About

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” — L. P. Hartley

“…a foreign country with a booming tourist trade” — David Lowenthal

 Martha Bayless is a flâneur in the past, strolling down the byways and cul de sacs and pausing to gawk as often as possible at something scandalous.

 She has an AB from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic from the University of Cambridge, and teaches medieval studies and literature at the University of Oregon.  Her academic works include Parody in the Middle Ages and Sin and Filth in Medieval Culture: The Devil in the Latrine,which is the only known academic work to date to feature illustrations from both the Bodleian Library and the Weekly World News.

She can be reached at mjbayles (at) uoregon.edu.  Yes, unfortunately that’s one -s, even though the name should have two.