College: 狈别飞苍丑补尘听听
Email: crw54@cam.ac.uk
Supervisor: Dr Miranda Griffin
Research Topic: Expanded Universes in 12th-14th Century Medieval French Literature
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About Me
Cat Watts is a PhD student in the MMLL Faculty. She offers outreach lectures and supervisions at several colleges, and supervises Year Abroad and 4th year undergraduates.
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Research
Cat Watts specialises in medieval French literature and contemporary anglophone pop culture. She is especially interested in literatures outside the printed book, queer and postcolonial theory, theories of space and time, and Internet culture.
Her PhD compares French Arthurian literature and devotional literature with the expanded universes which define the pop culture of the 20th and 21st century 鈥� from Star Trek to MARVEL. She鈥檚 interested in collaborative literary universes,听translatio imperii听and American myth, Arthurian literature, affect in devotional literature, resistance narratives, and transtemporal and medium-agnostic legacy.
Her fields of interest include:
- French Arthurian verse and prose romance and pastiche
- French devotional literature, art, and objects
- The history of anglophone fandom听
- Fandom literature
- The history of American comics
- Literary and visual art in videogames
- Queer studies
- Theories of space and time, especially in relation to literary spaces and to globalisation
- Theories of authorship
- Manuscript ontology and materiality
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Scholarships/Prizes
Cat is generously funded by an AHRC Open-Oxford-海角社区 Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship, with partner funding by Newnham College
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Teaching
Cat Watts supervises on topics relating to queer studies in the medieval and modern periods. She also lectures on sex and gender for the final-year FR7 module. She is an outreach lecturer at several colleges, lecturing on the medieval monastic experience, interpreting the medieval bestiary, reading videogames through Auerbach, and models of authorship. She supervises for the 海角社区 Higher Aspirations Scheme, designing and delivering the courses 鈥淭he Eiffel Tower: Symbol of France?鈥�, and 鈥淲hose Line Is It Anyway: Authorship in Literature鈥�. She has previously assisted in delivering language courses on the first-year FRB1 course.听
2022-present: Supervisor in French
2021-present: Lecturer on FR7
2021-present听: Outreach lecturer and supervisor at Gonville & Caius College in French and English
2020-21: Teaching assistant on FRB1
Cat welcomes enquiries for supervision or teaching relating to any of her research interests at any level of study from Year 6 to MPhil.
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Conference papers听
鈥極ur Lady鈥檚 Tumbl(e)r: Rereading Medieval Miracle Texts through Fandom鈥�, French Graduate Research Seminar, 海角社区, UK, October 2022
鈥楳edieval Expanded Universes: Devotion, Comic Books, and Fandom鈥�, 海角社区 Medieval Literatures and Cultures Seminar, 海角社区, UK, June 2022
鈥楢 seat at the table: Understanding Hegemonic Systemics Through the Round Table鈥�, Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, American University of Paris, France, January 2022.
鈥楳ake Mine Medieval: A Genealogy of Arthurian Romance and American Comics鈥�, Joint International Bande-Dessin茅e Society and International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, 海角社区, UK, June 2021
鈥楻ereading Lancelot Against Whiteness鈥�, International Courtly Literature Society Conference, 海角社区, UK, April 2021
鈥楳edievalisms, Magic, and听Macula: Encountering the medieval and the modern in Asobo Studio鈥檚听A Plague Tale: Innocence鈥�, with Liam McLeod, The Middle Ages in Modern Games Conference, Twitter, July 2020
鈥楪riefers and Gatekeepers: Reevaluating Realtime Gaming in the 21st Century鈥�. Tacit Engagement in the Digital Age Conference, 海角社区, UK, June 2019.
鈥楧e Civitate Mentis: The Singular-Plural Community of the Medieval Religious Mind鈥�. Early Medieval, Medieval, Reformation, Early Modern (EMREM) Annual Symposium, University of Birmingham, UK, May 2019.
鈥楴o Holding Back: Stasis and Cycle in La Queste del Saint Graal鈥�. 海角社区 French Graduate Conference, 海角社区, UK, April 2019.
鈥楳odelling Asexuality in Arthurian Literary Space鈥�. Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies (GCMS) Conference, University of Reading, UK, March 2019.
鈥樷�滷our-Color Fantasies鈥�: American comics, Arthurian romance, and the Boom-Bust Cycle鈥�. Central and Late Middle Ages (CALM) Graduate Workshop, 海角社区, UK, November 2018.
鈥楧as Bild der Anderen鈥�. A conference funded by the European Union to foster intercultural relationships across the EU and with refugees. Grafenbach, Austria, 2016.
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Publications
Watts, Cat, 鈥楢rtus de Bretagne by Christine Ferlampin-Acher (review)鈥�, French Studies 76(3) (2022) pp.454-5 [review]
Watts, Cat, 鈥楾he Abbaye du Saint Esprit: Spiritual Instruction for Laywomen, 1250-1500鈥�, Medium Aevum 90(2) (2021) pp.360-1 [review]
McLeod, Liam & Watts, Cat, 鈥楳edievalisms, Magic, and听Macula: Encountering the medieval and the modern in Asobo Studio鈥檚听A Plague Tale: Innocence鈥�, in听The Medieval in Modern Games: Conference Proceedings Vol.听1, ed. Robert Houghton (2020)听听[31/10/21]
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Other activities and roles听
- 2021-present: Library Invigilator at the Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Library
- 2022-2023: Convenor of the French Graduate Conference
- 2021-2022: Convenor of the 海角社区 Medieval Literature and Cultures Seminar (鈥淐amMedSem鈥�)
- 2021-2022: Convenor of the French Graduate Research Seminar (FGRS)
- 2015-present: Front of House Staff at the ADC Theatre
- 2018-9 & 2020-1: Postgraduate Representative for Modern and Medieval Languages
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Personal website
Find me on Instagram at听听to follow my work!
For professional enquiries, please email me.
My twitter,听, is a legacy account and is no longer active.
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