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"Reading has had a significant impact on my life and brings me immense joy. Studying women as active contributors to literary culture, rather than merely as passive recipients of texts, is personal for me. I relate to this group as a female reader myself," says

Puts the women in the spotlight听

Miles is professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, at the University of Bergen, Norway, where she researches religious literature and culture from the Middle Ages, particularly in England from 1100 through the Reformation in the 1530s.听听

How did women readers and authors shape literature in the Middle Ages? How did religion open up new opportunities for women to create and engage with texts, even as it restricted them in other ways?听

In 2021 she was given the prestigious Meltzer Research Fund Award and has since then published a range number of works, including a prize-winning monograph about the Virgin Mary, placing Mary in the center of reading practices as a model showing that women contributed to literary culture.听

Restricting our definition of authorship, effectively excludes all women from the history of literature.

England鈥檚 obsession with a famous visionary from Sweden听

In her recent research project听 ReVISION, she has delved into the archives to investigate the question: how and why was听 St. Birgitta of Sweden (1303-73) so incredibly popular with English readers in the 150 years between 1380 and the Reformation? The story of England鈥檚 obsession with the Swedish visionary may significantly alter the history of women writers.听

Birgitta had divine visions from God, which she wrote down in Latin with the help of male confessors. The text then circulated across Europe and was translated to English once it reached England.听We have numerous interventions by different translators and scribes, and all of whom are men.

"Where does that leave Birgitta? Some might argue that she is not the author. However, if we take a narrow concept of authorship, we fail to reflect the reality of her contributions. We must consider Brigitta a writer. Restricting our definition of authorship, effectively excludes all women from the history of literature," the professor states.听听

"Join a convent!"听听

Saetveit Miles plans to continue her research on the role of the women readers in religious contexts, such as convents, where they engaged deeply with text despite societal limitation. These texts often incorporated the voices and views of women. We need proper readings of them, to answer a much bigger question about how enclosed women were involved in literary culture.听

"We often view enclosed women, or nuns, and these kinds of subjects as very strange, very foreign. But as a woman in the Middle Ages, opportunities for gaining knowledge were strictly limited. We must recognize that to become a nun was the best way to live a life dedicated to reading and literature. If you wanted an academic life like mine today, joining a convent was the way to go!"听听

She will be examining both published modern editions of texts and exploring manuscripts in archives that have remained understudied. She also plans to produce new editions of notable texts that were important for women鈥檚 reading practices.听

Novels combined with self-help听

The texts are known as devotional texts, retelling the lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ. They are intended for women to read either alone, or in small groups, to assist with prayer, contemplation, and meditation. Nuns read these texts similar to how we read a novel and a self-help book at the same time.听

"It is difficult to hear the female voice, but we just have to know how to listen for it. The texts were written in response to women's active engagement with male authors. If we look closely for these subtle clues in the text, we can see that the women are seeking specific advice on how to navigate different needs and feelings, or听on how to handle the everyday challenges of living a cloistered life. Their interactions are not merely receiving fully formed advice; it's a two-way conversation".听

The feminist approach听

Miles remarks on the significance of feminist methodologies that have emerged over recent decades, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of women鈥檚 roles in literature.听听

"Feminist methodologies make our entire approach to literary studies stronger and more complex. And the fact that we are now still losing so many women's rights, shows that any feminist approach is still very important - whether the research is on medieval women or today's women," she says.听听

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