Madelaine Smart

Thesis Title: The ‘Albina’ Prologue of the Middle English Prose Brut Chronicle: An Edition and Commentary.

Supervisors: Professor Sarah Peverley and Dr Matthew Bradley

Email: hsmsmart@liverpool.ac.uk

Twitter: @MadelaineSmart

Biography: Madelaine holds a BA Hons degree in English Literature and MA Directed Research in Medieval Literature from the University of Liverpool. She was awarded the David and Joy Mills Prize in 2014 for her contribution to Medieval Scholarship during her MA and the Alan and Barbara Price Graduate Teaching Award in 2018. She is currently a Postgraduate Researcher at the School of the Arts and a PGR Rep for the English Department. Alongside Professor Peverley, Madelaine is the Creative Director of The Liverpool Players, who perform Medieval and Early Modern Literature across the UK. Please visit their website to find out more.

Research: Focuses on the ‘Albina’ Prologue of the Middle English Prose Brut Chronicle, with particular interest in the text’s discussion of queenship, legitimacy, national identity and female monstrosity. Her project intends to present a new, comprehensive edition of the ‘Albina’ Prologue, along with commentary on the narrative’s history and cultural and literary significance. Other research interests include palaeography, medieval manuscript culture and the editing of fourteenth and fifteenth century chronicles, sibling relationships, brotherhood and sisterhoods in Middle English Romance, especially Malory’s Morte Darthur and ‘heroic’ archetypes.

Teaching:

Close Reading (ENGL103)

Literature in Time (ENGL111)

Shakespeare: Ways of Thinking (ENGL112)

Ways of Reading (ENGL113)

Friars, Whores and Rovers: Drama 1580-1640 (ENGL213)

Medieval Narratives (ENGL270)

External Engagement:

Madelaine has organised, attended and presented at conferences and workshops across the UK, as well as organised and performed at Public Events with the Liverpool Players, including the following:

Conference Organiser, Writing Home: Literatures of Place and Belonging, 1300-1600, University of Liverpool, 2019

PGR Organiser, ‘Lightening Talks: Locations in Shakespeare’s Plays’ for Here is My Space, part of The Brilliant Bard Shakespeare Festival, The University of Liverpool at The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, 2019

Symposium Organiser, Medieval Journeys: M6 Medieval Reading Group Symposium, University of Liverpool, 2018

Performance Director and Performer, ERC TIDE’s Under the Moon: Renaissance Fantastic Voyages, University of Liverpool and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, 2018

Writer/Storyteller, The Little Mermaid, for the British Academy’s Literature Week, 2017

Storyteller, Bisclavret, for Being Human: Festival of the Humanities, at The Walker Gallery, Liverpool, 2015

LiNK Placement at TATE Liverpool as Assistant Evaluator for the HLF funded project All About Us with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital for ‘Access to Archives’, 2015

Conference Assistant, 7^th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle, The Medieval Chronicle Society at the University of Liverpool, 2014

Participant, Medieval Storytelling: Engaging the Next Generation, University of Oxford, 2014.