Nolan works on late medieval English literature, with a special focus on the 14th and 15th centuries, and the vexed relationship between the “medieval” and the “Renaissance.” She is especially interested in defining and articulating the role of the aesthetic in late medieval vernacular literature, particularly in relation to variable cultural understandings of sensation and cognition. She is currently working on two projects. The first focuses on the place of contingency and sensation in the work of John Gower, while the second addresses notions of the beautiful and the sublime in medieval literature as they relate to an emerging notion of literary style.
Nolan received her A.B. from Dartmouth College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. Before coming to Berkeley in 2005, she taught at the University of Notre Dame.
