Research Team

We are a team of writers and researchers with an interest in the role that inner voices play in the process of writing and reading fiction.

Dr John Foxwell is a Postdoctoral Research and Engagement Fellow in the Department of English Studies and lead researcher on the Writers’ Inner Voices project.

David Napthine is an actor and writer. He has been working with Hearing the Voice since 2016, and was Writer in Residence for Hearing Voices: suffering, inspiration and the everyday, an exhibition on voice-hearing produced by Hearing the Voice.

Dr Angela Woods is an interdisciplinary medical humanities researcher working at the intersection of cultural theory, philosophy and literary studies and Co-Director of Hearing the Voice.

Professor Charles Fernyhough is a developmental psychologist in the Department of Psychology at Durham, a writer of fiction and non-fiction and a literary journalist and creative writing tutor. He is Director and Principal Investigator of Hearing the Voice.

Dr Ben Alderson-Day is a psychologist in the Department of Psychology at Durham, with an interest in voice-hearing, inner speech and the role of language in how people think. He is a Co-Investigator with Hearing the Voice.

Dr Marco Bernini is a narratologist interested in literature and cognition, currently working on a book on Samuel Beckett. He is a member of Hearing the Voice.

Mary Robson is a creative facilitator with the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University, working on Hearing the Voice and Life of Breath.

Gillian Allnutt (Queen’s 2016 Medal for Poetry) is the author of multiple poetry collections, including How the Bicycle Shone. She has been working with Hearing the Voice since 2016, and produced a series of five commissioned poems in response to the themes of the Hearing Voices exhibition.

Dr Jennifer Hodgson was a postdoctoral research associate on the Writers’ Inner Voices project from August 2014 to January 2015. She is a researcher, a writer and a literary editor working on British experimental post-war writing and theories of narrative and fiction.

The resources on this website were developed by John Foxwell, David Napthine and Victoria Patton.

Website design: Rebecca Doggwiler.