What becomes of the broken hearted?
What becomes of the broken hearted?
The end of a romantic relationship is a uniquely devastating emotional experience. Whether caused by romantic rejection, infidelity, divorce, or death, losing love in this way very literally hurts, and can destroy our health and wellbeing.
After Love is an interdisciplinary research project led by Dr Sally Holloway in the Department of History. The project explores romantic heartbreak as one of the most intense forms of human grief – an experience that shapes our bodies, minds, and societies far more than is often acknowledged.
Heartbreak and health
Heartbreak is more than a metaphor. Research has shown that people who have lost their partners are more likely to suffer health problems such as high blood pressure, blood clots and even heart attacks. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was widely recognised an embodied experience - one capable of weakening the pulse, disturbing the nerves, or even “paralysing” the heart.
Heartbreak throughout history
In the wake of an ongoing mental health crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this project seeks to explore the longer-term history behind heartbreak. By tracing how heartbreak has been felt, interpreted, and treated over the past 250 years, After Love asks a vital question: what can history teach us about healing today? At a time when relationship breakdown is a major driver of mental health crises, homelessness, and suicide, this work feels urgently needed.
Cabinets of Heartbreak
In February 2026, the ‘Cabinets of Heartbreak’ project launched an exhibition of creative displays on the theme of heartbreak created by first- and second-year undergraduate History students. The final displays are wonderfully creative, utilising fresh red roses designed to wilt and die as the exhibition progresses, handmade flick-books to visualise the pumping of the heart, hand-painted wallpaper and pottery, and a washing line charting legal change over the centuries. The Cabinets of Heartbreak will remain on display on Floor 3 of the Faculty of Arts Building for the remainder of the 2025–6 academic year.
Dr Holloway’s After Love projectLink opens in a new window will continue to generate wider public conversation about the nature and significance of romantic heartbreak with a series of engagement events, including a community art exhibition, artist-led workshops, a creative project with the mental health charity Oxfordshire Mind, and poetry event in collaboration with the Poetry Pharmacy. It will culminate with a symposium in 2027 to explore the mental and physical realities of heartbreak, both past and present.