prof. S.I. (Sebastian) Sobecki
Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture; Professor of Old Germanic (by courtesy)
Research
Research units:
Research interests
Sebastian Sobecki specialises in English literature from Chaucer to the Reformation; scribes, archives, and manuscripts; emerging ideas of authorship and literary culture (esp. Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, Kempe, Lydgate, and Skelton); connections between law and literature; political writing and intellectual history; travel, Anglo-European contact, and global medieval literature; and continuities between medieval and early modern literary culture.
He has authored three books: Last Words: The Public Self and the Social Author in Late Medieval England (Oxford UP, 2019); Unwritten Verities: The Making of England’s Vernacular Legal Culture, 1463-1549 (Notre Dame UP, 2015); and The Sea and Medieval English Literature (D.S. Brewer, 2008). He has produced four editions of primary texts: Medieval English Travel: A Critical Anthology, ed. with Anthony Bale (Oxford UP, 2019), An Edition of Miles Hogarde’s A Mirroure of Myserie, 1557 (Punctum Books, 2020), and the first two volumes of a 14-volume edition of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (Oxford UP, 2020), which will include 70 of the medieval narratives and documents printed by Hakluyt, among them the voyages to Mongolia of William of Rubruck and John of Plano Carpini. He has also edited three collections and a special journal issue: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature, ed. with Candace Barrington (Cambridge UP, 2019); A Critical Companion to John Skelton, with John Scattergood (D.S. Brewer, 2018); The Sea and Englishness in the Middle Ages (D.S. Brewer, 2011); and, with Matthew Boyd Goldie, Our Seas of Islands: New Approaches to British Insularity in the Late Middle Ages, in Postmedieval 7:4 (2016). His articles have appeared in Speculum, English Literary History, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Renaissance Studies, The English Historical Review, The Chaucer Review, and The Review of English Studies, among others. Sobecki has received research grants and fellowships from All Souls College, Oxford; Yale University; Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); the Huntington Library, San Marino (USA); the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); Québec's FQRSC; the German Research Foundation (DFG); and SAUTE in Switzerland. In 2016, he was awarded the John Hurt Fisher Prize by the John Gower Society.
Prior to coming to the Netherlands, Sobecki was an Assistant Professor in Later Medieval Literature at McGill University's English Department. He chaired Groningen’s English Department from 2010 to 2014, and sits on the Faculty of Arts Cluster Board 2 (Cultures, Languages, Literatures, and Politics). He is also on the Council of the Hakluyt Society, the Advisory Committee for the Index of Middle English Prose, and, among others, the editorial board of the book series Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800: Cultures of the Sea (Amsterdam UP). Sobecki is the voice behind the popular Speke, Parott! YouTube video. Together with Michelle Karnes, he is the editor of Studies in the Age of Chaucer, the periodical of The New Chaucer Society.
He is currently editing a substantial literary history, Medieval Travel Writing: A Global History (Cambridge UP), the first book dedicated to global medieval travel and geographical literature from Iceland to China. In addition, he is preparing a collected edition of Hoccleve's works and writing an introduction to the poet.
Publications
Last Words: The Public Self and the Social Author in Late Medieval England
Sobecki, S., 28-Nov-2019, Oxford University Press. 240 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book › Academic › peer-review
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Law and Literature
Sobecki, S. (ed.) & Barrington, C. (ed.), Jul-2019, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Cambridge Companions to Literature)Research output: Book/Report › Book editing › Academic
Medieval English Travel: A Critical Anthology
Sobecki, S. & Bale, A., 2019, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 528 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book › Academic › peer-review
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 41
Sobecki, S. (ed.) & Karnes, M. (ed.), 19-Dec-2019, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. (Studies in the Age of Chaucer)Research output: Book/Report › Book editing › Academic
A Critical Companion to John Skelton
Sobecki, S. (ed.) & Scattergood, J. (ed.), Nov-2018, Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer. 245 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book editing › Academic
Wards and Widows: Troilus and Criseyde and New Documents on Chaucer's Life
Sobecki, S., Jun-2019, In : ELH. 86, 2, p. 413-440 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
The Earliest Record of John Lydgate at Hatfield Regis
Sobecki, S., 2019, In : Chaucer review. 54, 2, p. 216-220 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Hares, Rabbits, Pheasants: Piers Plowman and William Longewille, a Norfolk Rebel in 1381
Sobecki, S., Apr-2018, In : The Review of English Studies. 69, 289, p. 216-236 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
A Southwark Tale: Gower, the Poll Tax of 1381, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
Sobecki, S., Jul-2017, In : Speculum-A journal of medieval studies. 92, 3, p. 630-660 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower's Autograph Hand
Sobecki, S., Oct-2015, In : Speculum-A journal of medieval studies. 90, 4, 40 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
“The writyng of this tretys”: Margery Kempe’s Son and the Authorship of Her Book
Sobecki, S., Nov-2015, In : Studies in the Age of Chaucer. 37, p. 257-283 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Unwritten Verities: The Making of England's Vernacular Legal Culture, 1463-1549
Sobecki, S., Mar-2015, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 264 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book › Academic › peer-review
Lydgate’s Kneeling Retraction: The Testament as a Literary Palinode
Sobecki, S., Jan-2015, In : Chaucer review. 49, 3, p. 265-293 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
John Peyton's A Relation of the State of Polonia and the Accession of King James I, 1598-1603
Sobecki, S. I., 2014, In : The English Historical Review. 129, 540, p. 1079-1097 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Bureaucratic Verse: William Lyndwood, the Privy Seal and the Form of The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye
Sobecki, S. I., 2010, In : New Medieval Literatures. 12, p. 251-288 38 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
The Sea and Medieval English Literature
Sobecki, S. I., 2008, Cambridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer. 205 p. (Studies in medieval romance; vol. 5)Research output: Book/Report › Book › Academic › peer-review
Press / Media
The Guardian: Document casts new light on Chaucer 'rape' case
07/06/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research › Popular
BBC Radio 4, expert interview on medieval travel writing
01/04/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities › Popular
The Guardian: Archive find shows medieval mystic Margery Kempe's autobiography 'doesn't lie'
08/05/2015
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research › Popular
BBC: The 500-year-old poem that captivated Reddit
08/10/2014
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Other › Popular
Gazeta Wyborcza: Przełomowe dla historii literatury angielskiej odkrycie w Gdańsku
03/06/2015
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research › Popular
Six Degrees of Chaucer: How Southwark Shaped The Canterbury Tales
01/06/2018
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research › Popular
Activities
Studies in the Age of Chaucer (Journal)
Sebastian Sobecki (Editor), Michelle Karnes (Editor)1-Jan-2019 → 1-Jan-2024Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorial activity › Academic
The New Chaucer Society (External organisation)
Sebastian Sobecki (Member)2016 → 2018Activity: Membership › Membership of committee › Academic
London Chaucer Conference
Sebastian Sobecki (Keynote speaker)2017Activity: Talk or presentation › Professional
The Hakluyt Society (External organisation)
Sebastian Sobecki (Member)2015Activity: Membership › Membership of board › Academic
Travel and Conflict in the Medieval and Early Modern Period
Sebastian Sobecki (Keynote speaker)2015Activity: Talk or presentation › Professional
Prizes
Yale University Beinecke Library Fellowship
Sebastian Sobecki (Recipient), 2019
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively › Academic
Visiting Fellowship, All Souls College, Oxford
Sebastian Sobecki (Recipient), Jan-2016
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively › Academic
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library
Sebastian Sobecki (Recipient), Jul-2015
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively › Academic
FQRSC Grant - Établissement de nouveau professeurs-chercheurs 2008-2011
Sebastian Sobecki (Recipient), 2008
Prize › Academic
FQRSC Grant - Soutien aux équipes de recherche (PI: Rob Wisnovsky) 2008-2012
Sebastian Sobecki (Recipient), 2008
Prize › Academic
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