Associate Professor Jan Shaw
Associate Dean (Education) FASS
- Narratives of women and leadership in Middle English romance
- Identity formation in the borderlands of medieval literature
- Narrative identity, women and leadership
- Middle English literature
- Medieval romance
Medieval literature and culture
- ENGL1002 Narratives of Romance and Adventure
- ENGL2657 Myths, Legends and Heroes
- ENGL2661 Camelot: Text, Stage, Screen
- ENGL3642 Dreams and Visions
- ENGL3695 Medieval Tales of Wonder
- ENGL6112 Wooing Women in Middle English Romance
I welcome enquires from potential postgraduate students who are interested in pursuing thesis work in any aspect of Middle English literature, including my special interest areas of women and identity formation in different medieval contexts, and connections between leadership theory and literature. I am also broadly interested in feminist theory. Some of the research areas explored by my current and recent students include: feminist readings of Arthurian literature; gender performativity in Middle English romance; Robin Hood Ballads; medieval themes in contemporary texts; female agency in young adult literature; eco-feminist approaches to monstrous women in Victorian literature; Australian memoirs of mothers and daughters; Tolkien and Morris in the utopian tradition.
Border Geographies: Imagining the borderlands of Medieval Britain. Developed in collaboration with the University of Bristol, this project examines identity formation in the borderland communities of medieval Britain. It considers how medieval people used imaginary borderland spaces to think through ideas about hybrid communities and identities, and further, how such negotiations influenced medieval people’s sense of themselves and their communities in the wider world.
Women and leadership in late Middle English romance. This project explores the representation of women and leadership in fifteenth-century English prose romance. It examines how these texts construct gendered identity and how these identities play out differently as leadership narratives. It seeks to open up questions about how medieval people understood leadership, as distinct from rule, and how they imagined women could function effectively as leaders.
- Australian Universities Languages and Literature Association (AULLA): Executive Committee; Secretary 2009-2015.
- Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
- International Arthurian Society (ANZ Branch)
- Society for Medieva Feminist Scholarship
Research Groups
- Global Middle Ages
- Medieval and Early Modern Centre
- EMLAC (Early Modern Literature and Culture Research Group)
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Gay and Grotesque: Unmasking the Queer Monster in Medieval Literature | Alessandra MICHALANDOS |
Selected publications
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Publications
Books
- Shaw, J. (2016). Space, Gender, and Memory in Middle English Romance: Architectures of Wonder in Melusine. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Edited Books
- Shaw, J., Kelly, P., Semler, L. (2013). Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Shaw, J. (2024). Borders in Translation: English Resistance to Borderless Empire in Jean d'Arras's "Melusine". In Victoria Flood (Eds.), Medieval Welsh Literature and its European Contexts: Essays in Honour of Professor Helen Fulton, (pp. 172-189). Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2022). Geographies of Loss: Cilician Armenia and the Prose Romance of 'Melusine'. In Victoria Flood and Megan G. Leitch (Eds.), Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance, (pp. 209-226). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2017). New Worlds in Lanval and Sir Launfal. In Tom Clark, Emily Finlay, Philippa Kelly (Eds.), Worldmaking: Literature, Language, Culture, (pp. 15-29). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [More Information]
Journals
- Shaw, J. (2024). Belonging in the Borderlands: Narrative, Place-making, and Dwelling in Jean d'Arras's "Melusine". Exemplaria, 36(2), 109-130. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2023). Translating the Love Plot: Rewriting the Colonization of Cilician Armenia in the English Prose 'Melusine'. Mediaevalia, 44, 243-277. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2021). Book review: Lydia Zeldenrust. 'The Melusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts'. The Review of English Studies. [More Information]
Conferences
- Shaw, J. (2010). Negotiating with the self: how creative writing can teach teaching literary studies students to be better readers. 16th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs AAWP 2010, Melbourne: Australian Association of Writing Programs.
- Shaw, J. (2009). Teaching from the margins: approaching the feminine register through contemporary fantasy. 14th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs AAWP 2009, Australia: Australian Association of Writing Programs.
2024
- Shaw, J. (2024). Belonging in the Borderlands: Narrative, Place-making, and Dwelling in Jean d'Arras's "Melusine". Exemplaria, 36(2), 109-130. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2024). Borders in Translation: English Resistance to Borderless Empire in Jean d'Arras's "Melusine". In Victoria Flood (Eds.), Medieval Welsh Literature and its European Contexts: Essays in Honour of Professor Helen Fulton, (pp. 172-189). Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. [More Information]
2023
- Shaw, J. (2023). Translating the Love Plot: Rewriting the Colonization of Cilician Armenia in the English Prose 'Melusine'. Mediaevalia, 44, 243-277. [More Information]
2022
- Shaw, J. (2022). Geographies of Loss: Cilician Armenia and the Prose Romance of 'Melusine'. In Victoria Flood and Megan G. Leitch (Eds.), Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance, (pp. 209-226). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. [More Information]
2021
- Shaw, J. (2021). Book review: Lydia Zeldenrust. 'The Melusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts'. The Review of English Studies. [More Information]
2020
- Shaw, J. (2020). Melusine, Invisible Leadership and the Future (in the past). Medieval Feminist Forum, 55(2), 115-145. [More Information]
2019
- Shaw, J. (2019). Gender, spatial practice and resistance to architectural form in 'King Ponthus and the Faire Sidone'. Etudes Medievales Anglaises: A French Journal of English Medieval Studies, 94, 33-60.
2017
- Shaw, J. (2017). New Worlds in Lanval and Sir Launfal. In Tom Clark, Emily Finlay, Philippa Kelly (Eds.), Worldmaking: Literature, Language, Culture, (pp. 15-29). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [More Information]
2016
- Shaw, J. (2016). Space, Gender, and Memory in Middle English Romance: Architectures of Wonder in Melusine. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
2013
- Shaw, J. (2013). Introduction: Story Streams: Stories and their Tellers. In Jan Shaw, Philippa Kelly, L E Semler (Eds.), Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches, (pp. 1-12). Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Shaw, J., Kelly, P., Semler, L. (2013). Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2013). The Tale of Melusine in A. S. Byatt's Possession: Retelling Medieval Stories. In Jan Shaw, Philippa Kelly, L E Semler (Eds.), Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches, (pp. 222-237). Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
2012
- Shaw, J. (2012). Narratives of Identity and Authenticity: The Humanities meets Leadership Studies. In L.E.Semler, Bob Hodge and Philippa Kelly (Eds.), What is the Human Australian Voices from the Humanities, (pp. 19-34). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
2010
- Shaw, J. (2010). Negotiating with the self: how creative writing can teach teaching literary studies students to be better readers. 16th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs AAWP 2010, Melbourne: Australian Association of Writing Programs.
- Shaw, J. (2010). Papering the Cracks with Discourse: The Narrative Identity of the Authentic Leader. Leadership, 6(1), 89-108. [More Information]
2009
- Shaw, J. (2009). Feminism and the fantasy tradition: The Mists of Avalon. In Helen Fulton (Eds.), A Companion to Arthurian Literature, (pp. 463-477). West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. [More Information]
- Shaw, J. (2009). Teaching from the margins: approaching the feminine register through contemporary fantasy. 14th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs AAWP 2009, Australia: Australian Association of Writing Programs.
- Shaw, J. (2009). Troublesome Teleri: contemporary feminist utopianism in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lady of Avalon. Sydney Studies in English, 35, 73-95.
2004
- Shaw, J. (2004). Courtly Love And The Tale Of Florie In The Middle English ?Melusine? Leeds Studies in English, New Series 35, 101-120.
Selected Grants
2016
- Gendered space and narrative control in King Ponthus and the Faire Sidone, Shaw J, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney/Faculty Research Support Scheme
- West meets east meets west in Middle English romance: English interpretations of the French in Cilician Armenia, Shaw J, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/The Kerkyasharian and Kayikian Fund for Armenian Studies
2015
- Laughter and the horizon of identity in the Prose Life of Alexander and the Wars of Alexander, Shaw J, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions/Associate Investigator
- Cultures of Modernities in the Global Medieval and Pre-Modern World, Amer S, Sirantoine H, Klein E, Anstey P, Gagne J, Borghesi F, Wooding J, Shaw J, Griffiths H, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/SSSHARC Collaborative Projects Support Scheme
- Space, Gender and Memory in Middle English Romance: Architectures of Wonder in Melusine, Shaw J, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney/Faculty Research Support Scheme