Dr Victoria Flood BA (Cantab) MPhil (Cantab) PhD (York)

• BA in English Literature, University of Cambridge
• MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, University of Cambridge
• PhD in Medieval Studies, University of York

I joined the English Department in September 2016, following an Early Career Leverhulme award held at Durham University (transferred to Birmingham for 2016-17), and an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Celtic Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg (2014-15).

My doctorate was undertaken at the Centre for Medieval Studies, at the University of York (completed in 2013). This followed an MPhil in Medieval Literature, and a BA in English, from the University of Cambridge.

• Popular Fiction before the Novel (UG)
• Mapping the Middle Ages: Cultural Encounters in the Medieval East and West (UG & PGT)
• Magic, Monsters and Marvels in the Medieval World (PGT)
• Meeting Medieval Manuscripts (PGT)
• Understanding Medieval Literature (PGT)
• Medieval Studies MA: Skills and Approaches (PGT)

I am pleased to supervise postgraduate work on Arthurian literature and prophecy; romance in translation and cross-border transmission; cultural encounters; wonder and the supernatural.

Find out more - our PhD English Literature  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My research explores the relationship between place and text, and cross-border transmission and translation, with a particular focus on legendary, political content; alongside applications of legendary medieval content in contemporary digital heritage interpretations.

My first monograph, Prophecy, Politics, and Place in Medieval England: From Geoffrey of Monmouth to Thomas of Erceldoune (D. S. Brewer, 2016), charts the development of a dominant secular tradition of political prophecy in medieval England, beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophetiae Merlini. I have also edited and co-edited three volumes on medieval translation and cross-border transmission: Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages (Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe series 30, Brepols, 2019), with Aisling Byrne, an output of the Crossing Borders network; and Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance (Studies in Medieval Romance, D. S. Brewer, 2021), with Megan G. Leitch; and Medieval Welsh Literature and its European Contexts (Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures, D. S. Brewer, 2024).

My second monograph was published with Manchester University Press in 2024. Fantastic Histories: Fairies and the Limits of Wonder explores the relationship between medieval historiography and romance, and changing medieval concepts of fiction and fantasy, in political applications of legends of the supernatural (fairy or demon) mother. The project begins with the Welsh fairy narratives of Gerald of Wales and Walter Map, and ends with the French and English Mélusine romances. 

I am delighted to be PI on Invisible Worlds (2020-23), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as an Early Career Standard Grant, and the AHRC IAA award Invisible Alderley (2024). The project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Birmingham, the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and the University of Lincoln. Invisible Worlds explores the relationship between historical and contemporary acts of story-telling and place-making associated with Alderley Edge in Cheshire, now a National Trust site. It traces the legends associated with the Edge and the network of mines beneath its surface, and frames a new intervention in the representation of the site’s invisible history through a publicly participatory Augmented Reality resource and a remote access resource. The project's monograph, Invisible Worlds: Legendary and Digital Enchantments at Alderley Edge, co-authored with Catherine A. M. Clarke and Andrew B. R. Elliott, is forthcoming with Liverpool University Press in 2025.

I am co-Principal Investigator of a research network supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages. The network brings together scholars from across Europe, tracing the transmission and translation of literary texts across Britain, Ireland, and Iceland, during the period 1250-1550. The focus of the network is a pilot for a digital database of transmitted and translated medieval texts (launching September 2018). The digital aspect of the project is in association with Culture Lab, Newcastle University. You can follow the project on twitter @insularworld..

I am also co-convener of the Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages (900-1550) conference series, which began at Philipps-Universität Marburg in 2015. The conference runs biennially, and the next conference is scheduled for 2022.