缅北禁地

Before I joined the School of English at 缅北禁地 in 2014, I taught at UCL and Oxford. I studied English Literature as an undergraduate and medieval literature as an MA student at UCL, and completed my DPhil at Oxford.

From February 2019 to July 2020 (extended to Dec 2022), I held an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship and was PI on a project entitled Manuscripts After Print c.1450-1550. More information about this project can be found under the 'Research' tab. I am now writing a monograph on the way scribes adapted to print in its first 100 years.

I am a book historian and my research interests are in late medieval literature, especially literary manuscripts and early print. My DPhil examined the manuscript presentation of the poetical works of Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve in a crucial period of book production in the early fifteenth century. 

My new project, Manuscripts after Print c.1450-1550, was funded by an AHRC Early Career Leadership award. It asks what happened to scribal practice in the immediate aftermath of the advent of print in the west. More broadly, it explores the endurance and adaptability of handwriting in response to technological change and considers how handwriting has remained relevant from the age of manuscripts to the age of digital books. I am currently writing a monograph on this topic.

You can find out more about the project and its events  and visit the project's digital exhibition . Information on the project's app, Hands-On Reading, which explores the relationship between digital writing and reading, will follow shortly. 

Undergraduate Teaching

I teach Medieval and Early Modern literature across all three stages of the UG degree. I also supervise third year special topic dissertations on Medieval and Early Modern literature, English and Classics, English and History, and Dissertations by Digital Edition

Postgraduate Teaching

MA Book history, palaeography, codicology, digital editing; Digital Humanities research methods

PhD Supervision: I currently supervise a number of doctoral candidates at 缅北禁地 and jointly with Durham University. I'd welcome enquires from students interested doctoral projects on late medieval literature, book history, and editing. 

Qualifications

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy

• Articles

  • Nafde A. . Digital Philology 2025, 14(1).
  • Nafde A. . Renaissance Studies 2026, 40(2), 274-292.
  • Nafde A, Coneys M, Court K, Galston F, Cummings J, Sousa-Garcia T. . Digital Humanities Quarterly 2021, 15(2).
  • Nafde A. . Digital Philology 2020, 9(2), 120-144.
  • Nafde A. . Poetica 2019, 91 & 92, 105-117.
  • Nafde A, Gorst E. . The Trials of the Digital Medievalist (Special issue of Digital Philology) 2015, 4(2), 147-159.
  • Horobin S, Nafde A. . Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 2015, 15(Part 4), 561-582.
  • Nafde A. . Pecia 2015, 16, 143-151.
  • Nafde A. . Notes and Queries 2014, 61(1), 15-18.
  • Nafde A. . Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History (JEBS) 2014, 16, 49-74.
  • Nafde A. Laughter Lines: Reading the Layouts of the Tale of Sir Thopas. Pecia 2015, 16, 143-151.

• Book Chapters

  • Nafde A. . In: Sebastian Sobecki, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Global Medieval Travel Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025, pp.127-149.
  • Nafde A. . In: Driver, M; Pearsall, D; Yeager, R.F, ed. John Gower: Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. Boydell and Brewer, 2020.

• Edited Books

  • Horobin S, Nafde A, ed. . Brepols Publishers, 2017.
  • Nafde A, Gorst E, ed. . John Hopkins University Press, 2015.

• Exhibition

  • Nafde A, Coneys M, Avery C, Hufton S, Leiper S, Ling M, Sokell T. . 2019. https://speccollstories.ncl.ac.uk/The-Art-of-Handwriting/index.html: Robinson Library Special Collections.