Luna Dieleman (° 1996) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University. She is a member of the CHARM network (Consortium for Health Humanities, Arts, Reading, and Medicine) and, within this context, works on a research project titled ‘The Discomfort Zone’. This project focuses on a series of illness essays (2000-2024) by American female and non-binary authors who write about chronic illness experiences. It examines how these essays engage readers in the epistemology of chronic illness experience by integrating queer affect theory with insights from the Medical Humanities and contemporary essay theory. The supervisors of the project are Prof. Jürgen Pieters and Prof. Zoë Ghyselinck. Dieleman participated in the Erasmus+ project Essays Beyond Borders focused on exploring and promoting the use of essayistic writing to encourage civic engagement and develop critical and creative thinking abilities.