Katherine Hindley

Assistant Professor
English
School of Humanities

Katherine Hindley is Assistant Professor of Medieval Literature in the Division of English. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2017. Her research interests lie at the intersection of medieval literature, manuscript studies, and the history of medicine.

Katherine’s current project studies words at their most powerful, examining the medieval belief that spoken and written words, in the form of charms and textual amulets, could physically change the world. Through extensive manuscript research, the project demonstrates that charms were deeply rooted in medieval English culture and explores their influence on literary texts including The Book of Margery Kempe and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. This research has been supported by the Medieval Academy of America, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Josephine de Karman Fellowship, among others.

Katherine’s is also interested in the material transmission of texts. She has been involved with several projects studying the medieval manuscript roll and is a co-founder of the international workshop series ‘Digital Editing and the Medieval Manuscript Roll’.

Research Interests

• Old English Literature
• Middle English Literature
• Charms and Amulets
• History of Magic
• History of Medicine
• Manuscript Studies