Professor Christine Elizabeth Fell

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(1938 – 1998) taught English at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

from 1971 until 1993. She was especially noted for her contributions to

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that Woman, women have played in history and Historiography, the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights, women's rights throughout recorded history, ...

Career

Fell was awarded a first-class Honors in English from

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

and later completed an MA in the Department of Scandinavian Studies at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Professor Fell was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Nottingham from 1986 to 1989, and Head of the English department from 1990 to 1993. She moved onto become the first Director of Humanities Research Centre in 1994, continuing until her retirement in 1997 due to ill health. Her interests were in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

vocabulary and semantics and she established Nottingham as a leading centre for

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

Studies. Her book ''Women in Anglo-Saxon England'', was an important publication in the history of medieval gender studies, and has been published in 31 different editions and formats. She was appointed an OBE for her contribution to Early English Studies. She died in 1998 and is commemorated by a trust fund set up in her name, and a sundial on the wall of Highfields House, inscribed in Old English in the manner of the dial from Kirkdale church, North Yorkshire. Fell was honoured by a posthumous ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' in 2002 and, in 2007, a cluster of essays inspired by Fell's subjects and methods in the journal '' Nottingham Medieval Studies'' by the scholars Christina Lee, Jayne Carroll, Carole Hough, Anne L. Klinck, and Timothy Bolton.

Publications

* * * There are 31 listed editions. *

References

1938 births 1998 deaths Academics of the University of Nottingham Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London Alumni of University College London Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Members of the Order of the British Empire Old Norse studies scholars Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{UK-academic-stub