Alanna Skuse is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Reading, UK. She is the author of two monographs, Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern England, 1580-1720 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England (CUP, 2021), as well as articles on various aspects of early modern embodiment. She also leads public history projects and writes for the popular history press, including her debut trade book The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to stay alive in Renaissance England (OneWorld, 2025).