Tell us about your research interests
Above all, I’m interested in how medieval English people were connected to a broader global world. My research examines how the very earliest English writers imagined other places, particularly in the ninth and tenth centuries, when ‘England’ was beginning to exist for the first time. I’m intrigued by what the middle ages can teach us about the cultural contingency of our own world-views; what they can help us to understand about national and international identities; and how they can help us to critically and meaningfully reinterrogate ideas of ‘Englishness’ or ‘English literature’.
Which book has had the biggest impact on you?
Reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a teenager was a really foundational moment for me. Then, as an undergraduate, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was responsible for making me a medievalist, despite my best efforts: I immediately fell in love with its language, its colour, and its sheer richness and have never looked back. In more recent times, Samira Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life profoundly changed my ways of thinking about life both in and beyond the academy, and Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian holds a special place in my heart.
What do you do in your spare time?
Too many things! I love cinema. I’m also a huge fan of video games, particularly narrative-driven ones. I’ll try more or less any crafting hobby, with varying degrees of success. I play bass guitar. And I’ve recently taken up yoga.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Mostly I just wanted to write, but weirdly when I was about thirteen I wanted to be a forensic facial reconstruction expert. I saw Professor Caroline Wilkinson talking about her work on TV and thought she was the coolest person I’d ever seen. I remember ordering her book as a special inter-library loan and my local library giving me a very stern warning about not damaging it because it cost £150 to replace! That was my very first experience of the cost of niche academic books.
Who were your childhood heroes?
Snufkin from the Moomins; my grandparents; Prof. Caroline Wilkinson (see above).
What teacher had the greatest impact on you?
At secondary school: my English teacher, Dr Anne Button, whose encouragement and love of literature made me think seriously about the possibilities of continuing to study English. I was also extremely fortunate to get to attend a state school which offered Latin, and I could not do the work I do now without the passionate enthusiasm of my Latin teacher, the late Myfanwy Giddings.
At undergraduate level, at the University of Warwick: I wouldn’t be where I am today without Professor Paul Botley. His wisdom, kindness, mentorship, and willingness to endure many essays on Ovid and Vergil masquerading as essays on Chaucer and Spenser made me who I am. And last but by no means least, Professor Christiania Whitehead, who taught me to see the richness of the Middle Ages, introduced me to saints’ lives (the genre I now study), and brought me to my first medieval conference.
Do you have pets?
I’ve kept gerbils for many years. They’re great characters. According to legend, a gerbil saved Ghengis Khan by biting an assassin on the foot! I currently have a duprasi gerbil named Noodle: he hasn’t needed to save me from any assassins, but he’s saved me from many a bad day.
What is your favourite music?
It’s an unsatisfying answer, but really all sorts: I usually write to metal, read to video game soundtracks, cook to jazz or tacky Italian pop, and travel to rock, alternative and folk. Some current favourites are Nine Inch Nails, Katherine Priddy, The Amazing Devil, Sonata Arctica and the Clair Obscur soundtrack.
If you could have dinner with five famous people from history, who would they be?
Tove Jansson, Audre Lorde, Wu Zao, Gwerful Mechain, Sappho. If we could get over the translation issue, I think it would lead to a lot of really interesting conversation.
How would your friends describe you?
Laughs often. Easily distracted by small animals. Surprisingly good at poker.
What do you like most about your job?
No two days are ever the same, and I learn something new every single day. I feel immensely fortunate to be surrounded by colleagues working on an extremely diverse range of topics both within English Literature and far beyond it: they always broaden my horizons. At Jesus College I get to work alongside colleagues working on Jesuit drama, parliamentary cultures, bat conservation, universal basic income, neo-Latin literature, equality in garment supply chains, forced migration, and so much more: it’s really something very special to be a part of. And my students constantly bring new light to the oldest English Literature: I think I could teach The Dream of the Rood for hundreds of years and never stop discovering new ways of seeing and understanding it through their eyes.
Why are we here?
To leave this place better than we found it, to enjoy whatever time we have, and to never stop learning!
Luisa Ostacchini is the Nelson J. Carr Career Development Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. She works on Old English and Anglo-Latin Literature, and is the author of Translating Europe in Ælfric’s Lives of Saints (2024). She is currently writing a book on the global worldview of the Old English Martyrology.
