Our work on medieval literature has several distinct strands, unified by an attention to vernacular culture and its physical and textual embodiment in manuscripts and inscription.
The Department of English Literature is actively involved in Birmingham’s interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages (CeSMA). One distinctively interdisciplinary strain of our research probes the relationship between text and image in Old English and Middle English culture. Another recurrent theme is manuscript culture in medieval England and Scotland, with individual studies covering a range of genres from polemic to romance. A third key interest is in the cultural forms and expressions of religion in the medieval period, from devotional literature to the parish church. Our aim throughout is to advance the understanding of medieval culture into new fields both in scholarship and for the public at large.
Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature
I teach across the historical spectrum – from the ancient period to the modern – though my main interests lie in the sixteenth century. I am particularly interested in ancient and medieval literary reception in the post-Reformation period, early modern print culture, women’s writing (particularly Aemilia Lanyer and Hester Pulter), literary communities, scribal practices, and the ...
Associate Professor in Popular Fiction
My teaching and research interests are in popular fiction, in particular romance, both medieval and modern. My work is intersectional and focuses on gender, ethnicity and sexuality. I’m currently working on a literary history of romantic masculinity and a project exploring Arab and Muslim women’s genre fiction.
Associate Professor
- Old English and comparative literature (especially poetry)
- Gender
- Monstrosity
- Medieval animal studies/ecocriticism
Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
- Borders in medieval Britain
- Political prophecy
- Medieval regionalism and nationalism
- English literature in medieval Wales and Welsh translation
- Medieval and early modern fairy narratives
Senior Lecturer in English Medieval Studies
- Late medieval literature
- Medieval visual culture
- Tudor literature
- Pre-modern drama
- Epigraphy
- First World War
Lecturer in Late Medieval Literature
My work focuses on Anglo-French literary cultures and on medieval theatre, particularly theatre copied and performed by medieval women. I am currently working on a research project on drama in medieval women’s religious houses. The Medieval Convent Drama Project, which is fully funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, explores the theatrical cultures and activities of medieval ...
Senior Lecturer in English
- Old English literature
- Modern fantasy literature
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Medievalism
- Anglo-Saxon manuscripts
Senior Lecturer
- Older Scots Literature
- Romance and Arthurian Literature
- Women and the Book in the Middle Ages
- The Trojan Legend/ medieval reception of Classical literature
- Manuscript Studies and Book History
- Magic and the Supernatural Chaucer and Chaucer’s Legacy (including Lydgate and Henryson)