Dr. Emma Parker is an expert on postwar and contemporary literature, especially women’s writing, and is interested in issues relating to gender and sexuality. She is a founder member of the Contemporary Women’s Writing Association and a former co-editor of the journal Contemporary Women’s Writing (2012-2017), published by Oxford University Press and winner of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals’ ‘Best New Journal’ award (2009). She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Orlando women’s writing project (Cambridge University Press) and the Advisory Board of the journal Writers in Conversation. She has published on Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters, Kate Atkinson, Michèle Roberts, Rose Tremain, Graham Swift, Martin Amis, Will Self and Jonathan Coe, amongst others. 

She also works on the playwright Joe Orton.She has delivered public talks at Tate Britain, the British Film Institute, the National Justice Museum, The Postal Museum, Latitude Festival and Homotopia and her research has been featured on the BBC Radio 4 programmes ‘Today’, ‘Woman’s Hour’ and ‘Front Row’ . She has also been interviewed on BBC East Midlands Today, ITV Central News and BBC Radio Leicester.In 2018, she won a Saboteur Award (an award for indie arts sponsored by Arts England) and the East Midlands Women’s Award for Outstanding Woman in Arts, Media and Music. She is the recipient of a University of Leicester Discovering Excellence Award for Equalities (2018), a Research Impact Award for ‘Best Public Engagement’ (2017) and an Inspirational Woman Award (2015).