Krista Murchison
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. K.A. Murchison
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2978
- k.a.murchison@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-7894-7865
Krista A. Murchison researches and teaches late medieval English literature at Leiden University.
My research seeks answers to longstanding questions about medieval books and their readers by using some of the quantitative and digital methods that are typically reserved for the “hard” sciences. These new approaches to traditional questions lie behind several of my grant-funded projects, including my individual Veni project, Righting and Rewriting History: Recovering and Analyzing Manuscript Archives Destroyed During World War II (2020-2024). Funded by the Dutch Research Council, this project is aimed at using digital technology to virtually recreate medieval manuscripts destroyed during World War II, while contributing to an ongoing reconceptualization of the role of the archive in society.
Digital methods also lie behind my Dutch Research Council-funded project, The Open Medieval Editions by Students (TOMES) Anthology (2019-2021). In this project, I am drawing on my experience in codicology, collaborative editorial projects and sustainable XML mark up language (including a TEI-encoded digital edition) to produce an open access anthology of Middle English literature. The anthology, once complete, will be customizable based on readers’ interests and needs. In my previous project, which was funded by an Europeana Research Grant (2018), I used quantitative and digitally enhanced manuscript analysis to shed light on the relationship between French and English literature in medieval England.
My monograph, Manuals for Penitents in Medieval England (Boydell & Brewer; forthcoming 2021) is the first extended exploration of a group of literary works that were among the “bestsellers” of their time, and that inspired some of the best-known literary creations from medieval England—including Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale and Gower’s Confessio Amantis. Approaching this body of writing with the tools of quantitative book history, this monograph argues that manuals for penitents functioned as a form of educational outreach by teaching medieval readers about the language of sin and the topography of the human heart.
More information about these projects, and a list of my peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and other publications can be found on my website. My website also contains information about my recent conference presentations, thesis supervision, and digital teaching projects.
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Moderne Engelstalige letterkunde
- Murchison K.A. (2020), The Open Medieval Editions by Students Anthology (Website), (Leiden University). [website].
- Murchison K.A. (2020), Is the Audience Dead Too? Textually Constructed Audiences and Differentiated Learning in Medieval England, Modern Language Review 115(3): 497-518.
- Murchison K.A., Kruijt E.L. & Baalen A.M.W. van (16 December 2019), The Open Medieval Editions by Students (TOMES) Project: An Anthology by and for Students (and Others!). Teaching the Codex: Pedagogical Approaches to Palaeography and Codicology [blog entry].
- Murchison K.A. (5 December 2019), The Medieval English Translatathon. medievalists.net [blog entry].
- Murchison K.A. & Companjen B.A. (2019), Manuscripts, Metadata, and Medieval Multilingualism: Using a Manuscript Dataset to Analyze Language Use and Distribution in Medieval England, Digital Humanities Benelux Journal 1: 25-39.
- Murchison K.A. (2019), Righting and Rewriting History: Recovering and Analysing Manuscript Archives Destroyed During World War II, Queeste. Tijdschrift over middeleeuwse letterkunde 1: 98-102.
- Murchison K.A. (2018), A Presumed Lost Leaf of Lydgate’s Testament, Notes & Queries 65(2): 177-179.
- Murchison K.A. & Porck M.H. (2017), The Leiden University Old English ColloQuest: A Digital Teaching Edition with Adaptive Glosses [Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland 2017: Old English Across Borders, University College Cork, Ireland, 21 October 2017].
- Murchison K.A. (2017), Pierre d’Abernon. In: Echard S., Rouse R. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain.. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 1525-1526 [entry in reference work].
- Murchison K.A. (2017), Pierre Langtoft. In: Echard S., Rouse R. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 1527-1528. [entry in reference work].
- Murchison K.A. (2017), The Effects of the Seven Sins: An Edition and Commentary, The Journal of Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing 38.
- Murchison K.A. (7 June 2017), English Before England: The Transregional Origins of English [Pre-Union Talk, Leiden University English Department, June 7 2017] (Lecture).
- Murchison K.A. (8 May 2017), Late Medieval Book Burning and the Persecution of Heresy [Launch Event for the Medieval Studies and Early Modern Studies MA Option in Leiden, Leiden University, May 8 2017] (Lecture).
- Murchison K.A. (2016), The Readers of the Manuel des Péchés Revisited, Philological Quarterly 95(2): 161-199.
- Murchison K.A. (2017), “An Edition and Translation of Two Middle English Lyrics: ‘Ful Feir Flour’ and ‘Penaunce is in herte’.” Online edition project produced by my Middle English seminar class under my guidance, 2017.. [website]
- Murchison K.A. (2017), Book reviews editor Member of editorial staff The Heroic Age. A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe .
- Murchison K.A. (2017), Social Status and the Language of Confession in England, 1215-1400 [Anglo-Norman: Language Use and Literary Style. International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, 3-6 July 2017].
- Porck M.H. & Murchison K.A. (2017), The Leiden University Old English ColloQuest: A Digital Teaching Edition with Adaptive Glosse. University College Cork, Ireland.
- Murchison K.A. & Porck M.H. (2017), “The Leiden University Old English ColloQuest.” A Digital Teaching Edition with Adaptive Glosses (web game). Leiden, (Leiden University). [other]
- Murchison K.A. (30 June 2016), "Teaching Sin: Manuals for Penitents and Self-Examination Literature in England, 1150-1400" (PhD thesis, Arts, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s):Taylor A.
- Murchison K.A. (2016), Book Reviews editor for The Heroic Age; 2016 Member of editorial staff .
- Murchison K.A. (2016), “Did Chaucer Use an Anglo-Norman Source for the Parson’s Tale?” Symposium on Old English, Middle English and Historical Linguistics in the Low Countries. Leiden, The Netherlands. 16 December, 2016.
- Murchison K.A. (2016), Piety, Community and Local History: Le Livere de Reis de Engleterre and its Context in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.7. In: Rajsic J., Kooper E., Hoche D. (Eds.) The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles: Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson. Woodbridge: York Medieval. 15-29.
- Murchison K.A. (2016), The Parson’s Tale: Religious Devotion and Spiritual Feeling.. In: Barrington C., Bryant B., Godden R. H., Kline D. T., Seaman M. (Eds.) The Open Access Canterbury Tales Companion..
- Murchison K.A. (2015), The Meaning of Middle English 'Gent and Smal', The Chaucer Review 49(3): 371-75.
- Murchison K.A. (2015), The Origins of Le Livere de Reis de Engleterre and the Relation of its Manuscripts, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 91(2): 51-72.
No relevant ancillary activities