Dr Barr was appointed Fellow and Tutor in English at Lady Margaret Hall in 1995. She has also taught at the University of Sussex and was Visiting Professor in English at the University of Columbia, New York, Fall 2006. Dr Barr teaches Old and Middle English Literature, Shakespeare, and papers on the English language. She also lectures in the Introduction to Literary Studies first year series.
Research interests:
Dr Barr's research interests are chiefly in later medieval literature, especially the relationships between literary texts, politics, culture and language. She has written on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl-Poet as well as a wide range of anonymous writers.
Selected publications:
- The Piers Plowman Tradition: A Critical Edition of Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede, Richard the Redeless, Mum and the Sothsegger, and The Crowned King (London: Everyman, 1993).
- Signes and Sothe: Language in the Piers Plowman Tradition (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1994).
- Socioliterary Practice in Late Medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
- Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale: Essays In Honour of Anne Hudson ed. by Helen Barr and Ann M.Hutchison (Turnhout:Brepols, 2005)
- The Digby Poems: A New Edition of the Lyrics (University of Exeter Press, 2008)
- 'The "Pearl-Poet" in The Bible in English Literature', ed. Rebecca Lemon et al (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
- 'Contemporary Events in A Concise Companion to Middle English Literature', ed. Marilyn Corrie (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
- The Digby Poems: A New Edition of the Lyrics (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2009)
- ‘The Place of the Poor in The Piers Plowman Tradition’ in From Beowulf to Caxton, 2011, Tomonori Matsushita, AVC Schmidt, and David Wallace (eds.) Bern, Peter Lang, pp.79-98
Contact