Austin Benson

My scholarship focuses on the material and literary cultures of high and later medieval Britain. I am especially interested in how medieval scribes (the makers of all books that survive from the period) were active participants in the creation and transmission of literature. But what I love more than anything is to explore the archive—to see, touch, and explore the books that survive from the Middle Ages. There’s always something new to be discovered. These physical artifacts, moreover, allow us to have a real, intimate encounter with the people who made them. Such encounters, spanning across time, culture, and language, are at the heart of literary studies and, more broadly, humanistic inquiry. In my engagements course, “Getting Medieval on Literature and Film,” I hope to create an environment for students to have an authentic encounter with the medieval past and to reflect on how this past shapes the present.