Pronouns: she/her/hers
Old Norse-Icelandic; Medieval Studies; Hagiography; Disability Studies
I received my PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012. My doctoral research focused on Old Norse paleography and philology, and my dissertation was a new study on and edition of the Old Norse legend of Martha and Mary Magdalen. I hold the inaugural Henry Cabot and Linnea Lodge Scandinavian Professorship in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta, where I serve as Associate Chair (Undergraduate) and Program Advisor for Scandinavian, Norwegian, and Swedish. I am also Adjunct Associate Professor in Religious Studies in the Department of History & Classics.
I am presently the President of the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada. I also serve as Book Review Editor for Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études scandinaves au Canada.
I live in Edmonton with my spouse and our two daughters. When I'm not on campus, you can find me with them, or teaching group exercise and spinning classes at the gym.
My research interests include Old Norse-Icelandic paleography and philology, manuscript culture, hagiography and religious literature (poetry and prose), and women's and gender studies. I have published articles and book reviews in such venues as Scandinavian Studies, Journal for English and Germanic Philology, Speculum, Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Arthuriana, Arkiv för nordisk filologi, and Maal og minne. In 2014, I was awarded a Killam Research Fund award from the University of Alberta to conduct archival research for a book I have since co-written and published with Professor Kirsten Wolf (UW-Madison), entitled The Saints in Old Norse and Early Modern Icelandic Poetry. I have also published a detailed study, edition, and translation of the history, cults, and legends of Martha and Mary Magdalen in medieval Iceland with the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. I recently completed a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant in which I examined early modern poetry on famous (and infamous) women from the Bible, history, saga literature, as well as saints and their function; this work resulted in a number of articles and article-length editions of previously unedited (and in some cases, undiscovered) poems, a co-edited volume, and a near-complete monograph on the post-Reformation poetic tradition surrounding St. Agnes of Rome. I also hold a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for a new research project, entitled "'Completely Healed': Miracles, Cures, and Constructions of Disability in the Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas of Bishops." At present, I am excerpting and analyzing instances in which individuals in these sagas seek healing and are “healed” of various visible and invisible ailments in order to determine how medieval Christian Icelanders perceived and constructed the disability in relation to the body and mind.
I teach a variety of courses on Scandinavian history, literature, and culture from the Middle Ages to the present. I also supervise graduate students in MLCS and History, Classics, and Religion.
Currently accepting graduate students in MLCS and History, Classics, and Religion.
Preparation for the candidacy exam. This is a pass/ fail course. Prerequisite: consent of Department.
Winter Term 2022Survey of Old Scandinavian mythology from the earliest times to the end of the Viking Period. Readings in English from the Poetic and Prose Eddas, including the heroic legends and lays. Also included is a brief look at runic inscriptions and skaldic poetry. Note: Taught in English.
Fall Term 2021Survey of the cultural and literary history of the Viking and Medieval periods in Scandinavia with selections in English from primary sources. Note: Taught in English.
Winter Term 2022