Kersti Francis

A photo of Kersti Francis

Kersti Francis is a PhD candidate in English at UCLA where she works on the intersections between magic, gender, and sexuality in the Middle Ages and early English Renaissance (1100-1600). Her dissertation project, Queer Magic: Sodomy, Sin and The Supernatural in the Later Middle Ages, investigates the intersections of magic and gender in medieval literature using the guiding framework of medieval understandings of nature and sins contra naturam (against nature).  Kersti has also worked extensively on medieval histories of science, focusing particularly on the role of alchemy in the literary and philosophical culture of thirteenth-sixteenth century England, on depictions of Mary Magdalene in medieval and Victorian understandings of prostitution, and on the figure of the meykongr (maiden-king) in the Old Norse saga tradition. Her research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation, The National Science Foundation, the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and others.