Professor Singer’s research focuses on medieval French and Italian literature and culture; particular interests include literature and medicine, the cultural history of science and technology, disability studies, posthuman theory, thing theory, and theories of language and voice.
Professor Singer is the author of Blindness and Therapy in Late Medieval French and Italian Poetry (2011) and Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor (2018), both published in Boydell and Brewer’s Gallica series. She is currently at work on a special issue of the journal Digital Philology on the theme of “Stranger/Medieval Things.” Her new book project explores the uses of fetal and infant speech in medieval French literature, law, and philosophy of language: read more about it here. https://humanities.wustl.edu/features/julie-singer-baby-talk-medieval-french-literature
Professor Singer teaches language and literature courses on a broad range of topics. Her undergraduate and graduate seminars have included the cultural memory of Joan of Arc; relationships between medieval and modern and contemporary culture; contacts between Europe and the East in medieval literature; objects and objectification; and body and disability in medieval texts. Her new Medical Humanities course “Medical Narratives, Narrative Medicine” uses medical literature and testimonials to help students develop their powers of observation, analysis, and oral and written expression in French.