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Staff profile

Overview

Amy Doyle

Research Postgraduate

Affiliations
Affiliation
Research Postgraduate in the Department of English Studies
Postgraduate Fellow in the Institute for Medical Humanities

Biography

My research looks at gendered affective experiences of love and lovesickness in medieval French and English chivalric romance in light of Wace's claim that “pure amistié e pur amies / Funt chevaliers chevaleries” (‘it is for love and their beloved that knights do knightly deeds). I am keen to trace the transmission of medical scholarship from the east to the west to explore how philosophy and science impacted the way in which medieval thinkers viewed sickness in the mind and body, and how romance narratives portray a newfound interest in the effects of erotic desire and the nature and crises of human interiority.

I am a Teaching Assistant in the department and have worked as their Social Media Intern. I am an active member of the Medieval and Early Modern Students Association, having organised the 18th annual MEMSA Conference of July 2024 on the theme of 'Fear and Loathing in the Medieval and Early Modern World,' and now serving as Chair of their bi-weekly seminars. I have been heavily involved with my college's Middle Common Room, first as their Secretary (2022-2023), then Academic Officer (2023-2024), Vice President (2024-2025), and now President (2025-2026).

Talks and Papers

'"Sexuality...the worldly expression of the sacred": Lyrics of Lovesickness in Southern France', Hatfield MCR Postgraduate Freshers' Research Roulette, Durham University, October 2024.

'Crusading Women: Catharism and Catechism in Troubadour Lyric of the 13th Century', Leeds International Medieval Congress, Leeds University, July 2024.

'Terentian Didacticism in Medieval Germany: The Propriety and Innovation of Gandersheim's Nuns', Medieval and Early Modern Students Association Conference, Durham University, July 2023.

'Political Malory: The Romance Hero as a 'Man Like Us' Made Vehicle for the Best Ideals of the Author's Age', Hatfield-Castle MCR Research Roulette (part of Durham Global Week), Durham University, March 2023.

Research interests

  • medieval romance
  • history of medicine
  • manuscript studies & palaeography
  • classical receptions
  • game studies
  • queer theory