Karen Smyth

(1) Literary and cultural analysis of medieval and early modern texts, especially East Anglian. (2) Critical and practice-led heritage studies. (3) Medievalism and creative adaptations of the premodern. 

Working with medieval and early modern archives, I examine relationships between literature, place, identity and culture. I also explore how premodern stories can be interpreted and adapted in multimodal forms through sensory, embodied and cognitive ways.

Using the Paston letters, I have undertaken collaborative research with the heritage, creative, digital and wellbeing industries, as profiled here: Exploring Health through the Medical Humanities - CreativeUEA In my latest monograph, interest in this approach extended into a critique of autoethnography to explore identities and narrative through critical-creative writing strategies (2025). Previous publications focused on connections with place and community storytelling. I began my career with literary analysis of medieval time perceptions of the self, nation and Everyman. This included a monograph on constructs of time in Lydgate and Hoccleve's poetry (Ashgate, 2011), and a co-edited book collection on medieval lifecycles (Brepols, 2013).

Research Impact

As Director of the 'Paston Footprints' project, I pioneer digital, health and creative interventions in reshaping heritage storytelling and curation in East Anglia. Through this multi-award and multi-funded project, UEA's Civic and Creative Health agendas are promoted, with the first-ever multi-sector partnership programme for Paston heritage. This has included over sixty regional and national partners, with involvement from non-traditional heritage demographics. Co-productions have resulted in ten experiential Heritage Walks | Paston Footprints. There is also an interactive Paston community research portal: This Is Paston: Welcome to the World of the Pastons.  

Previously, I had over a decade's experience in co-productions with Norfolk communities focusing on Medieval East Anglian figures such as William Cunningham, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, John Lydgate and medieval drama.

2025 -  Honorary Associate Professor in Literature.
Associate Professor in Medieval Literature, UEA.
Lecturer in Old and Middle English, University of Nottingham.
Bloomfield Visiting Fellow, Harvard University, USA.
Lecturer in Literature, The Open University.
Tutor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Queen's University of Belfast.