Sarah Carruthers

Sarah Carruthers is in the third year of the PhD in English. Her dissertation research focuses on the fifteenth-century mystic and writer Margery Kempe and draws on methods from prosopography to examine the circulation of /the Book of Margery Kempe/ in Carthusian circles, the historical Margery Kempe, and women's authorship in late medieval England. Sarah is also interested in the figure of the anchoress, devotional writing for and by women, palaeography, embodiment, and the writer Julian of Norwich.

Conference Presentations:

• "'Seynt Brydys Boke': Margery Kempe’s East Anglian /imitatio Birgittae/." New Chaucer Society Congress 2026, Freiburg, Germany. Upcoming July 29, 2026.
• “Resonating Bodies: Margery Kempe Performing /The York Corpus Christi Plays/.” 2025 International Medieval Conference, Leeds, UK, New Voices in Medieval Drama. July 8, 2025.
• “Fragmented Books and Permeable Bodies: /The Book of Margery Kempe/ and /The Digby Mary Magdalene Play/.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Conference, Waterloo, ON. June 10, 2025.
• “‘Why thow gost in white clothys?’ Margery Kempe Performing a Non-Cloistered Religious Life.” Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Medieval Women Workshop VII, Sisters, Leaders, Writers and Readers, Toronto, ON. February 1, 2025.
• “The Divine and the Terrifying: The Permeability of Heaven, Hell, and the Female Body in Hildegard of Bingen’s /Scivias/.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Conference, Montreal. June 14, 2024.
• “Remedies for Elfish Impairment: Magic and Disability in the Old English Leechbook.” 2023 International Medieval Congress, Searching for Health and the Holy, Leeds, UK. July 6, 2023.
• “The Inner and Outer Rule as Impairment in the /Ancrene Wisse/.” 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Reclusion and Disability, Online. May 13, 2023.
• “Re-evaluating Voices and Visions: Can disability studies help us understand Margery Kempe’s mysticism?” Canadian Society of Medievalists Conference, Mardis médiévaux/Medieval Tuesdays, Online. May 31, 2022.

Education:

• Dalhousie University, BA (First Class Honours) in English with a Minor in Gender and Women's Studies
• University of Toronto, MA in English