Sarah is an engaging and versatile public speaker, who is experienced at sharing her knowledge of medieval and early modern culture with all kinds of audiences, from children to academics, at festivals, galleries, museums, conferences, history groups, and society meetings.
Staithes Arts and Heritage Festival
Public Talk: ‘The Staithes Mermaids’, Staithes (14 Sep. 2025).
Viktor Wynd Museum
Public Talk: ‘The Mermaids of Staithes: Sea, Superstition, Egg-Broth and Loss in a Yorkshire’ (10 Sep 2025).
Sirens Exhibition
Public Talk: ‘Ruined by a Mermaid’s Curse: The Sea, Superstition, and Loss in a Yorkshire Legend’, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (1 May 2025).
The Last Tuesday Society
‘Japanese Merfolk and the Strange Case of the Feejee Mermaid’ (13 Feb 2025).
Into the Wyld Exhibition
‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Medieval Treasure’, Williamson Art Gallery (3 Aug 2024).
ILO Aqueous Realms
‘Mermaids of the British Isles and Ireland’, for Imaginative Landscapes and Other Worlds, Exeter (14 Jun 2024).
Viktor Wynd Museum
‘Medieval Mermaids: Sirens of Shipwreck, Salvation and Folklore’ (5 Jun 2024)
The Last Tuesday Society
‘Mermaids Across the Millennia’ (8 Dec 2023)
Medieval Chronicle Society
‘Back to the Future: History and Onomancy in Wellcome MS 8004’, 10th International Conference, Nancy (2023).
AHTV
Roundtable Panelist at AHTV Conference, Edinburgh (2023).
The Mermaid Chronicles Exhibition
Public Talk with Megan Dunn, The Adam Art Gallery, New Zealand (Nov 2022).
Liverpool Literary Festival
‘Things in Jars’ with Jess Kidd (10 Oct 2020).
International Women’s Day
‘Women in Academia’. For Foreign Office, Liverpool (8 Mar 2020).
British Film Institute
Introduction to The Lure (dir. Agnieszka Smoczynsk) for BFI’s Musicals Season (18 Nov 2019).
Liverpool Literary Festival
‘Myth and Mystery: Things in Jars’ with Jess Kidd (12 Oct 2019).
Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon
‘Under the Moon’, Liverpool Cathedral (26 May 2018).
Shipwrecks Conference
‘Mermaids and Sirens in the Medieval Church’, Oxford (2017).
British Academy
The Little Mermaid, Literature Week, London (Jun 2017)
Being Human Festival
‘The Little Mermaid’, Walker Gallery (Nov 2016)
Being Human Festival
‘Daughters of the Deep: Mermaids in Literature and Art’, Walker Gallery (Nov 2016)
Being Human Festival
Storytelling:’Mermaid and Pirate Tales’, Walker Gallery (Nov 2016).
Being Human Festival
Preview of The Little Mermaid. Being Human Festival Launch, London (2016)
Liverpool Literary Festival
Storytelling: ‘Mermaid and Pirate Tales’, Central Library, Liverpool (Oct 2016).
Being Human Festival
‘Humans and Animals in the Middle Ages.’ Festival Showcase, London (Jun 2015).
Women on the Waterfront Festival
‘Mermaids in their Element’, Merseyside Maritime Museum (2016).
Being Human Festival
‘Being a Medieval Human: Natural and Supernatural Encounters’, Walker Gallery (Nov 2015).
Trinity College Research Seminar
‘Expanding the Oeuvre and Patronage of a Late Medieval Scribe’, Dublin.
Agincourt 600
‘Staging Agincourt and Anglo-French Relations in Shakespeare’s Henry V’, Liverpool. (Oct 2015)
Port of Call Lectures
‘Mermaids in Their Element’, Merseyside Maritime Museum (2015).
St George’s Festival
Storytelling: ‘Medieval Stories’ for Culture Liverpool (2015).
Agincourt 1415
“This noble prynce, pierlesse of regyment”: Henry V and Agincourt in Hardyng’s Chronicle’, Hull (2015).
Birmingham Research Seminar
‘Ricardus Franciscus’ for Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages,
Birmingham (2015).
Medieval Chronicle Society
‘Visual Aspects of Medieval Chronicles’, chair, 7th International Conference, Liverpool (Jul 2014).
Free Thinking Festival
‘Bring Back the Thorn’, for Speed Dating with Ideas, BBC Radio 3 at The Sage Newcastle (Oct 2013).
Free Thinking Festival
‘The Real Game of Thrones: Power in the 15th Century’, BBC Radio 3 at The Sage, Newcastle (Oct 2013).
Leeds Medieval Congress
“A Newly Discovered Manuscript by Ricardus Franciscus’ for The British Library sponsored session (Jul 2013).
Leeds Medieval Congress
‘Books Have their Histories’ chair of panel for The Medieval Chronicle Society (Jul 2013).
Medieval Festival
‘Medieval Storytelling’ at Lancashire Archives, Preston (2013).
Spring Talks Series
‘The Use and Abuse of Genealogy in the Middle Ages’, Lancashire Record Office (2013).
Preston Arts Festival
‘Medieval Guilds and their Passion Plays’ Preston Guild (2012).
Chronicle Symposium
“John Hardyng’s Albina and the Wars of the Roses’, Oxford (2012).
Medieval Chronicle Society
‘Visualising Royal Authority: John Hardyng’s use of Lydgate’, 5th International
Conference, Belfast (2008).
Editing Symposium
‘Editing John Hardyng’s Chronicle’ at Theories and Practices of Editing, Liverpool (2008).
Centre for Medieval Studies
‘Individual and Group Identity in the Middle Ages’ Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (2007).
AHRC Colloquium
‘Editing the Manuscripts of Hardyng’s Chronicle.’ AHRC Manuscripts and Printed Books Colloquium, Bangor (2007).
Keio University Seminar
‘Political Consciousness and the Literary Mind in Late Medieval England’,
Tokyo (2006)
Harlaxton Symposium
‘The Life and Social Milieu of John Hardyng’, Recording Lives in England in the Later Middle
Ages, Harlaxton (2005).
Medieval Chronicle Society
‘The Inversion of Social Hierarchy in John Hardyng’s Chronicle’, 4th International Conference, Reading (2005)
Nowton Court Colloquium
‘Reader Responses to John Hardyng’s Chronicle in the 15th to the 18th Centuries’, Cambridge (2004).
15th-Century Conference
‘Wifes and Maidens, Widowes and Nonnes”: Feminizing History in Hardyng’s Chronicle’, Keele (2003).
Institute of Historical Research
‘King and Author in John Hardyng’s Chronicle’, London (2002).
Medieval Chronicle Society
‘The Depiction of King and Kingdom in Hardyng’s Chronicle’, 3rd International Conference, Utrecht (2002).
K’zoo Medieval Congress
‘Mapping the Authorial Voice in John Hardyng’s Chronicle’,
Kalamazoo (2002).
Hull Seminar Series
‘Autobiography in Medieval England’, University of Hull (2002).
Leeds Medieval Congress
‘The 15th-Century Verse Chronicle of John Hardyng: Sources, Translation and Adaptation’, Leeds (2000).
Ethnic & Regional Identity
‘On his Majesty’s Secret Service: The Life, Travels and Chronicle of John Hardyng’, Hull (2000).
Hull Seminar Series
‘Manuscripts, Scribes, and Patrons’, Hull (1998).
Professor Sarah Peverley 