Projects

A late Victorian painting of an elderly woman comforting a young girl who is who is crying by a harbour, with boats and a lighthouse in the background

Walter Langley, Never Morning Wore to Evening but Some Heart Did Break, oil on canvas, 1894, Birmingham Museums Trust, 1980P18

After Love: Romantic Heartbreak, Emotions and Embodiment in Britain c. 1750-1900

The end of a romantic relationship is a uniquely devastating emotional experience which at its most severe can break the human heart. Whether caused by romantic rejection, infidelity, divorce, or the death of a suitor or spouse, losing love in this way very literally hurts, and can destroy our health and wellbeing. After Love is an interdisciplinary project approaching romantic heartbreak as a distinctive form of extreme grief with profound effects on the body and mind. Through analysing heartbreak as an embodied emotional experience, it aims to ascertain how its distinguishing characteristics have changed over time, and how we can most effectively process and heal from it. The project is funded from 2023-7 by a Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship of £150,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

On the After Love website you can find an introduction to the project and its aims, and find out more about the two artists involved as project partners, Jill Mueller and Julie Light.

In 2021, Sally was invited to deliver the Bedford Centre Lecture on the subject at Royal Holloway University of London, which you can watch here.