Jane Roberts (literary scholar)

Jane Roberts, FSA, FEA, is a Northern Irish literary scholar. She was the Professor of English Language and Medieval Literature at King's College London from 1998 to 2001.

Early life and education

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Jane Roberts was raised in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. After attending Cambridge House School, she read modern languages at Trinity College Dublin graduating in 1956,[1] then completed a diploma of higher education and an MLitt in 1959[1] with a thesis on women in Anglo-Saxon England. She then studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, from 1959 to 1961; she was awarded a DPhil in 1967.[2]

Academia

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Between 1961 and 1964, she was an assistant at the University of Glasgow. Promotion to a lectureship in English literature came in 1964. In 1968, she was appointed to a lectureship in Old and Middle English at University College Dublin. She was there for a year, moving to King's College London in 1969 to take up a lectureship in English. She was promoted to a readership in 1982 and a personal chair ten years later. She was appointed to the Professorship of English Language and Medieval Literature in 1998.[2] She retired in 2001[3] and was appointed to an emeritus professorship at King's and a senior research fellowship at the Institute of English Studies.[4]

Roberts's books include The Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book (1979), A Thesaurus of Old English (co-authored with Christian Kay, 1995), A Guide to Scripts Used in English Writing up to 1550 (2005), and (as co-editor) Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (2009).[4] She was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2009.[5] She was also elected a fellow of the English Association in 2014.[6] She was the subject of a Festschrift published in 2001.[7]

In 2022 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Sherlock, D.J.M. (2006). Trinity College Record Volume 2006. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-871408-07-5.
  2. ^ a b Louise M. Sylvester and Christian J. Kay, "Jane Roberts: A Personal Tribute", in Christian J. Kay and Louise M. Sylvester (eds), Lexis and Texts in Early English: Studies Presented to Jane Roberts, Costerus New Series, no. 133 (Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 2001), pp. v-vi.
  3. ^ "Professor Jane Roberts", King's College London. Archived at the Internet Archive on 16 November 2001.
  4. ^ a b "Professor Jane Roberts", King's College London. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Prof Jane Roberts", Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  6. ^ "List of Fellows" Archived 2021-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, The English Association. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  7. ^ Christian J. Kay and Louise M. Sylvester (eds), Lexis and Texts in Early English: Studies Presented to Jane Roberts, Costerus New Series, no. 133 (Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 2001)
  8. ^ "Admittance Day 2022". www.ria.ie. Royal Irish Academy. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.