Dr Takako Kato

Job: Senior Lecturer in English and Digital Humanities

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities

Research group(s): Centre for Textual Studies

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 207 8265

E: tkato@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/humanities

 

Personal profile

Dr Takako Kato joined the English Team and the Centre for Textual Studies at De Montfort University in June 2012.  Her previous research and teaching positions were at the University of Glasgow, the University of Leicester and De Montfort University.  She is a medievalist and a digital humanist, and particularly interested in the history of the book.  Her major projects currently include ‘Caxton and Beyond’, a digital humanities project in collaboration with a colleague from Keio University in Japan and libraries in the UK and USA, and ‘Malory Project’, a digital edition of Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur (http://www.maloryproject.com/).

Research group affiliations

  • Centre for Textual Studies
  • English Literature
  • Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Key research outputs

The Malory Scribes: Producing a Manuscript of the ‘Morte Darthur’ (Boydell and Brewer, forthcoming)

‘Exeter Scribes in Cambridge University Library Ii.2.11 + Exeter Book fols 0, 1–7’, in a special issue on The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220, ed. by Elaine Treharne, Mary Swan and Orietta Da Rold, New Medieval Literatures, 13 (forthcoming)

With Orietta Da Rold, Mary Swan and Elaine Treharne, The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220 (Leicester: School of English, University of Leicester; http://www.le.ac.uk/ee/em1060to1220/, 2010), Ver. 1.0

Caxton’s ‘Morte Darthur’: The Printing Process and the Authenticity of the Text, Medium Ævum Monographs, n.s. 22 (Oxford: The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 2002)

Malory Project: A Digital Edition of the ‘Morte Darthur’ (Chicago: Humanities Research Infrastructure and Tools, Loyola University; http://www.maloryproject.com/, 2011)

Research interests/expertise

  • Medieval literature, particularly in Thomas Malory, William Caxton, Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Arthurian literature
  • The history of the book: particularly in medieval manuscripts and early printed books
  • Digital humanities
  • Textual criticism and scholarly editing

Areas of teaching

  • Medieval, Renaissance
  • History of the Book
  • Arthurian Literature
  • Digital Humanities

Qualifications

  • PhD (University of Wales, Bangor)
  • MA (Keio University, Japan, and University of Birmingham)
  • BA (Japan Women’s University, Japan)

Courses taught

  • ENGL 1010 Poetry and Society
  • ENGL 2018 History of English: Medieval to Augustan Literature
  • ENGL 3000 English Dissertation
  • ENGL 3094 medieval.com
  • ENGL 3096 Text Technologies

Honours and awards

  • 2006–present Honorary Research Fellow at English Language Department, University of Glasgow

Membership of external committees

  • 2008–present International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
  • 2007–present Oxygen user mailing list (oXygen-user@oxygenxml.com)  2006–present TEI mailing list (TEI-L@listserv.brown.edu) 
  • 2006–present MEDTEXTL (MEDTEXTL@LISTSERV.UIUC.EDU)  2005–present Medieval Manuscripts Research Consortium
  • 1997–present Early Book Society
  • 1995–present International Arthurian Society

Conference attendance

‘Transcribing incipits and explicits in TEI-XML’, Digital Humanities Congress (Sheffield, 12)

‘Toward a New Caxton Census in a Digital Age’, Text, Image and Digital Research Environment: Parker Library – Keio EIRI Conference on Medieval Manuscripts and Printed Books (Cambridge, 11). Invited by EIRI, Japan.

‘Potentials and Limits of Digital Medievalism’, Les livres illustrés du Moyen Âge et de la période moderne, au Japon et en Eurpoe (Colmar, 11). Invited by EIRI, Japan.

‘Making a Book Perfect: A Study of Caxton’s Golden Legend’, The Early Book Society Conference (EBS) (York, 11)

‘The Virtues and Challenges of XML: Making a Digital Edition of Malory’s Morte Darthur’, Beyond the Facsimile: Rich Models of Late Medieval and Early Modern Texts – A Digital Humanities Day (Sheffield Hallam University, 10). Invited by Sheffield Hallam University.

‘Malory Project: From the Manuscript to the Web’, EIRI – CCH Conference on the Digitisation in the Humanities (Keio University, Tokyo, 10). Invited by EIRI.

‘What We Know We Know: The “English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220” Project in Conversation’, International Medieval Congress (IMC) (Leeds, 10)

‘1060 to 1220 and Beyond’, International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 10)

With Elaine Treharne, Mary Swan and Orietta Da Rold, ‘And Now the End is Near’, The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220, Second Symposium (Leicester, 10)

‘The Manuscript Contexts of the West Saxon Gospels in CUL Ii.2.11’, IMC (Leeds, 09)

With Mary Swan, ‘Project Report: The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220’, The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Conference (Newfoundland, 09)

‘The Story behind the “Roman War”: Past and Present of Editing Malory’, Blood, Sex, Malory: An International Conference on the Morte Darthur, Its Sources and Reception (Leicester, 09)

‘Digital Edition of Malory’s “Roman War”’, Congress of the International Arthurian Society (IAS) (Rennes, 08)

‘Two Versions of the “Roman War” Episode: Its beginning’, IAS (Rennes, 08)

‘Towards a Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing English: 1060 to 1220’, IMC (Leeds, 08)

Consultancy work

  • Digital Humanities; Medieval Studies; Arthurian Literature
  • External Assessor, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2008)

Current research students

  • Lauren Bland, 2nd supervisor, MA

Externally funded research grants information

  • PI, Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Scholarship, the Bibliographical Society, for the Caxton and Beyond Project, in collaboration with Satoko Tokunaga (Keio University), Apr 12-
  • British Academy, Overseas Conference Grant for the International Arthurian Congress, Jul 08
  • PI, Digital Archive Research Center (DARC), Japan, for the Malory Project, 2007–11

Professional esteem indicators

  • Reviewer, Literature Compass (2008)

Case studies

  • Positive comments about the Malory Project from the users.
  • I am preparing a research bit for the Caxton and Beyond Project. If successful, we are going to organize workshops and conferences, and can have some feedback and attendance figures.
Takako Kato