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 Murchison is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
Research
My research centers around medieval England’s “popular” literature—those texts that were copied into a relatively large number of manuscripts, including chronicles and religious works. I explore the ways in which these texts developed, the ways in which they were experienced by their audiences, and what such lines of inquiry can tell us about how these texts functioned in medieval society. I am also interested in our own ways of experiencing these texts, including those opened up by digital media.
I have published on Middle English texts, including works by Chaucer, and Anglo-Norman texts, including Le Livere de Rei de Engleterre. In my doctoral dissertation, I explored medieval England’s literary tradition of manuals for penitents—texts such as Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale that address penitents preparing for confession and describe sins and other essentials of the faith. Approaching this tradition from a book history perspective, my dissertation showed that the development of these manuals promoted a widening range of reading practices and a shift toward private confessional education—one that came accompanied by significant tensions.
I am currently working on a digital TEI-encoded edition of one of the earliest surviving works of Anglo-Norman pastoralia, the twelfth-century “Effects of the Seven Sins.”
Curriculum vitae
Education
2016 – Ph.D., English Literature, University of Ottawa
2010 – M.A., English Literature, University of Toronto
2009 – B.A. Hons, English and Creative Writing, Concordia University (Montreal)
Employment
Since 2016
Lecturer, Leiden University
2013-2016
Part-time Professor, University of Ottawa
2011-2013
Teaching Assistant, University of Ottawa
Selected Conference Papers
“User-Driven Digital Editions: Positing a New Tool for Teaching Middle English Texts in Survey Courses.” Digital Humanities Colloquium. Victoria, British Columbia. 1-5 June, 2015.
“Self-Examination Manuals in the Wake of the Fourth Lateran Council.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Congress. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario. 30 May-1 June, 2015.
“Regarde de plus haut”: Exemplary Religious Figures and the Late Medieval Readers of Ancrene Wisse.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Congress. Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, 24-26 May, 2014.
“The Role of Confession in the Transmission of Ancrene Wisse.” Anchorites in their Communities. 5th International Anchoritic Society Conference. Newtown, Wales, UK, 22-24 April, 2014.
“The Abduction and Rape of Dinah in Ancrene Wisse and its Patristic Sources.” Representing Rape in Medieval Literature. Northeast Modern Language Association. Harrisburg, Philadelphia, 3-6 April, 2014.
“'La Vie de Gent de Religion': Alterity in the Anglo-Norman Adaptation of Ancrene Wisse.” French Connections and Middle English Literature. International Medieval Congress. Leeds, UK, 7-10 July, 2013.
“‘In the End of this Pamphlet is a Certain Chronicle’: Community Formation in Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.7 and Le Livere de Reis de Brittanie.” Books Have Their Histories: Medieval Chronicles and Their Scribes, Manuscripts, and Early Editions, in Memory of Lister M. Matheson. 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies.Kalamazoo, Michigan, 9-12 May, 2013.
“‘Grinding Sand to Leave the Wheat’: Domestic Imagery in Ancrene Wisse.” Gender in Material Culture. Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2013. Bath Spa University, UK, 4-6 Jan., 2013.
“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402 and the Anchoritic Audience.” Texts and Contexts Conference. Ohio State University, 26-27 Oct., 2012.
“«Ci falt la geste»: Early Medieval Genre and the Song of Roland.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Congress. University of Waterloo, 27-29 May, 2012.
Grants and awards
NeMLA Graduate Student Caucus Essay Award 2015
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2014-2015
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2013-2014
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2012-2013
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2010-2011
University of Ottawa Excellence Scholarship 2010-2015
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Moderne Engelstalige letterkunde
- 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