Alicia Smith

Biography

Alicia Smith is a researcher and teacher in medieval studies, with research interests focused around medieval religious literature and practice, and the responsibilities and challenges of understanding that history today. She recently began a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Bergen, Norway. She has previously taught at Birkbeck, University of London and several Oxford and Cambridge colleges, and has held research fellowships at the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. She carried out her doctoral work in the English Faculty at the University of Oxford under Professor Annie Sutherland. Her work currently centres on the troubling story of the 'harlot saint' Thais, which offers a unique lens onto ideas about sexuality, sex work, and spirituality in medieval and modern culture.

Research topics

Medieval saints' lives, sex work in the Middle Ages, solitary recluses.