Education
2017 – Ph.D. Harvard University – Celtic Languages and Literatures, Medieval Studies
2013 – M.A. Harvard University – Celtic Languages and Literatures
2011 – M.Phil. University of Cambridge – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic
2009 – B.A. University of California, Berkeley – English and Celtic Studies
Dr. Henley specializes in the languages and literatures of medieval Britain. She employs digital humanities and book-historical methods to uncover the literary networks that connected England to its earliest colonies. Her recent book, Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024), examines how Anglo-Welsh families reimagined the Welsh past in order to influence the political landscape of the Welsh borderlands. Her courses on medieval literature draw upon her interest in medieval book production, paying close attention to how the handmade book influences our understanding of medieval literary culture.
Dr. Henley is a Senior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. She is co-editor of Gerald of Wales: New Perspectives on a Medieval Writer and Critic (University of Wales Press, 2018), A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth (Brill, 2020), The Chronicles of Medieval Wales and the March: New Contexts, Studies and Texts (Brepols, 2020), and Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2020). Recent publications in the Journal of Medieval Latin, Arthurian Literature, The North American Journal of Celtic Studies, and Viator have focused on two twelfth-century Latin writers, Gerald of Wales and Geoffrey of Monmouth, and their significance to Anglo-Welsh literature and society.
Dr. Henley teaches From Conquest to Courtly Love: Studies in Medieval Literature, Legends and Tales of Medieval Ireland and Wales, Medieval Literatures of the North Atlantic World, Legends and Myths of King Arthur, Imagining the Middle Ages in Modern Fiction, and Introduction to General Linguistics. She also teaches Introduction to Literary Theory, First-Year Writing, and Introduction to Literary Studies.