Personal information

Medieval English Literature, Middle English, Chaucer, Palaeography, Manuscripts, Law and Literature, Travel Writing, Hoccleve
Canada

Biography

Sebastian Sobecki is Professor of Later Medieval English Literature, University of Toronto, St George, with a cross-appointment in the Centre for Medieval Studies. He is a Fellow of the English Association and the Royal Historical Society, and has also held fellowships with All Souls College (Oxford), Harvard University, the Huntington Library, Magdalen College (Oxford), and Yale University. He is a recipient of the John Hurt Fisher Prize from the John Gower Society and has received research funding from SSHRC, the British Academy, Québec's FQRSC, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). His board memberships include The Journal of the Early Book Society, the Index of Middle English Prose, Maritime Humanities 1400-1800 (Routledge), and Texts and Transitions: Studies in the History of Manuscripts and Printed Books (Brepols). He is a former trustee of the Hakluyt Society and edited the journal Studies in the Age of Chaucer from 2018 until 2023. He currently serves as a trustee of the New Chaucer Society.

His research and teaching extend to a wide area of late medieval and early modern literature, with a focus on ideas of the self, life writing, and materiality in the literary history of the long fifteenth century. He is particularly interested in Chaucer, Hoccleve, Kempe, Lydgate, Skelton, and Hakluyt. Authorship, law, travel, manuscripts, and palaeography are central to his practice. His work has been covered widely by the press and media, including the BBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, the TLS. His essays have appeared in ELH, EHR, The Chaucer Review, Renaissance Studies, The Review of English Studies, SAC, and Speculum, among others. He has produced two volumes for the Oxford edition of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, 1598-1600 (forthcoming), and he is completing the edited volume A Global History of Medieval Travel Writing: European Perspectives (Cambridge UP). Ongoing editorial projects include The Cambridge History of London Literature: Vol. 1, The Beginnings to 1666 (Cambridge UP), with Stephanie Elsky, and, with Emily Steiner, The Oxford Handbook of Middle English Prose (Oxford UP). In addition to writing The Marvels of John Mandeville (Reaktion Books), completing the monograph The Invention of Colonialism: Richard Hakluyt and Medieval Travel Writing (Cambridge UP), and co-writing a book on Christine de Pizan with Misty Schieberle and Elizaveta Strakhov, he is working on two book-length studies, on Chaucer and authorial intention in fifteenth-century literature and on the handwriting and literary culture of London's bureaucratic clerks.

Activities

Employment (7)

University of Toronto: Toronto, Ontario, CA

2022 to present | Full Professor of Later Medieval English Literature (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Groningen: Groningen, Groningen, NL

2010 to 2022 | Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture / Professor of Old Germanic (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

McGill University: Montreal, Quebec, CA

2007 to 2010 | Assistant Professor of Late Medieval English Literature (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Ruhr-Universität Bochum: Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, DE

2005 to 2007 | Junior Lecturer (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Universität Bern: Bern, BE, CH

2005 to 2005 | Junior Lecturer (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Oakham School: Oakham, Rutland, GB

2003 to 2005 | Teacher (English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Accenture: London, GB

2001 to 2003 | Strategy Management Consultant (Strategy / Communication and High Tech)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Education and qualifications (5)

University of Groningen : Groningen, Groningen, NL

2011 to 2011 | PGCHE (Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education / BKO)
Qualification
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Cambridge, St John's College: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, GB

2000 to 2005 | PhD English (English)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

The University of Buckingham: Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, GB

2003 to 2004 | PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate of Education)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, GB

1999 to 2000 | MPhil Medieval and Renaissance Literature (English)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Cambridge, Wolfson College: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, GB

1996 to 1999 | BA English
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Professional activities (15)

Harvard University: Cambridge, MA, US

2021 to present | Morton Bloomfield Fellow (English)
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Groningen: Groningen, Groningen, NL

2020 to present | Chair of Cluster Board 2 (Faculty of Arts)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

The Literary Encyclopedia: London, GB

2020 to present | Senior Commissioning Editor
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

The New Chaucer Society: Coral Gables, FL, US

2019 to present | Editor, Studies in the Age of Chaucer
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Index of Middle English Prose: Oxford, GB

2016 to present | Advisory Committee
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Magdalen College, University of Oxford: Oxford, GB

2021 to 2021 | Visiting Fellow
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Yale University: New Haven, Connecticut, US

2019 to 2019 | H.P. Kraus Fellowship in Early Books and Manuscripts (Beinecke Library)
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

The Hakluyt Society: London, GB

2015 to 2019 | Board Member and Trustee
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

John Gower Society: Cullowhee, NC, US

2016 | John Hurt Fisher Prize
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

All Souls College, University of Oxford: Oxford, GB

2016 to 2016 | Visiting Fellow
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Huntington Library: San Marino, CA, US

2015 to 2015 | Andrew Mellow Felloship
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Groningen: Groningen, Groningen, NL

2010 to 2014 | Chair of Department (English)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

McGill University: Montreal, Quebec, CA

2008 | Highest Merit Award (Arts Faculty)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Cambridge: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, GB

2000 | Jeremy Maule Memorial Award (English)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

University of Cambridge: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, GB

1999 | Jennings Prize (Wolfson College)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Funding (13)

Neil Ker Memorial Fund

2021-10 to 2023-09 | Grant
British Academy (London, GB)
GRANT_NUMBER:

NK21\210014

Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Our Sea of Islands: New Approaches to British Insularity

2016 to 2016 | Grant
NWO (The Hague, NL)
GRANT_NUMBER:

040.11.437

Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Written culture and the Common Law in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries

2008-04-01 to 2011-03-31 | Grant
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Ottawa, CA)
GRANT_NUMBER: 61503
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki via DimensionsWizard

L’anglicité et la langue du droit, 1463-1536

2008-04-01 to 2010-03-31 | Grant
Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et culture (Montreal, CA)
GRANT_NUMBER:

125804

Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki via DimensionsWizard

Transmission, traduction et transformation dans les cultures médiévales

2008-04-01 to 2010-03-31 | Grant
Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et culture (Montreal, CA)
GRANT_NUMBER:

124947

Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki via DimensionsWizard

Travel Grant

2006 to 2006 | Grant
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Berlin, DE)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Travel Grant

2005 to 2005 | Grant
SAUTE (Zurich, CH)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Benefactors’ Scholarship

2001 to 2005 | Grant
St John's College, Cambridge University (Cambridge, GB)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Research Maintenance Grant

1999 to 2004 | Grant
University of Cambridge (Cambridge, GB)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Award

1999 to 2000 | Grant
Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) (London, GB)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Isaac Newton Scholarship

1999 to 2000 | Grant
University of Cambridge (Cambridge, GB)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

Jebb Studentship

1999 to 2000 | Grant
University of Cambridge (Cambridge, GB)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki

British Chamber of Commerce in Germany

1996 to 1997 | Grant
British Chamber of Commerce in Germany (Berlin, DE)
Source: Self-asserted source
Sebastian Sobecki