Find a research supervisor in Medieval Literature

Our work on medieval literature has several distinct strands, unified by an attention to vernacular culture and its physical and textual embodiment in manuscripts and inscription.

The Department of English Literature is actively involved in Birmingham’s interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages (CeSMA). One distinctively interdisciplinary strain of our research probes the relationship between text and image in Old English and Middle English culture. Another recurrent theme is manuscript culture in medieval England and Scotland, with individual studies covering a range of genres from polemic to romance. A third key interest is in the cultural forms and expressions of religion in the medieval period, from devotional literature to the parish church. Our aim throughout is to advance the understanding of medieval culture into new fields both in scholarship and for the public at large.