Jo Gerrard
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Email
jg18989@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
- Faery Folklore
- Fiona Macleod
- Folklore on the Western Isles of Scotland
Biography
I have had a long and varied career from frontline NHS, canine hydrotherapy and in horticulture before entering academia. I have always had an interest in the otherworldly, nature, the odd, and the uncanny before working on it as a full time profession.
Qualifications
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BA hons Creative Writing University of Greenwich (2018)
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MA Wild Writing: Literature, Language, and the Environment University of Essex (2019)
Research and professional activities
Thesis
How Beautiful they are The Lordly Ones: Where are Fiona Macleods Faeries? A study in Landscape, Literature and Nature.
My plan is to look at Fiona’s work and context within the UK - predominately in Scotland, but as I look into the crossover into Celtic/Christian myth there will be instances of overlapping into other areas of the UK (Brigid, Manannan). This will take me physically to locations where there will be memory mapping within the thesis. This is not just a straight forward critical or investigative thesis - this is an ‘on foot’ thesis, where I will get to grips with the actual terrain and Genii Loci
Supervisor: Dr James Canton
Research interests
Fiona Macleod
Scottish nature writer circa 1890-1905 - pen name of William Sharp
White horses
White horses have been in folklore for thousands of years. From Hengiest and Horse during the Anglos-Saxon era which led the county of Kent with the symbol of the white horse, the numerous white horses in the UK landscape, and also including the payment of a white horse the islanders of Iona are said to owe the sea god Manannan every nine years.
The Liminal/In-between places/Thin places
Areas such as the Isle of Iona and Time such as dusk - anywhere that could be considered an in-between place/gateways to the Otherworld
Psychopomps/Animism/Indwellers/the chthonic
Nature spirits and those who aid passage to the Otherworlds, particularly Indo-European.
Lucy Bruce/Ella Horsey
The Fairy Investigation Society circa 1950s/60s and their work on the Isle of Iona and Erraid