College: Newnham
Email: crw54@cam.ac.uk
Supervisor: Dr Miranda Griffin
Research Topic: Imagined, Constructed, and Transtemporal Publics in Medieval French Literatures
About
Cat Watts is a PhD candidate in the French department. She convenes the Cambridge Medieval Literatures and Cultures Seminar (CamMedSem) and the French Graduate Research Seminar (FGRS).
Research
Cat Watts specialises in medieval French literature and contemporary anglophone pop culture. She is especially interested in literatures outside the printed book, queer and postcolonial theory, theories of space and time, and Internet culture.
Her PhD looks at the ontology of the manuscript, translation imperii and American myth, Arthurian literature, countercultures in hagiographic transmission, resistance narratives, and transtemporal and medium-agnostic legacy.
Scholarships/Prizes
Cat is generously funded by an AHRC Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship, with partner funding by Newnham College
Teaching
2021-2: Lecturer on FR7
2020-21: Teaching assistant on FRB1
Conference papers
‘A seat at the table: Understanding Hegemonic Systemics Through the Round Table’, Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, American University of Paris, France, January 2022.
‘Make Mine Medieval: A Genealogy of Arthurian Romance and American Comics’, Joint International Bande-Dessinée Society and International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, University of Cambridge, UK, June 2021
‘Rereading Lancelot Against Whiteness’, International Courtly Literature Society Conference, University of Cambridge, UK, April 2021
‘Medievalisms, Magic, and Macula: Encountering the medieval and the modern in Asobo Studio’s A Plague Tale: Innocence’, with Liam McLeod, The Middle Ages in Modern Games Conference, Twitter, July 2020
‘Griefers and Gatekeepers: Reevaluating Realtime Gaming in the 21st Century’. Tacit Engagement in the Digital Age Conference, University of Cambridge, UK, June 2019.
‘De Civitate Mentis: The Singular-Plural Community of the Medieval Religious Mind’. Early Medieval, Medieval, Reformation, Early Modern (EMREM) Annual Symposium, University of Birmingham, UK, May 2019.
‘No Holding Back: Stasis and Cycle in La Queste del Saint Graal’. Cambridge French Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge, UK, April 2019.
‘Modelling Asexuality in Arthurian Literary Space’. Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies (GCMS) Conference,University of Reading, UK, March 2019.
‘”Four-Color Fantasies”: American comics, Arthurian romance, and the Boom-Bust Cycle’. Central and Late Middle Ages (CALM) Graduate Workshop, University of Cambridge, UK, November 2018.
‘Das Bild der Anderen’. A conference funded by the European Union to foster intercultural relationships across the EU and with refugees. Grafenbach, Austria, 2016.
Publications
McLeod, Liam & Watts, Cat, ‘Medievalisms, Magic, and Macula: Encountering the medieval and the modern in Asobo Studio’s A Plague Tale: Innocence’, in The Medieval in Modern Games: Conference Proceedings Vol. 1, ed. Robert Houghton (2020) https://issuu.com/theuniversityofwinchester/docs/mamg20_proceedings/5 [31/10/21]
Other activities and roles
2021-present: Library Invigilator at the Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Library
2015-present: Front of House Staff at the ADC Theatre
2018-9 & 2020-1: Postgraduate Representative for Modern and Medieval Languages
Personal website
Find me on Instagram at @gauvain4president to follow my work!
For professional enquiries, please email me.
My twitter, @catchantwatts, is a legacy account and is no longer active.
