Research interests

My research interests focus on medieval French and Occitan literature, especially of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with a particular interest in manuscripts and the material context of medieval texts.  More broadly, I am interested in historic multilingualism; the theory and pedagogy of language; the reception of literature; the uses of the past; the representation of the unfamiliar; narrative aesthetics; and theories of translation.

I have produced a digital edition of the seventeen manuscripts of the Tretiz by the 13th-century Essex knight Walter de Bibbesworth, the earliest French language-learning text. This work was funded by an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, and falls within a longer-term investigation of how the development of lay literacy in the thirteenth century affected the status of vernacular (non-Latin) languages and their literary traditions, focusing on the cases of French and Occitan. Where twelfth-century texts in these languages typically aim to transmit some ancient story, whose great age guarantees its significance, the thirteenth century saw the advent of alternative models for a vernacular written culture, which sought legitimacy as cultural records of the present or recent past.

Research collaborations

I am a member of the international Research Team for the project Troubadours and European Identity: The Role of Catalan Courts, led by Dr Miriam Cabré (Girona) and funded by Recercaixa. From 2012 to 2014 I was part of a collaborative project on conceptualizing the medieval library, working as part of an international group of researchers; this resulted in a special issue of French Studies, published in 2016.

Research supervision

I am interested in hearing from potential research students with proposals relating to any topic relevant to my research expertise. I am especially keen to consider working with candidates whose interests relate to 12th- or 13th-century French or Occitan material; Arthurian literature; or medieval multilingualism in the British Isles.

If you would like to work with me, please email me a 500-word outline of your proposed research topic and a copy of your CV.

Research students

Coline Blaizeau, 'The Metafictive Marvellous in the Roman de Perceforest'

Edward Mills, 'Imagining and Enacting Education in the French Texts of Post-Conquest England'. PhD awarded 2020.

External impact and engagement

I enjoy discussing medieval culture in public contexts, and have taken part in a number of activities, including the 2018 and 2022 Translation Festivals organised by Exeter colleagues Michelle Bolduc and Eliana Maestri, Being Human 2021, and talks to various local interest groups. I am also working with local schools on the development of teaching resources.

Contribution to discipline

I am currently Secretary for the British Branch of the International Courtly Literature Society. Since 2018 I have been a member of the Editorial Board for the journal French Studies Bulletin.

Modules taught

• EAS1035 - Beginnings: English Literature before 1800
• EASM180 - Crossing Medieval Boundaries
• HISM019 - Critical Approaches in Medieval Research
• HISM183 - Interpreting the Middle Ages
• MLF1001 - French Language
• MLF1014 - Love and Death in French Culture
• MLF1017 - The Making of Modern France
• MLF2069 - East is East? Cross-Cultural Encounters in Medieval French Literature
• MLF3006 - The Invention of Modern Love
• SMLM235 - Key Concepts for Global Literatures and Cultures
• SMLM238 - French Language and Culture in Medieval Britain

Biography

2000-2004:BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Modern Languages at St John's College, Oxford

2005-2006: MA in Medieval Studies at King's College London

2006-2010: PhD in French at King's College London

2009-2012: Junior Research Fellow in Modern Languages at Jesus College, Oxford

2012-2013: Addison Wheeler Research Fellow at Durham University