Campus
- Downtown Toronto (St. George)
Areas of Interest
- Medieval Literature
- Women's Visionary Literature
- Disability Studies
Biography
My research focuses on the intersections between devotion, disability, and gender in medieval women's visionary literature. I am interested in how visionary women experienced disability in their medieval social context, which viewed women's minds and bodies as imperfect and especially open to mystical experience. I have a particular fascination with the mystic Margery Kempe, but I am also interested in texts and authors such as Ancrene Wisse, Julian of Norwich, and Hildegard of Bingen.
Presentations
“Remedies for Elfish Impairment: Magic and Disability in the Old English Leechbook.” 2023 International Medieval Congress, Leeds, Searching for Health and the Holy. July 6, 2023.
“The Inner and Outer Rule as Impairment in the Ancrene Wisse.” 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reclusion and Disability. May 13, 2023.
“Thenchen o Godes flesch”: A Disability Studies Analysis of Flesh and Space as Impairment in the Ancrene Wisse.” Dalhousie University English Department Graduate Conference, Destinations and Departures. August 13, 2022.
“Re-evaluating Voices and Visions: Can disability studies help us understand Margery Kempe’s mysticism?” Canadian Society of Medievalists Conference, Mardis médiévaux/Medieval Tuesdays. May 31, 2022.
“‘A fals strumpet, a fals Loller, and a fals deceyver of the pepyl: The Book of Margery Kempe and the Double Bind.” University of Toronto Graduate Student Medieval English Working Group. April 29, 2022.
“‘A fals strumpet, a fals Loller, and a fals deceyver of the pepyl’: The Book of Margery Kempe and the Double Bind.” Dalhousie English Department Honours Colloquium. November 26, 2020.