Abigail G. Robertson is a PhD candidate in Medieval Studies and a Bilinski Fellow in the English department at the University of New Mexico. She received her M.A. in Literary and Textual Studies as well as a certificate in Digital Humanities at Bowling Green State University (2014) and B.A. in English Literature The Ohio State University (2012). Her dissertation investigates the life of the legendary St. Swithun of Winchester who served as bishop in life and source for miracles in death. Synthesizing the disciplines of art history, history, architecture, and literature to illustrate the emergence of the cult that surfaced after Swithun’s death, Abigail’s research details how the remains of the saint influenced the architecture of the cathedral into which his body was ultimately relocated, the religious writing that inspired pilgrims to visit his shrine, and the art objects that sought to represent his holiness in a way that would symbolize with gems and gold the power of his remains. She is also interested in paleography and codicology and how the digital humanities can aid in the enrichment of editing and cataloguing practices for the purpose of editions.

Abigail presents frequently at regional and national conferences and is currently looking forward to returning to both the International Congress for Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI and the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK in May and July respectively. Additionally, Abigail will be giving papers at the Winchester Royal City conference in Winchester, UK in July and the International Society for Anglo-Saxonists conference at the University of Hawaii in August for which she was selected to attend the Stanford Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) Early Career Workshop in Digital Humanities and awarded a travel grant.

In 2017, Abigail was named University of New Mexico Distinguished Student Leader of the Year by the Graduate and Professional Student Association and awarded the Paul Davis and Cheryl Fresch Literature TA Teaching Award by the UNM Department of English. In the winter of 2016, Abigail was selected to participate in the Modern and Medieval Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age workshop organized by the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Warburg Institute, and the University of London. This workshop, funded by Marie Curie Actions as part of DARIAH-EU, involved five days of intensive training on the analysis, description and editing of medieval or modern manuscripts where participants received a solid theoretical foundation and hands-on experience in cataloguing and editing manuscripts for both print and digital formats. Also in 2016, Abigail was awarded the Mary McDonald Award for English Scholarship from the University of New Mexico Department of English.

Abigail is a member of the editorial team We the Humanities, an online organization designed to spread the diversity and value of the humanities, as well as a video blogger for jobs.co.uk through the University of Warwick where she talks her experiences as an American PhD student in the humanities.

Abigail served as the Graduate Representative on 2016 Program Committee for the 49th Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association conference which was held at the University of New Mexico in June 2016. Abigail is also the Vice President of  the Medieval Studies Student Association and the President of the English Graduate Student Association. Additionally, she is a member of the Medieval Academy of America, the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, and the International Society for Anglo-Saxonists.

You can follow Abigail on Twitter and academia.edu.

External Links

Personal Website