My research is in medieval ecocriticism, animal studies, and readings of the natural world, including animal presence and other minds in anglophone modern theatre.
The topic of my monograph project, Unland: Animal Spaces in Medieval Literature, is the philosophical stakes of animal metaphor in animal-spatial metaphors like the island-turned-whale of the Exeter Book Physiologus. This exploration traverses Old and Middle English literature and the genres of riddles, bestiary, biblical poetry and medieval drama.
My work has a particular emphasis on medieval animal taxonomies, particularly the Physiologus and bestiary tradition, and the reception of these medieval genres in later periods. My most recent forthcoming chapter considers undermining and unearthing metaphors about badgers and other earth-moving creatures in the bestiary and medieval riddles. I am also current writing a chapter on the insights of ecocriticism for the medieval bestiary for an edited volume, and co-writing a journal article about submerged bodies in the landscape in medieval poetry.
I coordinate Ten-Minute Book Club, a digital short-form outreach reading project. New introductions written by English Faculty researchers are combined with literary excerpts curated by LitHits to create kits for use in schools and other reading contexts. This project was founded in 2020, when it attracted over 20,000 visitors as well as coverage in international news (Times of India, The Independent) and national radio (BBC Oxford). From 2022, the project also includes workshops with teachers, and a permanent installation in the Weston Library's Blackwell Hall. Ten-Minute Book Club is funded by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance (April 2022, PI: Alexandra Paddock, Co-I: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr).
- Old English
- Middle English
- Fairytales
- Children's literature
- Ecocriticism and nature writing
- Animal studies
- Nineteenth-century to twenty-first-century 'animal' drama
Publications
Paddock, Alexandra and Shepherd-Barr, Kirsten. (2018). Elizabeth Robins. obo in Victorian Literature. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199799558-0154
Forthcoming
Paddock, Alexandra, ‘Life in Earth: Animal Relations with Earth in the Physiologus, Bestiaries and Early Medieval Riddles’. In The Elements in the Medieval World, ed. Cesario, Marilina, Hugh Magennis, and Elisa Ramazzina (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 28 Nov. 2024) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004712430
Monograph Project
Unland: Animal Spaces in Medieval Literature
Projects nearing completion
Paddock, Alexandra, ‘Ecocriticism and Enormous Animals in the Second-Family Bestiary’.
Paddock, Alexandra and Purkiss, Diane, ‘Sinking into Place’.
Other papers include work on staging interspecies loving in War Horse and Equus, a comparison of medieval Jonah poem “Patience” and the MS Arundel 292 bestiary (presented at ‘Ark After Noah’, 2017), and a paper on animal collaboration in early Middle English lyrics.
Podcasting and Outreach
Five Tips for Getting Back into Reading, co-authored with Kirsten-Shepherd Barr (Independent)
Ten-Minute Book Club (Faculty of English project)
I am Lead Curator for the LitHits project on digital reading and a Director at LitHits Ltd, the first spin-out from the Faculty of English.
In collaboration with the Institute of Population Ageing and Age UK Oxfordshire, I helped develop and coordinated the 'Reading, Wellbeing and Ageing' business exchange project, funded by the Humanities Division Seed Fund (April-July 2019).
I also coordinate Ten-Minute Book Club, a digital short-form outreach reading project. New introductions written by English Faculty researchers are combined with literary excerpts curated by LitHits to create kits for use in schools and other reading contexts. This project was founded in 2020, when it attracted over 20,000 visitors as well as coverage in international news (Times of India, The Independent) and national radio (BBC Oxford). From 2022, the project also includes workshops with teachers, and a permanent installation in the Weston Library's Blackwell Hall. Ten-Minute Book Club is funded by the Minderoo-Oxford Challenge Fund in AI Governance (April 2022, PI: Alexandra Paddock, Co-I: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr).
