor of French and Visual Culture and Head of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Royal Holloway, University of London, a position she has held since 2021. She previously served as Deputy Executive Dean of the School of Humanities (2023–2024), Director of the Humanities and Arts Research Institute (2020–2023), Departmental Deputy Head (2019–2021), Impact Officer (2021), Programme Director for Liberal Arts degrees (2015–2018), and Admissions Tutor (2011–2015). Joining Royal Holloway in 2007 through a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, she taught previously at the Open University and the University of Edinburgh. Prior to academia, Hemus led study abroad programmes in Paris, managed distance-learning courses in German at the Open University, and spent time in Salamanca learning Spanish. A first-generation academic, she holds a BA in Modern Languages and European Studies (French and German) from the University of Bath, and an MSc and PhD, supported by the AHRC, from the University of Edinburgh. She designs, convenes, and teaches modules across Modern Languages, Comparative Literature and Culture, History of Art and Visual Cultures, and Liberal Arts programmes.

Hemus's research centres on avant-garde literature, performance, and visual arts of the early 20th century, with a focus on women and gender, including Dada and Surrealism figures such as Céline Arnauld, Emmy Hennings, Sophie Taeuber, Hannah Höch, and Suzanne Duchamp, extending to later 20th- and 21st-century manifestations. Key publications include Dada’s Women (Yale University Press, 2009), examining five pioneering Dada women, and The Poetry of Céline Arnauld: From Dada to Ultra-Modern (Legenda, 2020). Recent works feature 'Winged Things: Insects and Birds as Flying Messengers in Céline Arnauld’s Poetry' (Nottingham French Studies, 2023). She has supervised PhD theses on topics including rebellion in Dada and Surrealist women's art, formal innovation in avant-garde women's writing, and the marvellous in Surrealist women's works. Awards include the College Excellence Teaching Prize (2017), NCCPE Images of Public Engagement Commendation (2018), and R. H. Gapper Prize Commendation (2010) for Dada’s Women. Her research formed the REF 2021 impact case study 'Dada's Women: Legacies at the Dada Centenary and Beyond', informing collaborations with Tate Exchange, National Theatre, Southbank Centre, Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, and international sites like Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Norway), Louisiana Museum (Denmark), Nicola Trussardi Foundation (Italy), Cabaret Voltaire and Forum Schlossplatz Aarau (Switzerland). With composer Sonia Allori and artist Vaia Paziana, she has created multimedia performances and participatory workshops. Public contributions include BBC Radio 4's In Our Time on Dada, keynotes, and invited talks.