Helen Small

Helen Wenda Small (born 23 October 1964) is the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. She was previously a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Early life Small was born on 23 October 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand. Her parents are Colin McEwen Small and Wenda Mary Lavinia Heald. She attended Queen Margaret College, Wellington. She received a bachelors of arts degree in English from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1985 and a bachelor of arts with honours degree the following year. She received a Ph.D. from St Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 1991 and was made an honorary fellow in 2018. Her partner is Tim Gardam and she has one daughter.

Published works Love's Madness: Medicine, the Novel, and Female Insanity, 1800–1865 (Oxford University Press, 1996) The Public Intellectual (editor; Blackwell, 2002) Literature, Science, Psychoanalysis, 1830–1970: Essays in Honour of Gillian Beer (editor, with Trudi Tate; Oxford University Press, 2003) The Long Life (Oxford University Press, 2007) The Value of the Humanities (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Awards and recognition 2008: Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, The Long Life 2008: Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, The Long Life 2018: Elected Fellow of the British Academy 2021: Elected Fellow of the English Association