On Noblewomen & Gender-Bending Saints of the Middle Ages

Alyssa is currently completing her PhD at the Universities of Strathclyde and Aberdeen under the supervision of Dr Andrew Meehan (Senior Lecturer in English & Creative Writing, University of Strathclyde) and Dr Jackson Armstrong (Chair in History, University of Aberdeen). Following the completion of her Master of Research degree in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, her interdisciplinary doctoral project in Creative Writing and Medieval History explores the role of the English Marcher Noblewoman on the borders of thirteenth-century England and Wales through the recorded activities and agency of Maud de Braose (1224-1301). Consulting personal letters, war correspondence, the Close Rolls, petitions, Welsh Rolls, and Calendars of Ancient Correspondence in Wales, she intends to reinforce the political and military activity of noblewomen living on the March of Wales through the narrativization of the life of Maud de Braose (1224-1301) by way of a historical novel. Alyssa has recently been sponsored by the Mortimer History Society as a speaker for the International Medieval Congress at Leeds (2026), and has previously spoken at Lancaster Historical Postgraduate Conference (2023, 2025, 2026), Ushaw Historic House's Conversation Room Series (2026), the University of Kent's Medieval and Early Modern Festival/MEMS Fest (2025), and more. Her creative work has been published with the Strathclyde Review, and has been shortlisted for screenwriting awards in line with historical dramas and fiction. She has also been interviewed for the SGSAH blog regarding her work with historical fiction and the history discipline.