Lejia Zhang

Job title: 
Graduate Student
Bio/CV: 

Lejia Zhang, also known as Joy, is a PhD student in the Scandinavian Department with a concurrent PhD in Medieval Studies. She is originally from China. She received a B.A. with honours in English Literature from Durham University in 2021, an M.A. in Medieval and Early Modern Studies from Durham University in 2023, and an M.A. in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies from the University of Iceland in 2024. She also spent an exchange semester at the University of Copenhagen in 2023. 

Coming from the background of literary studies, Joy currently has a passion for medieval Icelandic manuscripts, codicology, palaeography, and book history. Her M.A. thesis at the University of Iceland, entitled ‘Reusing Parchment as Writing Support in Pre-modern Iceland: The Cases of Two Jónsbók Palimpsests from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, studies the historical and cultural implications of palimpsest production in pre-modern Iceland. In addition, she is interested in how the visual presentation and surrounding of a text in a physical codex reflect the scribe’s perception of the work, and in turn shape its viewer’s understanding of the work in various contexts. She is exploring interdisciplinary approaches for new understandings of medieval Icelandic and Scandinavian literature and literary traditions in dialogue with manuscripts and material culture.