“For you know that any evil spoken of women so generally only hurts those who say it, not women themselves“ – Two years of Medieval Women’s Writing
Report about the TORCH Critical Thinking Network “Medieval Women’s Writing Research Network”
By Marlene Schilling & Kat Smith
The beginning is marked by a number of coffee dates between two DPhil students with a mutual passion for medieval women’s writing in their two European languages of study. Out of these nerdy coffee dates rose the idea to share this passion with likeminded people, to discuss a variety of medieval women’s writing. This was the birth moment of our baby – the Medieval Women’s Writing Research Network.
After a lovely term of bi-weekly reading group session, for which we looked at a wonderful mixture of medieval women’s writing in different languages, we thought about expanding our group and its vision. We wanted to focus on medieval women’s writers beyond the trend of relegating medieval women’s writing to a single thematic strand and instead put them at the centre of our network. We aimed to create a space for researchers to uncover the lost female voices of the past and bring them into conversation with present-day feminist theory. This was the second birth moment, when the Medieval Women’s Writing Research Network became a TORCH Critical Thinking Network.
With the amazing help, support, and funding (the cookies and refreshments we could now offer at our events were a real gamechanger!) from TORCH, we had five fantastic terms full of Medieval Women’s Writing events. In the end, we had 15 inspiring research seminar sessions, 11 entertaining reading group session, 4 rewarding collaboration events (with New College Library, the Critical Food Network & the Bodleian Academic Engagement, Dr. Rachel Delman, the Oxford Preservation Trust), an amazing group outing to the exhibition “Medieval Women” in the British Library, and of course our crowing achievement and proudest moment, our brilliant conference “Exchanging Words”. Through these events, we grew into such a wonderful and diverse community, brought together by our shared passion for various medieval women’s writers, consisting of undergraduates, postgraduates, early career researchers, professors, and interested members of the public. In the end, our community spanned three continents and several countries, and we talked about such a range of medieval women’s writing that we could have never imagined when we planned the first reading group session.
With so many different and exciting events, it is not easy to choose one favourite. Our early reading group sessions were a lot of fun as we discovered and discussed new texts together. All our research seminar sessions showcased the amazing research that is being done on medieval women’s writers (and how awesome all of them were!), while every one of our collaborations was simply so special (and in one case, very tasty). Our excursion to the BL gave simply the best school trip vibes imaginable. In truth though, there is only one contender for our favourite: our conference “Exchanging Words”, for which over 30 participants, both in person in the Taylor Institute Library and online came together to showcase just how cool medieval women’s writing is.
And now, after two wonderful years, the Medieval Women’s Writing Universe, the MWWU as we call it, is coming to an end. All that is left to say, is: Thank you! Thank you for two incredible years of sharing our passion for Medieval Women’s Writing. It has been the favourite part of our PhD journeys and continually inspired us, not only in our own research, but through the friends we would not have made without it, and their encouragement and kindness throughout. We will miss it dearly.
