Catrin Haberfield

I specialise in early medieval material and textual culture across the Insular world. Much of my research centres around live encounters and unfolding narratives that occur when engaging with textual objects. I am particularly interested in bringing phenomenology and user experience (UX) theory to texts and artefacts in order to elucidate design choices and interactions with(in) a mise-en-système. Publications include:

- ‘‘A book in stone’: the interaction between Insular manuscript culture andrunic epigraphy’, in Proceedings of the Ninth International Insular Art Conference (Oxbow, forthcoming) 

- ‘User experience and interactivity in the Ruthwell Cross’, Different Visions (2026)

- ‘Approach with caution: rejecting ‘monstrosity’ in The Marvels of the East’, QuaestioInsularis, 23 (2023)

- 'St Cuthbert’s Coffin: Devotion in Runic and Roman Lettering’, The Manchester Historian 38 (2021)