Matteo Schiavone – Chair of English Literature including the Literatures of the Middle Ages

Matteo Schiavone, M.A.

PhD Candidate & Research Associate

Pronouns: he/they
Room: Werthmannstr. 6, R 00 005
Office phone number: –
Email: matteo.schiavone@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de

Matteo Schiavone is a PhD Candidate at the University of Freiburg and a research associate in the ERC-funded project DERIVATE, “Retelling and Repetition: Towards a Literary History of Derivation”, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen. Matteo holds a a bachelor’s degree in English and French and a master’s degree in English Literatures and Literary Theory, both earned at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Matteo’s dissertation project further develops a queer medievalist methodology to analyse Romantic and Victorian poetess poetry in English and French literatures.

Research interests:

Romanticism
Late Medieval literature and culture
Medievalism Studies
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Women Writers
Poetess Studies
Gender, Queer and Trans Studies

Employment:

Since 09/2025	Research Associate ERC-funded project DERIVATE, “Retelling and Repetition: Towards a Literary History of Derivation” English Department \| University of Freiburg Chair of English Literature, Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen
04/2022 – 08/2025	Research Assistant English Department \| University of Freiburg Chair of English Literature, Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen
01/2022 – 08/2025	Research Assistant English Department \| University of Freiburg Chair of English Literature, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lethbridge
01/2021 – 07/2022	Tutor Breisach am Rhein

Education:

Since 09/2025	PhD Candidate ERC-funded project DERIVATE, “Retelling and Repetition: Towards a Literary History of Derivation” English Department \| University of Freiburg Working Title: “Queer Medievalism and Genderqueer Characters in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries” Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen
10/2023 – 08/2025	Master of Arts, English Literatures and Literary Theory University of Freiburg Thesis Title: “A Queer Medievalist Reading of ‘Lamia’ and ‘The Fairy of the Fountains’: Challenging Heteropatriarchal Notions of Womanhood through the Legacy of the Non-Binary Mélusine” First thesis supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen Second thesis supervisor: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Lethbridge
09/2023	Academic Visitor Jesus College, University of Oxford
09/2020 – 07/2023	Bachelor of Arts (double major), English and French University of Freiburg Thesis title: “L.E.L. The Golden Violet: The Woman Minstrel and Romantic Medievalist Poetry” Thesis supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen

Awards, grants:

09/2023	Research Scolarship Bodleian Libraries (based at Jesus College), University of Oxford
07/2019	Honourable Mention Juvenes Translatores contest

List of Publications

“Reading Jane Eyre as a Hagiographic Romance”. Brontë Studies (2025): 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/14748932.2025.2564940.
Schiavone, Matteo et al. “‘Shakespeares Bibliotheken’: Jahrestagung in Weimar 21.-23. April 2023”. Shakespeare Jahrbuch 160 (2024): 331-335.

Conference Papers

“Queer Communities of Women Transcending Linear Time: Reading Felicia Hemans’s Records of Woman as a Retelling of Christine de Pizan’s La Cité des Dames“. Medievalisms in Time & Space. The International Society for the Study of Medievalism Annual Conference (online), 14/11-15/11/2025.
“‘She Weepeth on Eternally’: Reading Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s Abandoned Women as Queer Characters”. BARS Digital Symposium: Expanding Queer Romanticisms (online), 25/07/2025.
“‘A Gordian Shape of Dazzling Hue’: Uncovering the Medieval Mélusine at the Heart of the Hellenist Lamia”. Keats in 2025: John Keats at Hampstead. The Keats Foundation, Keats House and Museum, 16/05-18/05/2025.
Financed with a bursary received from the “Freunde und Förderer der Universität e.V., Universität Freiburg”.
“He’s the Woman: Romantic Women Minstrels Undoing Gender”. The Games of Medievalism. International Society for the Studies of Medievalism, Hybrid – Montclaire State University/Seton Hall University (online participation), 9/07-11/07/2024.
“Coming to Light through the Shadow of the Byronic: L.E.L.’s Appropriation of Lord Byron’s Image”. Provocative and Provoking: Fifty Shades of Byron. Byron Society, Newstead Abbey, 26/04-27/04/2024.

Event organisation:

2025/2026	Member of the Local Committee, 24^thBiennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society, University of Freiburg
Summer term 2024 to Summer term 2025	Co-organisation of the Rainbow Talks (lecture series on queer topics)
Summer term 2023	Co-organisation of the Old English Book Club

Memberships:

International Society for the Studies of Medievalism (ISSM)
British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS)
Brontë Society

Roles:

2025: Graduate Student Representative, International Society for the Studies of Medievalism (ISSM)

Teaching:

Winter term 2025/26, 12.11.2025
Guest Lecture on “Romantic and Early Victorian Women Writers” (part of Survey II of British & Postcolonial Literature)
Winter term 2024/25
Individual Tutorial Session on Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus (part of Survey II of British & Postcolonial Literature)
Summer term 2024
Tutorial, “Survey I of English Literature, from the Middle Ages to the 18^th Century”
Summer term 2023
Tutorial, “Introduction to Literary Studies”
Winter term 2021/22
Tutorial, French “Systemkompetenz” B2.2 & C1