| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper is about the thought process involved in online reading of London, British Library, Cotton MS, Vitellius A VI. The manuscript, digitised in 2016, is of the 10th-century, the sole full witness of Gildas' De Excidio Britanniae, composed, say, in 500. The unknown scribe's labour of writing is presented with incommensurable minuteness by the 21st-century imaging software which enables me to zoom in on a few grains of ink and say Yes or No, ink or detritus, for a single pen-stroke. The zoom is not only an affordance of the software convenient for palaeography but an intervention in a 1500-year reading process. I invoke the literary notion of transport to describe, order, and zoom between, three presences: myself, scribe, author.
Paper -b:
The medieval theology of Julian of Norwich is drawn upon by several feminist trauma theologians, notably Shelly Rambo, as a holding place for paradox. This paper explores an entanglement of historical theology with contemporary loss and climate grief. Award-winning writing skills were employed in the creation of this long verse narrative using a methodology of poesis with: Julian's poetics, findings from medieval historical research, and field notes from medieval ruins on the Scottish isle of Iona. Comprising a strand from an interdisciplinary creative practice PhD, 'Blue, a Lament for the Sea' articulates the relevance of late medieval thought today.
Paper -c:
The COVID-19 pandemic shutdown increased inequalities among students and exacerbated numerous pre-existing education dilemmas. School education quickly metamorphosed into online learning, part-time in-person, and a hybrid mix. The lack of connectivity and devices excluded at-risk students from pursuing learning remotely, and the inability to connect one-on-one with teachers and schools adversely affected students in other ways, including their physical, emotional, and social growth. Realising this dilemma, I have researched the reunions of fourteen fictional Middle English romance orphans and identified their emotional, social, and academic connections for my post-COVID students, modifying standard reading techniques, and creating new and exciting experiential projects to enhance their learning. I argue that Middle English romances provide students with the childhood view of being an orphan and offer examples of how other young people, although fictional, negotiate the resolution of family conflicts and prepare for life as an adult.
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