Professor Sue Niebrzydowski
Professor in Medieval Literature / Director of Research Postgraduate Studies; Dean of Postgraduate Research
Overview
Professor Niebrzydowski is a professor of Medieval Literature. She has been Director of the Graduate School for the College of Arts and Humanities during her career at Bangor University. Sue Niebrzydowski is a director of The Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book at Bangor.
Additional Contact Information
Tel: 01248 382111
Email: s.niebrzydowski@bangor.ac.uk
Qualifications
- BA: English Language and Literature
University of Birmingham, - MA: Medieval Studies
University of London , - PhD: ‘‘Verry Matrymony’’: The Representation of Mary and Her Mother, St. Anne, as wives in medieval English Literature, 1200-1540’
University of Warwick, - Other: Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Teaching)
University of Warwick,
Teaching and Supervision
I teach a range of undergraduate modules including the first year 'Heroes and Villains: An Introduction to Medieval Literature' and 'The Literature of Laughter', the second year 'Beowulf to Malory' and the third year specialist modules: 'Medieval Women's Writing' and 'Chaucer: Comedy, Calamity and Creativity.' I also supervise BA dissertations.
At Masters level I teach the skills of palaeography and codicology, and a specialist module in medieval and early modern women's devotional writing, as well as supervise masters' dissertations.
PhD supervision
Completed:
Majed Kraishan, 'The (Hetero)erotic in The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde' (2014)
Tracy Egbert, 'Self through Remembrance Identity Construction and Memory in the Novels of Octavia E. Butler' (2017)
Alaa Al-Halbosy, 'Folklore as a Means to Sustain African-American Identity: A Study of Selected Novels by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker' (2020)
In progress:
Stevie Fox, 'Dragons in Medieval and Early Modern Literature'
Rhianydd Hallas, 'Adam Easton, John Jenstein, and the Feast of the Visitation'
Vicki Kay, 'Mercantile Language in Medieval and Early Modern Women's Writing'
Diane Kaiser, 'Medieval and Early Modern Women's Engagement with Devotional Art'
Research Interests
My research profile has always been interdisciplinary in nature. Whilst I have published widely across genres and authors from the thirteenth to the late fifteenth century, the focus of my research has remained medieval women’s writing. My doctoral research explored the discourses surrounding the representation of the Virgin Mary and St Anne as wives in the literature of the Middle Ages, and was published as a monograph, Bonoure and Buxum: A Study of Wives in Medieval Literature (2006). My more recent research has focused on the effects of ageing on women’s representation in, and responses to, medieval literature, and I edited Middle-Aged Women in the Middle Ages (2011). I have maintained an interest in medieval drama, co-editing the Yearbook of English Studies: Early English Drama (2013). I am currently exploring the intersections of life course, gender, material culture, and devotional practice in medieval women’s devotion to the Virgin Mary in pre-Reformation, women-associated literature.
Postgraduate Project Opportunities
Publications
2024
- PublishedIntroduction
Niebrzydowski, S., 2024, Yearbook in English: Chaucer. Price, V. K. & Niebrzydowski, S. (eds.). Modern Humanities Research Association, Vol. 53. p. 1-16 (Yearbook in English Studies; vol. 53).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - Accepted/In press‘Mindfulness and the mise-en-page: Women, Well-being, and the medieval Book of Hours’
Niebrzydowski, S., 18 Sept 2025, Well-being Past and Present: The History and Contemporary Practice of a Cultural Phenomenon in Britain. Hyland, S., Rothery, M. & Jackson, P. (eds.). 1 ed. Bloomsbury
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review - PublishedTher was som epistel hem bitwene’: Love Letters and Love Lyrics in Troilus and Criseyde, and The Canterbury Tales
Niebrzydowski, S., May 2024, Yearbook in English: Chaucer. Price, V. K. & Niebrzydowski, S. (eds.). Modern Humanities Research Association, Vol. 53. p. 52-69 (Yearbook in English Studies; vol. 53).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - PublishedYearbook in English: Chaucer
Kay Price, V. (Editor) & Niebrzydowski, S. (Editor), May 2024, Modern Humanities Research Association. 150 p. (Yearbook in English Studies; vol. 53)
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
2023
- Published'Convent and City: Medieval Women and Drama’
Niebrzydowski, S., Aug 2023, Women and Medieval Literary Culture: From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century . Watt, D. & Saunders, C. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 285-298
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review - PublishedWomen’s Literary Cultures in the Global Middle Ages: Speaking Internationally
Loveridge, K. (Editor), McAvoy, L. (Editor), Niebrzydowski, S. (Editor) & Kay Price, V. (Editor), Apr 2023, UK: DS Brewer. 345 p. (Gender in the Middle Ages; vol. 20)
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
2022
- PublishedSir Thomas Mostyn and John Lydgate's Th Lyf of Our Lady : a Middle English Devotional Work and Its North Walian Afterlife
Niebrzydowski, S., 1 Jun 2022, In: Welsh History Review. 31, 1, p. 79-100 21 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2020
- PublishedComedy, the Canon, and Medieval Women's Wit
Niebrzydowski, S., 3 Dec 2020, In: Studies in the Age of Chaucer. 42, p. 325-336 11 p., 774611.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - PublishedWomen and Medieval Drama: Selected Sisters and Worshipful Wives
Niebrzydowski, S., 30 Apr 2020, The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage. Sewell, J. & Smout, C. (eds.). Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 85-106 22 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
2017
- PublishedThe Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 4 Aug 2017, The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. Echard, S. & Rouse, R. (eds.). 2017 ed. John Wiley & Sons, (Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - Published'Ye know eek that in forme of speche is change withinne a thousand yeer’: Chaucer, Henryson and the Welsh Troelus a Chresyd
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 28 Feb 2017, Medieval English Theatre 38: "The Best Pairt of our Play". Essays presented to John J. McGavin. Part 2. Carpenter, S., King, P. M. & Walker, M. T. G. (eds.). D.S. Brewer
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
2015
- PublishedEditorial for Special Issue: Chaucer reconsidered
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Mar 2015, In: English. 66, 244, p. 1-4
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2013
- PublishedSecular Women and Late-Medieval Marian Drama
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2013, In: Yearbook of English Studies. 43, p. 121-139
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - PublishedThe Middle-Aged Meanderings of Margery Kempe: Medieval Women and Pilgrimage
Niebrzydowski, S. A., Cochelin, I. (Editor) & Smyth, K. (Editor), 1 Feb 2013, Medieval Life Cycles: Continuity and Change. 2013 ed. Brepols Publishers, p. 265-318
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - PublishedYearbook of English Studies: Early English Drama
Niebrzydowski, S. A. (Editor), King, P. M. (Editor) & Wyatt, D. (Editor), 1 Jul 2013, Modern Humanities Research Association.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
2011
- PublishedAsperges me, Domine, hyssopo: male voices, female interpretation and the medieval English purification of women after childbirth ceremony
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 7 Aug 2011, In: Early Music. 39, 3, p. 327-334
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - PublishedMarian Literature
Niebrzydowski, S. A., McAvoy, L. H. (Editor) & Watt, D. (Editor), 1 Jan 2011, The History of British Women's Writing: 700-1500: Volume One. 2011 ed. Unknown, p. 112-120
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - PublishedMiddle-Aged Women in the Middle Ages
Niebrzydowski, S. A. (Editor), 1 Jan 2011, DS Brewer.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
2009
- PublishedFrom Bedroom to Courtroom: Home and the Memory of Childbirth in a Fourteenth-Century Marriage Dispute.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jul 2009, In: Home Cultures. 6, 2, p. 123-134
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - PublishedMonstrous appetite and belly laughs: a reconsideration of the humour in The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 17 Dec 2009, In: Arthurian Literature. 27, p. 87-102
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
2008
- Published‘Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo’: Male Voice and Female Interpretation in the Ceremony of Women’s Churching.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2008.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - PublishedBecoming bene-straw: Ageing and the Older Woman in the Later Middle Ages
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2008.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
2007
- PublishedA codex for and in memory of Christina of Markyate: Adapting the St Albans Psalter.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2007.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - PublishedMother Knows Best: the influence of a widow's words in a fourteenth-century marital dispute.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2007.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - PublishedReclaiming the family property: the marriage dispute of Alice de Rouclif from York.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2007.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - Published'So wel koude he me glose': The Erotics of Touch in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Niebrzydowski, S., 19 Apr 2007, The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain . Rushton, C. & Hopkins, A. (eds.). Boydell & Brewer, p. 18-26 9 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review - Published‘‘Troelus a Chresyd": Translating Chaucer from page to stage Chaucer in Early Modern Wales
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2007.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
2006
- PublishedBonoure and Buxum: A Study of Wives in Late Medieval English Literature.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2006, Peter Lang.
Research output: Book/Report › Book - PublishedChaucer in the Twenty-first Century.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2006.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - PublishedFrom Bedroom to Courtroom: Remembering Childbirth in the case of Alice de Rouclif.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2006.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper - Published“In wyfhod I wol use myn instrument / As freely as my Makere hath it sent”: The Wife of Bath’s Shameless Sexuality.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2006.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
2005
- PublishedFrom Scriptorum to Internet: The Implication of Audience on the Translation of the Psalms from the St. Alban's Psalter.
Niebrzydowski, S. A. & Long, L. (Editor), 1 Jan 2005, Translation and Religion: Holy Untranslatable?. 2005 ed. Multilingual Matters, p. 151-161
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
2002
- PublishedEncouraging Marriage in facie ecclesiae: The Mary Play ‘Betrothal’ and the Sarum Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jan 2002, In: Medieval English Theatre. 24, p. 44-61
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review - PublishedMonstrous (M)othering: The Representation of the Sowdanesse in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale
Niebrzydowski, S. A., Herbert McAvoy, E. (Editor) & Walters, T. (Editor), 1 Jan 2002, Consuming narratives : gender and monstrous appetite in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 2002 ed. University of Wales Press, p. 196-207
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
2001
- PublishedThe Sultana and her Sisters: Black Women in the British Isles Before 1530.
Niebrzydowski, S. A., 1 Jun 2001, In: Women's History Review. 10, 2, p. 187-210
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Activities
2020
- Masters by Research
Women, Empowerment and the Natural World in Medieval Literature 1200-1500
29 Jun 2020
Activity: Examination (Examiner) - Palgrave Macmillan (Publisher)
Women and Medieval Drama: Selected Sisters and Worshipful Wives
5 Feb 2020
Activity: Publication peer-review (Editorial board member)
2018
- BBC Radio Wales: Interview about Bangor University's Art Collection with Elen Ifan
The Arts Show, Radio Wales at 6.30pm on Friday evenings.
9 Nov 2018
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor) - 'Poems and Pots'
Bangor University art and ceramic collections tour accompanied by poetry
6 Nov 2018
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Contributor) - Cynhadledd NAASWCH Prifysgol Bangor 2018
Paper, 'The Mostyn Psalter-Hours: comments on the research potential of Welsh country house libraries' as part of the panel: Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates (ISWE): Researching the history, culture and landscapes of Wales through the prisms of estates: exploring the possibilities.
25 Jul 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - The Suffrage Symposium
26 May 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser) - The Suffrage Symposium
The Nun and the Suffragette: Hrotswitha of Gandersheim and Christopher St John
26 May 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - Reading Margery Kempe in the 21st Century
‘Wolcomyd and mech made of in dyvers placys’: The shared piety of the citizens of York and Margery Kempe
Paper
6 Apr 2018
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - ‘In the Palm of Her Hand: The Medieval Reader of Bangor MSS/ 3, a Fifteenth-Century Book of Hours’
Paper
4 Apr 2018
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Contributor) - A Level study day
Study day with YR 2 A-level students and staff exploring Chaucer's Merchant's Tale.
18 Jan 2018
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Schools engagement (Contributor)
2017
- ‘“A group of women walked into a tavern”: Medieval Women’s Wit’
Conference on Medieval and Early Modern Women's Voices
11 Nov 2017
Activity: Invited talk (Keynote speaker) - AHRC Leadership Fellows Conference
AHRC Leadership Fellows Conference
6 Nov 2017
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Invited speaker) - Conwy Festival
Talk, 'Mother Knows Best: Medieval Women's Literature'
29 Oct 2017
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Speaker) - Medieval Women's Wit
6x6 mini lectures
9 Sep 2017
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Speaker) - ‘Farts, Tarts and Bodily Parts: Medieval Women’s Wit’
Plenary Talk
23 Jun 2017 – 25 Jun 2017
Links:
Activity: Invited talk (Invited speaker) - ‘Consolation in women’s words: The Case of Margery Kempe’s Book’
Invited Talk
28 Apr 2017
Activity: Invited talk (Invited speaker) - Member of AHRC Strategic Review College
1 Jan 2017 – 30 Dec 2020
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Membership of peer review panel or committee (Member)
2016
- The Shankland Lectures
Series of public lectures on all aspects of book history.
12 Nov 2016 →
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Organiser) - Chaucer ‘to Walys fledde’ ; Troelus a Chresyd: ‘Putting old wine into new bottles’
Two blog posts for the Global Chaucers website
Nov 2016 – Apr 2017
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor) - Preserving her Mother’s Words: Matilda Becket’s Prayer
26 Jul 2016 – 29 Jul 2016
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Invited speaker) - New Chaucer Society
‘Medieval Women and Their Books of Hours’
11 Jul 2016
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - Leeds International Medieval Congress
‘Mete for owyr Lady’: Feeding the Virgin Mary’
Jul 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - Celebrating 'Lady Day' with Eleanor Percy's Marian Devotion
Blog post for the Leverhulme Network Women's Literary Culture and the Medieval Canon
30 Apr 2016
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor) - BBC Radio 3: Introductions to a series of five, modern morality plays.
Introductions to a series of five, modern morality plays commissioned by BBC Radio 3.
15 Feb 2016 – 19 Feb 2016
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Presenter) - IMEMS Colloquium
Colloquium of invited speakers examining sacred gardens of the Middle Ages.
18 Jan 2016
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)
2015
- In the Palm of Her Hand : The Medieval Reader of Bangor MSS/ 3, a Fifteenth-Century Book of Hours
The Shankland Lectures
14 Nov 2015
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Speaker) - Women's Literary Culture and the Medieval Canon
Leverhulme Network
20 Jul 2015 – 24 Jul 2015
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Invited speaker) - National Theatre, London, Lecture:‘Everyman and Impending Death’
Public lecture given as part of the ‘In Context: Everyman and Medieval Theatre’ at the Clore Learning Centre, National Theatre, London, to accompany the production of Everyman at the National Theatre.
11 May 2015
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Speaker) - It may be a medieval morality play about death - but Everyman works
Article in The Conversation
1 May 2015
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor) - ‘Ye know eek that in forme of speche is change withinne a thousand yeer’: Chaucer, Henryson and the Welsh Troelus a Chresyd’
11 Apr 2015
Activity: Invited talk (Invited speaker) - Gender and Medieval Studies
Annual Gender and Medieval Studies Research Group Conference
7 Jan 2015 – 9 Jan 2015
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)
2014
- 'Past Lives, Present Consolation: Medieval and Early Modern Women’s Literary Responses to Death,’
Talk given at the invitation of the The Sheffield Death Group (Sheffield University)
27 Nov 2014
Activity: Invited talk (Invited speaker) - Member of AHRC Peer Review College
1 Jun 2014 – 31 Dec 2017
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Membership of peer review panel or committee (Member) - Digitisation of the Hengwrt copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
25 Apr 2014
Links:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-27155607
- https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/original-chaucer-masterpiece-goes-show-7030375
- ‘‘Best sentence and moost solaas’: The Hengwrt copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.’
Public lecture at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
23 Apr 2014
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Speaker) - Exhibition: To Tell a Story: Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales
Curator of the Chaucer exhibition at the National National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
3 Mar 2014 – 27 Jun 2014
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Speaker)
2013
- Medieval English Theatre conference
23 Mar 2013
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Organiser)
2012
- Insular Books: Vernacular Miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain
'"For the interest and amusement of the compiler": Revisiting the Book of Robert Reynes of Acle'
21 Jun 2012 – 23 Jun 2012
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2011
- ‘Past Words, Present Consolation’
Presentation of Beacon Project
26 Jan 2011
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Invited talk (Contributor)
2009
- ‘Magic Touch: Tactile Experience in the Medieval Past’
AHRC Network: The Senses in the Middle Ages, Durham University
10 Oct 2009
Activity: Invited talk (Invited speaker)
2008
- English (Journal)
Book Reviews Editor
2008 – 2015
Links:
Activity: Publication peer-review (Editorial board member)
Projects
-
Investing in the Past: Upgrading Bangor University Archives’ Store
01/02/2023 – 30/08/2023 (Finished)
-
Women's Literary Culture and the Medieval English Canon
01/04/2015 – 30/11/2017 (Finished)
-
From Glass Case to Cyber-Space: Chaucerian Manuscripts Across Time
01/01/2014 – 30/09/2015 (Finished)