Research

Dissertation

“Give Her Some Space: Quest Maidens, Spatiality, and Mobility in the Medieval Arthurian Canon”

My dissertation interrogates constructions of power and identity through the imbrication of gender, space, and movement in high- and late-medieval English Arthurian literature, including texts written in Latin, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, and Early Modern English. My dissertation offers radical explorations of medieval femininity, queerness, and queenship. I include texts both within the standard Arthurian canon—such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur—and without—such as John Hardyng’s Chronicle and the Middle English verse romance The Romans of Partenay. I argue that the placement of quest maidens—that is, any maiden who takes part in a quest—creates expressions of both gender and space in medieval literature which, in turn, crafts the identity of both maidens and spaces alike. My scholarship posits that by examining the boundaries that these maidens do or do not cross, we develop new paradigms for these women and these spaces as part of the active and fluid Arthurian landscape. In turn, structures of power, agency, and access within and outside the spaces of both court and forest become clearly dependent upon these women to uphold the questing process—and thus, the Arthurian world. I argue that as space constructs identity, the presence of these women in the questing process redefines both the courts and knights with which they interact.

For my complete dissertation abstract, please click here.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• “Hybrid Identity and the Morte Darthur‘s Lady of the Lake,” Journal of the International Arthurian Society 8, no. 1 (2020), 128–149. https://doi.org/10.1515/jias-2020-0007

In progress:

• “Constructing Community Space ‘Holé Togydirs’ in Malory’s ‘The Healing of Sir Urry,’” Arthurian Literature (under consideration).
• “Flirting with Disaster: Women’s Space in the Arthurian Feasts of John Hardyng’s Chronicle,” Arthurian Literature (under revision for invited resubmission).

Selected Conference Presentations

For a full list (including panels organized and chaired), please see my CV.

• 2023: “Malory’s Curation of Character: The Case of Sir Belleus’s Lady.” Arthurian Mini Conference at the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (St. Louis, MO).
• 2023: “Like Father, Like Son: Uther’s Round Table in John Hardyng’s First Chronicle.” 58^th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI).
• 2022: “‘Tak al my good and lat my body go’: Mercantile Romance in The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” New Chaucer Society Biennial Conference (Durham, UK)
• 2022: “Locking the Closet Door: Captivity and Queer Temporality in The Romans of Partenay.” 57^th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI)
  • Finalist for the International Arthurian Society-North American Branch’s Fair Unknown Award
• 2022: “Flirting with Disaster: Women’s Space in the Arthurian Feasts of John Hardyng’s Chronicle.” Space and Movement through Literature, Theory, and Culture Conference (West Lafayette, IN)
• 2021: “‘You can’t sit with us!’: Ygerne and Gendered Space in the Historia regum Britanniae and the Roman de Brut.” 56^th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI)
• 2021: “Performative Knighthood: Narratology, Ludology, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses.” Crossing Boundaries in Literature, Culture, and Theory Conference (West Lafayette, IN)
• 2017: “Transformation and Transgression: The Book of John Mandeville’s Hippocrates’ Daughter as a Loathly Lady.” Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies 2017 Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference (Chicago, IL).
• 2015: “Sympathy for the Devil? Reading Violence in the Katherine Group Saints’ Lives.” Co-presented with Dr. Emily Huber. 50^th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI).

Selected Invited Talks

• 2021: “Queer Monstrosities: Access and Confinement in the Questing Space of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Romans of Partenay.” LTC (Literature, Theory, and Cultural Studies) Forum Series (Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN).
• 2020: “Hybrid Identity and the Morte Darthur’s Lady of the Lake.” LTC (Literature, Theory, and Cultural Studies) Forum Series. (Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN).