To teach is not just to impart knowledge, it is to participate in the dynamic interplay that takes place in the class room.

Put into practice, I place an emphasis on ‘thinking-through-feeling’. That is to say, many of the liveliest discussions have been a direct result of a tactile learning system that aids in bringing literature to life. For example, when I taught Beowulf to first-year undergraduates I created a session on ‘materiality and object-hood’, whereby I provided the class with replica items crafted from the materials available to early medieval people. It is all well and good reading about iron mail-coats and swords, but it is another to encounter their weight, texture, smell and appearance in real life. Such forms of learning - I insist - generate a deeper understanding and connection to the seemingly inaccessible worlds expressed in poems such as Beowulf.