Dr Gina Gwenffrewi | Co-Director
Gina Gwenffrewi (pronouns: she/her) is a researcher and tutor in English Literature and the interdisciplinary Queer Studies and Trans Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She recently graduated with a PhD in Trans Studies / English Literature in June 2021, with the thesis ‘Transgender Gaze, Neoliberal Haze: the impact of neoliberalism on trans female bodies in the Anglophone Global North.’ Her research interests include trans-exclusionary ideologies and the impact of media representations on trans bodies, and she is currently writing an academic paper on the JK Rowling furore of June 2020. More broadly, and happily, Gina is passionate about trans arts, and she blogs with particular joy during the Edinburgh Festival on her favourite acts.
Originally from Wales, Gina spent a fifteen-year career as a teacher and academic manager in several countries. Her lockdown hobby became playing the bass guitar (badly) to her favourite progressive rock songs.
Dr Laura Muetzelfeldt | Co-Director
Laura Muetzelfeldt (pronouns: she/her) is a writer from Glasgow who has been published in journals such as The International Literary Quarterly and short story collections like New Writing Scotland. She was awarded third place in the Scottish Arts Trust’s Flash Fiction Award and second place in the Federation of Writer’s Scotland Vernal Equinox Competition.
Laura completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews in 2023; John Burnside was her supervisor. Her thesis included the novel, We Carry the Light, and an exploration of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on writers’ creativity. She has been lucky enough to have been involved in several creative collaborations at St Andrews; most recently, she collaborated with an astrophysicist to write a short story inspired by his research on gravitational microlensing. This was published in the collection, Around Distant Suns.
Dr Lauren Pope | Programme Manager
Lauren Pope has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University Of Edinburgh with an emphasis on écriture féminine in the early poetry of Medbh McGuckian and Louise Glück. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming from various publications including Gutter, Magma, New Writing Scotland, The North, Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Best New British and Irish Poets (2017) and The Brotherton Poetry Prize Anthology (Carcanet). Her poetry pamphlet, Announce This (Templar Poetry), was shortlisted for the 2018 Callum Macdonald Memorial Awards. She is a 2019 Manchester Poetry Prize finalist, and winner of the 2021 Brotherton Poetry Prize. Her debut collection, Always Erase, was published by Blue Diode Press in January, and her second pamphlet, Close Your Eyes When You Look At Me, is forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books in November. She is a 2022 Scottish Book Trust Debut Lab writer.
She is your first point of contact and will help you with any questions you may have about the summer school. “It’s amazing how much organisation goes into those six weeks, but every year it all comes together and provides an incredible and rewarding time for all the students and staff involved. It’s very exciting when new students arrive in Edinburgh, and it is an immense pleasure to meet them.”