Elisabeth Dutton | Olivia Robinson | Matthew Salisbury | Aurélie Blanc
Professor Elisabeth Dutton (University of Fribourg)
I am Professor of Medieval English at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Before arriving here, I was Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford: I have also worked at Brasenose and Magdalen Colleges, and at University College, London. My doctoral research was on Julian of Norwich and late-medieval devotional compilation, and led to a monograph, the first book-length study to consider compilation as a literary ‘form’, and the influence of compilations on medieval women mystics.
More recently I have focused on early theatre: my research is informed by my experience as a theatre director. I have worked with professional and amateur performers to stage rarely-performed gems of the medieval and early modern period in exciting venues — John Skelton’s Magnyfycence at Hampton Court Palace, for example, and William Gager’s Dido in the dining hall of Christ Church, Oxford.
I head the Early Drama at Oxford project, which examines plays written and performed in Oxford Colleges between 1485 and 1642. These plays, which have never been systematically studied, constitute one of the largest surviving bodies of non-playhouse early English drama: the project explores them from codicological, historical, and theatrical standpoints, and includes stagings of selected plays. See www.edox.org.uk
I also lead the Multilingual Shakespeare project at the University of Fribourg: the project experiments with translation which reflects the multilingual Swiss environment to create productions of a ‘Swiss Shakespeare’. Most recently, we presented at the Shakespeare400 Festival at King’s College, London, and at the Lausanne Shakespeare Festival. Our films of Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost will soon be available.
I am excited to begin a new project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, on Medieval Convent Drama. The project will focus on convents in England, France, and the Low Countries. I am particularly looking forward to work with such a wonderful team as Olivia Robinson, Matthew Cheung-Salisbury, and Aurélie Blanc.
Dr Olivia Robinson (University of Fribourg and University of Birmingham, UK)
Liv Robinson became a senior researcher and co-investigator on the Medieval Convent Drama Project at the University of Fribourg in 2016, having previously been a lecturer at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 2018 she joined the English Department at the University of Birmingham, where she teaches medieval English literature, alongside her Medieval Convent Drama Project research role at Fribourg.
Her work focuses on the interrelationships between French-language and English-language writing in the Middle Ages, working in particular with medieval translation practices and manuscript transmission. She has published articles and book chapters on a wide range of medieval literary texts and manuscripts in both languages, a collaborative article on translation, creative writing and teaching medieval texts, and her book on Franco-English translation and the formation of the Chaucer canon, entitled ‘Contest, Translation and the Chaucerian Text’ will be published in 2019 by Brepols.
She has a second major research interest in medieval French and English drama, particularly Biblical drama, and its performance contexts, both on-stage and in manuscripts. She has published research on Biblical adaptation, manuscript evidence of improvisation and uses of the liturgy in the plays of the Carmelite convent at Huy and has directed performances of ‘Everyman‘ and ‘The Digby Mary Magdalen‘ at The University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. She is also an experienced theatrical designer, having worked with Elisabeth as designer and wardrobe supervisor on many EDOX productions.
Dr Matthew Cheung Salisbury (University of Oxford)
Dr Salisbury is Lecturer in Music at University and Worcester Colleges, Oxford. His research, much of it performance-led, explores the texts and plainsong found in the extant sources of the medieval liturgy in England, with particular emphasis on transmission and reception. He is currently working on the chants found in the manuscript and printed sources of the Sanctorale (Proper of Saints) according to the liturgical Use of Sarum, the dominant pattern of liturgy, music, and ritual in the south of late medieval England, as well as on specific saints’ Offices written in England or for English use.
From 2012 to 2014 he helped to lead Fragments: music, movement, and memory in a Borders landscape, in collaboration with Historic Scotland and Red Field Arts. This was an arts project, funded by Creative Scotland, which used a fragment of a twelfth-century musical manuscript to engage with contemporary composers, artists, dancers, and musicians. He also contributed to the Experience of Worship project at Bangor University.
Dr Salisbury is a trustee of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society and a director of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, and serves as National Liturgy and Worship Adviser to the (modern-day) Church of England.
Aurélie Blanc (University of Fribourg)
Aurélie Blanc holds an MA in Shakespeare from King’s College London, as well as an MA and a BA in English and History from the University of Fribourg. Her research interests include medieval and early modern drama, literary relations between France and England, and research through performance: she has been involved in research productions for the Malone Society and Early Drama at Oxford, as well as acting and translating for the Multilingual Shakespeare project of the Swiss Stage Bards.