Dr Gareth Lloyd Evans

My primary field of research is Old Norse-Icelandic literature, and I have secondary research interests in Old and Middle English literature. I am particularly interested in questions of gender, sexuality, and emotion, and of identity more broadly. I am also interested in questions of poetics and style. I am author of Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders (Oxford University Press, 2019) and co-editor of Masculinities in Old Norse Literature (D. S. Brewer, 2020). 

My current research focuses on the representation of emotion in Old Norse literature. I am working on a monograph entitled The Poetics of Emotion in Old Norse Saga Narrative (under contract with Boydell and Brewer) and am co-editing two collections of essays (Saga Emotions, under contract with Manchester University Press, and New Studies on Emotion in Old Norse Literature, under contract with Brepols). I am also convenor and Principal Investiagtor of the AHRC-funded 'Old Norse Emotion Network', which will run from 2024 to 2026.

My other current projects include a co-edited special issue of the journal English Studies on 'Deconstructing Masculinities in Old English Literature' that will appear in 2024, and an international conference - 'Affiliations: Towards a Theory of Cross-Temporal Comparison' - that will take place at St Anne's College, Oxford, in May 2024.

I am a Council Member of the Viking Society for Northern Research and am one of the editors of its journal, Saga-Book of the Viking Society for Northern Research; I also serve as Saga-Book's reviews editor. I am a steering committee member and treasurer of the Gender and Medieval Studies Group, and am a member of the editorial board for the Brepols book series, Gender and Sexuality in the Global Middle Ages. I am also co-convenor of the Old Norse in Oxford Research Seminar.

I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral students. I am currently supervising one doctoral student - Grace O'Duffy -  who works on sexual violence against women in Old Norse literature. For further information about studying Old Norse at graduate level at Oxford, click here.

 

Masculinities in Old Norse Literature book cover

Cover for Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of Icelanders

  • Old and Middle English
  • Old Norse-Icelandic
  • English Language
  • Literary and Critical theory
     

I teach widely throughout the medieval period. At St Hilda’s, I teach Prelims Paper 1a (‘Introduction to English Language’), Prelims Paper 2 (‘Early Medieval Literature, c. 650-1350’), Course I FHS Paper 2 (‘Literature in English, 1350-1550’), and specialist papers for Course II (the medieval-focussed pathway through the Oxford degree). I also teach Old Norse for various Oxford colleges and for Oxford's English Faculty (at both BA and MSt/MPhil level). Before coming to St Hilda’s, I was Teaching Fellow at Durham University where I taught Old Norse and Old English.

 

Publications