International Arthurian Society recognises Catz postgraduate

Ellie O’Shea (2019, French), a PhD student at St Catharine’s, has received an Arthurian Postgraduate Award for her contributions to Arthurian studies. The award is given by the Eugène Vinaver Trust, in association with the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society and under the terms of a bequest from W. R. J.  Barron, a distinguished scholar and former president of the Society.

Ellie explains, “My PhD research centers loosely around the relationship between narrative and genealogy in Arthurian prose cycles, with a particular emphasis on matrilineality. I am currently working on the role of mothers and the mourning motif in relation to narrative in romances involving quests for the Holy Grail – a true passion project that I have been refining since my BA! I have always been fascinated by the complexity of the fictional Arthurian universe, from medieval authors discussing how taxes might work in a fictional kingdom, to strange customs and imagined distance measurements. I hope that my focus on Arthurian genealogy might eventually yield interesting insights on the ways in which we organise time and history according to various ideological parameters.”

The Society wrote to Ellie of their pleasure to support a ‘highly original’ and ‘well thought-out’ research project involving an ‘often-neglected area of Arthurian studies’. The jury praised the quality of her writing and expressed excitement to monitor her progress and any future output.

The award is intended to subsidise the winner’s postgraduate and research-related costs. It will support Ellie’s upcoming scheduled speaker session at the 26^th Congress of the International Arthurian Society in July 2021.

Find out more about studying Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine’s.