Charlotte Palmer

• MA Medieval Studies (Medieval Literature) (University of Birmingham)
• BA English Language and Literature and Medieval Studies (Smith College)

My project analyses nine Middle English and Older Scots Arthurian romances featuring Sir Gawain as he interacts with unusual strangers, including giants, loathly ladies, and the Green Knight. I am interested in how these narratives explore ideas of eco-materiality, sustainable governance, and the relationships between the court and nature, colonizers and the colonized.
My work draws on ecocritical, posthumanist, and postcolonial theory while analysing British romance within the context of medieval courtly literature. It focuses on the spaces of the forest, court, bedroom, and battlefield, examining how the romance expectations for these spaces are subverted by concerns for the practicalities of Arthurian rule in Britain and Europe.
My other research interests include landscapes in literature and art, the gentry romance, and modern Arthurian works, from T.H. White's The Once and Future King to the 2021 film The Green Knight.

• Leader of LEMMAE, a reading group for PGRs researching medieval and Early Modern literature, which meets for monthly talks to share our work, as well as biweekly Zoom pomodoro sessions.
• Organiser for Feasting in High and Late Medieval Literature Conference (September 2022)

Conference Presentations

• Extreme Otherness and the Contested Land of Carlisle in Middle English Arthurian Romance', International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 2022.
• 'The Ghost and the Garden: The Romance de la Rose in The Awntyrs off Arthure', Medieval Insular Romance Conference, Durham, Durham University, 2022.
• 'The Forest of Romance in A Gest of Robyn Hode', Medieval Insular Romance Conference, 2021.
• 'Courtesy and Unorthodox Leadership in Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle', Follow the Leader: Medieval Leaders and Leadership, Centre for Medieval Studies Postgraduate Conference, Bristol, University of Bristol, 2020.