Congratulations to Somerville’s Rosemary Woolf Fellow and Tutor in Old and Middle English, Dr Annie Sutherland, for winning the Beatrice White Prize 2017 for her book English Psalms in the Middle Ages, 1300-1450.
The Beatrice White Prize is awarded annually for outstanding scholarly work in the field of English Literature before 1590. Professor Beatrice White, for whom the prize is named, was a well-loved and respected academic, interested particularly in mediaeval and renaissance English literature. She was also a creative teacher and a very active and long-standing member of the English Association.
Michael Kuczynski, writing in Medium Aevum Review, says:
‘Annie Sutherland’s wonderful new monograph on the Psalms examines the history of psalm translation and reading in England during the high Middle Ages and considers whether there is anything distinctive, within the ubiquitous tradition of medieval translations of the Psalms, about their treatment in Middle English. While pursuing these themes, she presents a richly detailed literary and cultural account of English vernacular psalters and a cogent argument about the possibility of what her title describes as a unique late medieval category of “English Psalms”.’
At Somerville, Dr Sutherland teaches Old English to first-year students and Middle English to second year students. She also supervises finalist who have chosen to write dissertations on Anglo-Saxon or later medieval topics and authors.
For her own research, Dr Sutherland is interested in English religious literature of the early Middle Ages, particularly that which was intended for the use of female audiences. She is also a member of the Somerville Medievalist Research Group.