Dr Eleanor Myerson

BA (Cantab); MSt (Oxon); PhD (London)

Research Fellow

Biography

E.K. Myerson received her PhD in medieval literature from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2022. In her thesis, 'Narratives of Medieval Syriana: Trade, Dialogue and Melancholia 1291–1516', she drew on the artworks of Michael Rakowitz and Paul Gilroy’s theory of postcolonial melancholia as conceptual frameworks for understanding late medieval English culture in the aftermath of the collapse of the Crusader Kingdom. She studied at Oxford University for her MSt in English 650-1550, where she held the Jeremy Griffiths Memorial Studentship (2017-18). She read English (BA) at Cambridge University, where she received the Derek Brewer Prize for Medieval Literature, and the T.R. Henn Prize for Original Composition. She grew up in North London.

Research

E.K. Myerson is a cultural critic and researcher. Her first book, The Desire for "Syria" in Medieval England, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. Her research practice is multi-media, with audio-visual and creative-critical outputs in addition to more traditional scholarship. She was selected as a Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writer (2021–22), and her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Wasafiri, postmedieval, New Medieval Literatures, GLQ, Wellcome Collection Stories and the TLS. Her new project at Emmanuel is provisionally entitled: 'Sour Grapes: Vinegar and the Aftermath of the Crusades in England', and will explore the religious, medical and political significance of vinegar and ‘vinegary’ feelings.

Prior to joining Emmanuel, she held the Parker Library Early-Career Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2022–23). Her work at the Parker Library focused on the medieval English reception of Arabic, across visual, literary and practical manuscripts. Based on this research, she curated an exhibition of in the Wilkins Room: 'Anchorless Bodies: Navigating Arabic in Medieval Manuscripts with works by Emii Alrai' (25th May – 25th September 2023, supported by an AHRC/ESRC IAA grant and featuring astrolabes loaned from the Whipple Museum). Supported by the Landburgh Fund, E.K. Myerson is producing an essay-film document of the exhibition, working with cinematographer Bartek Dziadosz.

Previously, she held a research position at Birkbeck College (funded by Birkbeck ISSF/Wellcome Trust), exploring the filmmaker, artist and writer Derek Jarman's response to medieval medicine, in the context of the AIDS crisis (February–July 2022). As part of this project, she completed a course in Audio-Visual Practice as Research Method at the Derek Jarman Lab, and made a collaborative essay-film with artist Sophie Mei Birkin and Bartek Dziadosz: 'submerged reliquary of a Kentish saint', which was screened at the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image.

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