Professor Emily Wingfield BA (Oxon), MSt (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon)

• BA (Oxon)
• MSt (Oxon)
• DPhil (Oxon)

I originate from the small town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and studied at St. Gilbert's Primary School and (funded by a LEA scholarship) at Stamford High School for Girls. I was subsequently the first in my family to go to University. My undergraduate and graduate career was pursued at Lincoln College, Oxford

I received a First Class BA Hons degree in English Language and Literature (2003), followed by a Distinction for the MSt. in English Literature 650-1500 (2007). My D.Phil. (2007-10), which was fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, examined the manuscript and print contexts of Older Scots romance.

I joined the Department of English here at Birmingham in January 2013 after holding a Junior Research Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge. I live just south of the city in the Worcestershire countryside with my husband, Paul, children – Sophie and Wilfred – and dog, Leo. I am Chair of Governors at a local school and passionate about young people’s education, in particular literacy and reading for pleasure.

I teach on (and lead on some of) the following UG modules: Literary Worlds 900-1770; The Canterbury Tales; Reading the Renaissance; Approaches to Children’s Literature; Literature and Education; and Bedtime Stories: Re-Reading Children’s Picturebooks.

At PG level I teach our Meeting Medieval Manuscripts module, and contribute to the MA History (Approaches to Medieval Studies).

I would welcome postgraduates wishing to work on premodern English, Scottish (and indeed European, esp. French) literature, particularly in the fields of romance, women's reading and writing (including Mary, Queen of Scots), and the history of the book.

I also have an interest in children's literature, especially children's picture books, and would welcome students wishing to work in this area.

Find out more - our PhD English Literature  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My research specialism is pre-modern Scottish and English Literature, particularly romance, manuscript culture and the history of the book. I am also especially interested in women's reading and writing.

My first book was on the Trojan legend in medieval Scottish literature. Subsequent publications included a co-edited collection of essays on kingship and governance in pre-modern Scotland, a joint edition of a series of shorter fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Scottish courtly and chivalric texts, and co-edited vol. 1 of The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland. My most recent book, Scotland’s Royal Women and European Literary Culture 1424-1587, which was shortlisted for the Saltire Prize, explores the relationships of Scotland’s fifteenth- and sixteenth-century queens and princesses with contemporary European literary culture, and positions the literary associations of Scotland’s royal women alongside those of their better-known English and continental counterparts.

I am now working on two new projects: (i) the first Anglophone critical edition and translation of The Works of Mary, Queen of Scots (for Oxford University Press) and (ii) a new biography of Mary which tells the story of her life through the lens of her poetry and the material culture (books textiles, costume, jewellery, portraits, objets d'art) connected to it. I'm interested both in how Mary (as a reader and writer) used her books and poetry, and wider artwork connected to them, to articulate her (shifting) identity, faith, and relationship with family and friends – especially whilst she was imprisoned – and in how modern audiences (including those with lived experience of incarceration) might access and respond to Mary's art and life story with creative work of their own.

I am a member of the Council for the Scottish Text Society and member of the Scottish Medievalists.