Sarah Watson
Sarah Watson
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Woodside Cottage 204
swatson@haverford.edu
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Education

B.A., University of Rochester

M.A., Fordham University

M.A. and Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Biography

Originally from Rochester, NY, I completed a B.A. in English and History at the University of Rochester. I attended Fordham University, earning an M.A. in Medieval Studies, and then went on to complete a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. During my first year at Haverford, I taught courses on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Medieval Gender and Sexuality as well as a Freshman Writing Seminar entitled "Crossing Borders." This year at Haverford I will be teaching an upper-level seminar on Premodern Women Writers, an intermediate course on "Global Chaucer," and an introduction to Shakespeare's English History Plays ("Shakespeare's Game of Thrones").   

Research

My research investigates the intersection of gender, book history, and transnational literary culture. I have published essays on Christine de Pizan, William Langland and the French tradition, and women readers of John Gower.  My current book project, Reading Across the Channel: Christine de Pizan in England, France, and Burgundy, examines a transnational community of late-medieval Francophone readers, focusing in particular on the participation of women in cross-Channel literary culture.

Digital Projects

I am currently working on  a number of digital projects:

Women Book Owners in Late-Medieval Francophone Europe: 1350-1500 (booksofduchesses.com) - a digital humanities project which aims to collect, organize, and present data related to medieval laywomen and their books. The project promises to advance interdisciplinary research by creating a tool that facilitates the investigation of transregional social and literary communities. I am currently preparing this project in collaboration with Dr. S.C. Kaplan (Rice University) and the Haverford Digital Scholarship Team.

Haver Tales & Bryn Marvels: Bi-Co Adaptations of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales - an ongoing digital project created in collaboration with the students of my ENG 201 Chaucer class and with the support of the Haverford Digital Scholarship Team. The project aims to collect and share student adaptations of The Canterbury Tales.

Slavery and Abolition: A Look into Haverford’s Special Collections - an online exhibition prepared by the Crossing Borders Freshman Writing Seminar (Spring 2019) with the assistance of Sarah Horowitz. Students were given the oppourtunity to choose, consult, and photograph one item in Haverford’s Special Collection. Students prepared short labels for their chosen items and collaboratively created an online exhibition. The students of my Fall 2019 Crossing Borders Writing Seminar will be preparing a more extensive version of this exhibit for display in the newly renovated Lutnick Library.