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New Zealand medieval scholar wins award from university

Dr Simone Celine Marshall has been named one of the 2010 recipients of the University of Otago’s Early Career Awards for Distinction in Research for her work work on medieval literature. The awards are given out by the university for outstanding research achievements and comes with $5000 to support their research and scholarly development.

Dr Marshall is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English where she conducts research into medieval literature. After studying at Victoria University of Wellington and Waikato University, she completed a PhD at the University of Sydney in 2005.

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Since Dr Marshall took up her position at the University of Otago in 2007 she has been awarded several internal research grants and, in 2010, received a Fast-Start Marsden Research Grant.

Dr Marshall’s current research focuses on the reasons for authorial anonymity in medieval literature, and she has published two monographs and a series of journal articles on this subject. This project radically revises modern scholarship on medieval literature because despite nearly 95 per cent of medieval literature being anonymous, the reasons for authorial anonymity have never been identified. This project will be a model for future research into anonymous literature of other languages and other time periods, presenting proof that authorial anonymity in medieval literature contributes to a tradition extending through to contemporary literature.

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During the course of researching this project, Dr Marshall recently discovered a previously unknown edition of The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, which significantly alters previously held knowledge about Chaucer’s canon and his place in English literature. Her second book, The Anonymous Text: A Reception History of The Assembly of Ladies, is due to be published later this year by Peter Lang.

The two other recipients of this award were Associate Professor Richard Gearry (Department of Medicine) and senior lecturer Jessica Palmer (Faculty of Law). Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne congratulated the winners and said, “I am thrilled to formally acknowledge the excellent work of these leading up-and-coming researchers. They are making a major contribution to the research culture of their departments and to the wider University.”

Click here to see Dr. Marshall’s page on the University of Otago website

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Source: University of Otago

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