I started working at Bangor University in January 2005, having held, prior to that, positions at Trinity College Dublin; University François Rabelais, Tours; the Victoria University of Manchester. I also held research fellowships at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme/EHESS, Paris; Huntington Library (as Andrew Mellon fellow); and New Europe College: Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucharest, Romania.  

I am currently College of Arts, Humanities, Business and Social Sciences ECR lead, a role complementary to my work on the Researcher Advisory Committee for the Learned Society of Wales, in which capacity I facilitated the hosting of the LSW ECR Colloquium in 2024 at Bangor University, with over 100 ECRs in attendance. I am also Bangor University representative on the British Academy ECR Network in the North West.

In 2025 I was elected to the Council of the Learned Society of Wales, and re-elected, for another term, as member of the General Purposes Committee of the same. 

At Bangor University I am co-Director of the Centre for Arthurian Studies, which I founded in 2015, and was Director, then co-director of Research, Impact and Engagement in the School of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, then Arts, Language and Culture (2015-24), a role which also involved being REF lead for two units of assessment (UoA26 and UoA27), then one (UoA27, formerly UoA29). I submitted 2 Impact Case Studies, in REF2014 (ranked 4*) and a joint one in REF2021.

Outside Bangor University and Wales my leadership in the field of Arthurian Studies has been recognised through election to the position of President of the International Arthurian Society  (2024-2027), a scholarly society soon to reach its 100th anniversary, and which counts more than 1000 members world-wide.

Other recent wide-ranging leadership roles include:

2018-21, Deputy Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Music and Media, Director of Research, Impact and Engagement, and REF 2021 UoA27 coordinator;

2013-18 Co-director of IMEMS (Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Bangor and University of Aberystwyth)

2005-13 (founding) director of the Centre for Medieval Studies

I founded/led the cross-school MA in Medieval Studies (2005-19) and led the MA in Arthurian Studies (2005-25).

In 2017 I was awarded a Bangor Teaching Excellence Fellowship

My research focuses on medieval and, more recently, some aspects of early modern literature and culture, medievalism, including Victorian appropriations of the medieval past, as well as the history of printing and publishing Arthurian and related texts. As a medieval studies specialist my work has focused on Arthurian and non-Arthurian romance (Thomas Malory as well as the anon popular romances), medieval chronicles (the Brut tradition and genealogical rolls), political culture (including mirrors for princes and political writing) and cultural (gentry) studies. Overall my approach is informed by book history and cultural history, with a focus on class, ideology and, more recently, cultural memory and the history of emotions.

I am currently working on two related projects, one focused on  the cultural importance of the medieval miscellany as a repository of literary and non-literary texts, the other focusing on the Middle English Prose Brut chronicles and their cultural context in late medieval and early modern England.

My research covers English, French and other continental romance languages and traditions, reflecting my trilingual background (Romanian, French, English) and other languages I have different levels of proficiency in or use in academic research and/or literary translation.

I have been involved in, and continue to undertake, literary translation projects. My latest is a translation of the ninth-century Irish poem Pangur Bán, into Romanian, for the Trinity College Dublin Centre for Literary Translation (a collaborative project published in 2017).

I continue to write and edit poetry in English, Romanian and French.

I teach medieval literature (the first year module QXE1003 Heroes and Villains: Introduction to Pre-modern Literature; QXE2101 /QXE3118 Exploring Medieval Literature; and specialist modules QXE3034 Legends and Super Heroes: Arthur and His Peers (the Nine Worthies); QXE2094/3094 Realms of Magic: Medieval Romance and its Afterlives - the latter on the development of modern fantasy from the medieval genre of romance), literary and critical theory, the history of the book, palaeography, medieval romance, Arthurian legend (medieval to present), travel literature (classical to present), children's literature and modern fantasy. I am interested, also, in translation and adaptation, particularly in modern fantasy into film.

In July 2017 I was awarded a Bangor Teaching Excellence Fellowship. I am also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I have supervised 8 research students to completion:

Elina Harjula, MPhil, 'Horses in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur' (MPhil, 2010)

Ambra Finotello, PhD, 'Transformations of the Merlin Legend in Late-Medieval England: Contextualizing Translation in Of Arthour and of Merlin, Henry Lovelich’s Merlin, and the Prose Merlin' (PhD, 2014)

Anastasija Ropa, PhD, 'Representations of the Grail in Medieval and Modern Literature' (PhD, 2014)

Daisy Le Helloco, PhD  ‘Sense of Place and the Writing of Early Modern British History in Medieval and Early Modern England’ (PhD, 2018)

Isra'a Alqallab, 'The History of Emotions and Medieval Romance: King Horn, Guy of Warwick, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' (PhD, 2019)

Ashley Walchester-Bailes, 'Editing Malory in the Modern Period: from Winchester MS to Vinaver's edition' (2023)

Audrey Martin, 'Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Geoffrey of Monmouth and his continuators' (2023)

Aude Martin (co-supervision with Université of Lorraine), 'Medieval English and French Arthurian romance - the development of character' (2024)

I am currently supervising

Katja Marek, 'Medieval English romance in its miscellany context' (title subject to change) - recipient of the Vice-Chancellor's scholarship (Bangor University) and the Barron Bequest award (International Arthurian Society, British Branch)

Roisin Begley, on the topic of charisma in late medieval history and literature

I have also advised on post-doctoral projects and visiting research fellows to the Centre for Arthurian Studies.

I welcome postgraduate projects linked to any of my areas of research interest.

Prior to my election as President of the International Arthurian Society in 2024 I was Vice President of the same for a term (2021-24); elected President of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society (2015-18) and elected founding Editor of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society for two terms (2011-17) and editor of the Annual Bibliography of the International Arthurian Society (2011-15).

I have been a member of the committee of the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC) for 15 years (2006-21), and an AHRC peer review college member for ten years (2007-2017). I sat on the AHRC panels for individual fellowships, Main grants and Leadership Fellows for several years, and I have been an invited assessor of HERA and ERC applications. 

I am external examiner of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and have examined numerous PhD theses as external examiner at several HEI institutions in the UK and abroad.

Impact

I am a regular consultant and contributor to radio and TV programmes in the UK and internationally on the Arthurian legend and medieval studies. I have written articles for The Conversation, and given interviews for the local and national press.

Most recently, my consultancy with Royal Mail has resulted in a limited series of stamps on the topic of Arthurian legends, and an associated article in their Yearbook (2021).

Other invited lectures and media appearances include:

• 2019 guest lectures at the University of Belgrade and several invited papers
• 2018 guest lectures at University of Düsseldorf, University of Lisbon (as plenary speaker at conference), Flintshire Historical Association
• 2017 guest speaker at Bradford International Literature festival 
• 2017 public lecture at the Skinners' Guild, London
• 2016 invited public lecture at the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
• 2016 initiator and co-organiser of 'Medieval Fun Day' primary schools event in Caernarfon castle (CADW) 
• 2015 initiator and co-organiser of 'King Arthur Family day' at Bangor University Library
• 2015: interview with BBC radio Wales, on the 'Today programme' (13 April 2015)
• 2015: interview with ABC Radio, Australian national broadcast, on the 'Overnight programme', on King Arthur and Arthurian legends
• 2015: Curator of the public exhibition 'The Arthurian Legend: Past and Present in Conversation in the Bangor Rare Books Collection and the Flintshire Harries Arthurian Collection' (13 April- 7 May); guided tours
• 2015: Co-organiser, with Bangor University Library, of the event 'Celebrating 50 years of Arthurian Studies at Bangor University', including a public lecture, given by guest Dr Roger Simpson
• 2014: Initiator and member of the working party who facilitated the donation of the Flintshire Harries Arthurian Collection to Bangor University Library, in collaboration with Bangor University Library
• 2013: Literary tour of North Wales (Arthurian romance) organised by Literature Wales and the Welsh Tourism Board
• 2011: 'Sword in the Stone' documentary for the National Geographic TV Channel, in the series The Ancient X-Files
• 2010 Invited on the ‘Authoring Arthur’ special event organised by the Royal Shakespeare Company in connection with the staging of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur
• 2009 BBC Radio consultant on the Tennyson programme and Arthurian myth
• BBC radio consultancy on medieval pilgrimage, medieval romance

Peer Recognition

• 2015 reviewer for HERA and AHRC panels
• 2012- external examiner for UG and PG programmes in medieval and early modern literature at two universities (UK and abroad)
• 2009 - external examiner for research theses in a number of UK HEI and abroad
• 2011, 2012 invited to sit on the AHRC panels for Fellowships and Main Grants (Languages and Literatures)
• 2002-10  elected member of the committee of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society 
• 2006-8 UK and Ireland Liaison Officer, CARMEN (Confederation for the Advancement of Research through a Medieval European Network)
• 2006: member of the research committee on the Winchester Malory project (with De Montfort and the British Library) 
• 2002-7: Research Associate, Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris (LAMOP), Conseil National de Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne, Paris

I hold degrees from the University of Manchester (PhD, MPhil in English medieval literature) and the University of Bucharest (BA joint honours in English language, literature, linguistics and culture and Romanian language, literature and culture) and have taught at the University of Manchester, Trinity College Dublin and University François Rabelais, Tours.

I was a research fellow at New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucharest, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris) and the Huntington Library (as Andrew Mellon fellow) and a visiting researcher at Harvard University.

FLSW, FEA, FRHistS, SFHEA

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 01248382110

Location: 314 New Arts