Research

A photograph of one of the signs in Leakey's used bookstore in Inverness, Scotland. In the foreground on the left of the image is a sign saying Literary Criticism. In the background are shelves packed with books.

Research Interests

Much of my current research relates to my ongoing creative writing project, WINTERS. In particular, I am researching the society and culture of Ottoman Egypt, particularly during the eighteenth century, and the history of science in the early modern period, both in Europe and in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Click HERE to see my working bibliography.

My archival and librarian interests center on accessibility, ranging from outreach to increase awareness about archives, encouraging student and faculty use of special collections in university settings, and improving information literacy so that users are better equipped to use both the library and its special collections.

I completed my doctorate on the role of fairies in Middle English literature and have an enduring interest in treatments of the supernatural. More recently, this has led me to engagements with the medievalism in fantasy table-top role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons.

"Passing as a 'humayn woman': Hybridity and Salvation in the Middle English Melusine"

Book chapter

The character of Melusine is half-human and half-fairy who later becomes half-human, half-serpent. Utilizing contemporary theories on race and identity, this essay argues that Melusine’s salvation is contingent upon how well she “passes” as human in the Middle English translation. The discussion considers medieval attitudes towards monstrosity and purity of blood and how these ideas influence the depiction of Melusine as a hybrid character in the Middle English romance. By examining how Melusine attempts to “pass” as a human in order to gain salvation for her soul, this essay analyzes both how Melusine “performs” humanity in an attempt to counteract her mother’s curse and her fairy heritage, and also how this performance allows the narrative to privilege humans over fairies in the Christian cosmological paradigm.

Appears in Melusine’s Footprint: Tracing the Legacy of a Medieval Myth, Eds. Misty Urban, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Deva Kemmis. Brill: Explorations in Medieval Culture series, 2017.

'Fairy' in Middle English Romance

Ph.D. dissertation

"‘Fairy' in Middle English romance" aims to contribute to the recent resurgence of interest in the literary medieval supernatural by studying the concept of "fairy" as it is presented in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English romances. This thesis is particularly interested in how the use of "fairy" in Middle English romances serves as an arena in which to play out ‘thought-experiments’ that test anxieties about faith, gender, power, and death.

The first chapter considers the concept of fairy in its medieval Christian context by using the romance Melusine as a case study to examine fairies alongside medieval theological explorations of the nature of demons. The thesis then examines the power dynamic of fairy/human relationships and the extent to which having one partner be a fairy affects these explorations of medieval attitudes toward gender relations and hierarchy. The third chapter investigates ‘fairy-like’ women enchantresses in romance and the extent to which fairy is ‘performed’ in romance. The fourth chapter explores the location of Faerie and how it relates as an alternative ‘Otherworld’ to the Christian Otherworlds of Paradise, Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell. The final chapter continues to examine geography by considering the application of Avalon and whether Avalon can be read as a ‘land of fairies’.

By considering the etymological, spiritual, and gendered definitions of "fairy", my research reveals medieval attitudes toward not only the Otherworld, but also the contemporary medieval world. In doing so, this thesis provides new readings of little-studied medieval texts, such as the Middle English Melusine and Eger and Grime, as well as reconsider the presence of religious material and gender dynamics in medieval romance. This thesis demonstrates that by examining how fairy was used in Middle English romance, we can see how medieval authors were describing their present reality.

Click HERE for chapter summaries.

        I:     Fairies and Demons: The case of Melusine
        II:    Fairies, Gender, and Power
        III:   ‘Performing’ Fairy
        IV:   The Fifth Road to Faerie
        V: Fairies in Avalon

Doctoral dissertation is available online through the St Andrews Research Depository.

Medieval Cycle Drama and the Nature of Sin

M.Litt dissertation*

In his seminal article on the subject, Nicholas Watson defined vernacular theology as any form of writing, sermon or play that imparts theological wisdom in the vernacular to an audience. His study, however, failed to address the involvement medieval drama has with vernacular theology. This dissertation, explores the relationship between the plays’ purpose to entertain or to educate, and the engagement the four cycle dramas York, Chester, Towneley and N-Town had with theology, particularly examining the plays’ presentation of the nature of sin, its origins, consequences and final defeat.

Though produced by secular lay guildsmen, the four cycles held a dual nature that was both didactic and entertaining. In dramatizing the Bible, and using episodes such as the Fall of Lucifer, the Killing of Abel, the Woman Taken in Adultery and the Last Judgement, these plays serve a didactic purpose in educating other lay people about sin, its consequences and inspiring the audience to make amends while they still lived in the time of mercy. In order to do so, the medieval cycle dramas of Chester, N-Town, Towneley and York had to engage with theological ideas and thus are a valuable source of fifteenth century vernacular theology.

* M.Litt is a Master of Letters degree at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.