Virginia Blanton, Associate Professor, (B.A., Southwestern College, 1989; M.A., Binghamton University, 1991; Graduate Certificate of Medieval Studies, 1995; Ph.D., 1998). Doctoral faculty in both English and Religious Studies.  Representations of women in the religious culture of medieval England, as subjects, as patrons, as readers. Author of Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. AEthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615 (Penn State Press, 2007) and co-editor of Intertexts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Paul E. Szarmach, (Tempe, AZ: MRTS, 2008).

My research examines the production and reception of female saints' lives and how the social, historical, and political contexts of these narratives inform our understanding of medieval religious culture and medieval social life. My current book project, titled Shaping English Identities: Sanctity and Devotion in Late Medieval England, explores the reception of Anglo-Saxon saints in late medieval England, investigating the reading practices and devotional practices of clergy, monastic figures, and laity. Coordinated with this study is another book project focused on the reading practices of medieval women, titled Reading Nuns: An Edition of the Middle-English Legendary in CUL MS 2604.  My co-editor, Dr. Veronica O'Mara, and I aim to make widely available this unique collection of saints' lives, which were translated from Latin into English most likely for the devotional practices of a nunnery in East Anglia.