My research is in medieval ecocriticism, animal studies, and readings of the natural world, including animal presence and other minds in anglophone modern theatre.
The topic of my monograph project, Unland: Animal Spaces in Medieval Literature, is animals as vital elements of medieval environment, such as the island/whale of the Exeter Book Physiologus. This exploration traverses Old and Middle English literature and the genres of riddles, bestiary, biblical poetry and medieval drama.
My work has a particular emphasis on medieval animal taxonomies, particularly the Physiologus and bestiary tradition, and the reception of these medieval genres in later periods. Recent work reads patterns of undermining and unearthing metaphors in badgers and other earth-moving creatures in the bestiary and medieval riddles, and the new insights of ecocriticism for animals of vast scale (elephants, whales) in the medieval Second Family bestiary.
I run Ten-Minute Book Club, a digital short-form outreach reading project. New introductions written by English Faculty researchers are combined with literary excerpts curated by LitHits to create kits for use in schools and other reading contexts. This project was founded in 2020, when it attracted over 20,000 visitors as well as coverage in international news (Times of India, The Independent) and national radio (BBC Oxford). From 2022, the project also includes workshops with teachers, pop-up reading groups with staff in Oxfordshire hospitals, and an installation in the Weston Library's Blackwell Hall. Ten-Minute Book Club was funded by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance (April 2022, PI: Alexandra Paddock, Co-I: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr).
- Old English
- Middle English
- Fairytales
- Children's literature
- Ecocriticism and nature writing
- Animal studies
- Theatre and animals
Chapters and Articles
(Forthcoming, 2024). Ecocriticism and Enormous Animals in th Second Family Bestiary. In Debra Higgs Strickland (Ed), Medieval Bestiaries: New Approaches. Brill.
(2024). Life in Earth: Animal Relations with Earth in the Physiologus, Bestiaries and Early Medieval Riddles. In M. Cesario, E. Ramazzina, & H. Magennis (Eds.), The Elements in the Medieval World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Earth (pp. 326-353). (Elements, Nature, Environment: Multidisciplinary Perspectives from the Ancient to the Early Modern World; Vol. 2). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004712430_013
Monograph Project
Unland: Animal Spaces in Medieval Literature
Podcasting and Outreach
Five Tips for Getting Back into Reading, co-authored with Kirsten-Shepherd Barr (Independent)
Ten-Minute Book Club (Faculty of English project)
I am a Lead Curator for the LitHits project on digital short form reading.
In collaboration with the Institute of Population Ageing and Age UK Oxfordshire, I helped develop and coordinated the 'Reading, Wellbeing and Ageing' business exchange project, funded by the Humanities Division Seed Fund (April-July 2019).
I also coordinate Ten-Minute Book Club, a digital short-form outreach reading project, shortlisted for a Vice Chancellor's Award in Community Partnership in 2024. New introductions written by English Faculty researchers are combined with literary excerpts curated by LitHits to create kits for use in schools and other reading contexts. This project was founded in 2020, when it attracted over 20,000 visitors as well as coverage in international news (Times of India, The Independent) and national radio (BBC Oxford). From 2022, the project also includes workshops with teachers, and a permanent installation in the Weston Library's Blackwell Hall. Ten-Minute Book Club is funded by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance (April 2022, PI: Alexandra Paddock, Co-I: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr).
