P.J. (Patrick) Outhwaite, Dr

OVERVIEW

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Culture. Before coming to Groningen, I worked at McGill University's English Department. I teach BA and MA English Literature courses, largely on medieval topics.

All of my research is characterised by a close engagement with unpublished manuscript sources and an approach that interprets literature in its broader cultural and material contexts. My research covers a wide area of late-medieval literary culture. I specialise in late-medieval English literature and culture. I am particularly interested in palaeography, codicology, archives, and manuscripts; the medical humanities; law and literature; theology and intellectual history; heresy and dissidence. I have several peer-reviewed articles in journals such as The Chaucer Review (2021), Journal of English and Germanic Philology (2020), Studia Mediaevalia Bohemica (2019), and Journal of the Early Book Society (2018). I have also recently published a descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine (2021).

My first book project explores the imagery of Christ as a Divine Physician with a particular focus on religious controversies involving preaching in the vernacular and lay access to the sacraments in England and Central Europe. The book investigates the ways in which both the Church and medical institutions were shaped by similar debates involving Christ, forever changing the way that people engaged with physical and spiritual healing.

My current NWO-funded VENI project, "Licensing ‘Lechecraft’", addresses the scepticism of patients in late-medieval England. During the fifteenth century, many patients had little faith in professional medicine, and increasingly turned to unauthorized and unqualified healers. Yet attempts at regulation did not help to regain the lost confidence of disaffected patients. This project investigates the causes of patient scepticism in late-medieval England and the ways in which legislators attempted to regain their trust.

EDUCATION

• PhD., McGill University, 2021
• MA., King’s College London, 2016
• MSt., University of Oxford, 2015
• BA., hons. University of Bristol, 2014

GRANTS AND AWARDS

• NWO VENI (2024-2029)
• B. Jenkes Dissertation Prize (2021)
• Schull Yang International Experience Award (2019)
• Fonds de recherche du Québec: Société et culture (2018-21)
• Slava Klima Prize for Excellence in English Literary Studies (2018)
• McGill University Graduate Excellence Award (2016-18)