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Dr Sue Powell

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Profile

I completed my undergraduate degree and Ph.D at the University of London. I have held various research and teaching appointments at University of Leeds, Newcastle University, Queens University Belfast and University of Manchester.

Before retiring I was Professor of Medieval Texts and Culture, Department of English, University of Salford. My teaching specialisms have been in Old and Middle English, History of the English Language, etc I have also held roles such as Head of Department.

I am  a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; Chair of the Harlaxton Medieval Symposium Steering Committee and Reviews Editor for the Journal of the Early Book Society

Research interests

I have published substantially in the following areas:

  • editions of medieval manuscripts and early printed books (The Advent and Nativity Sermons, An Edition of Three Sermons for Nova Festa, John Mirk’s Festial, etc.)
  • medieval sermons and religious/devotional texts (‘The Transmission and Circulation of The Lay Folks’ Catechism’, ‘Why Quattuor Sermones?’, ‘Connections between the Fasciculus Morum and Bodleian MS Barlow 24’, etc.) NB Preaching the Word in Manuscript and Print in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Susan Powell, ed. Martha W. Driver and Veronica O’Mara (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013).
  • early printed texts and the transmission from manuscript to print (‘Lady Margaret Beaufort and her Books’, ‘What Caxton did to the Festial’, ‘Syon, Caxton, and the Festial’, etc.)
  • medieval religious culture and cultural products (‘The Transmission and Circulation of The Lay Folks’ Catechism’, ‘Pastoralia and the Lost York Plays’, ‘The Fifteen Signs of Doom in Image and Text’, ‘Untying the Knot:  Reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, etc.).
  • the Birgittine abbey of Syon and its lay and religious relationships (‘Preaching at Syon

Abbey’, ‘Syon Abbey and the Mother of King Henry VII’, ‘Margaret Pole and Syon Abbey’, The Birgittines of Syon Abbey, etc.)

  • Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII (‘Lady Margaret Beaufort and her Books’, ‘Textiles and Dress in the Household Papers of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), Mother of King Henry VII’, ‘Cambridge Commemorations of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s Household’, etc.)
  • In progress: 2 Festschriften on a Lucca MS; an edition of Caxton’s Fifteen Oes (1491); accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort 1498-1509 (for British Academy, Records of Social and Economic History).

 

Opportunities