Simon Gaunt (1959–2021)

Abstract

Professor Simon Gaunt, a pre-eminent scholar of medieval French and Occitan, died on 4 December 2021 following complications with treatment he was receiving for myeloma. He was sixty-two. Simon completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the French Department at Warwick University (BA, 1982; PhD, 1986), where he distinguished himself as an outstanding student in an exceptionally bright cohort. Conducted under the supervision of Linda Paterson, his PhD, on irony in troubadour lyric, developed an approach to medieval texts that would persist into his later career, combining careful close reading with an interest in theoretical methodologies. After leaving Warwick, Simon went on to hold positions at Cambridge University, first as a research fellow at Downing College (1986–88), then as a lecturer and fellow at St Catharine’s College (1986–98), and lecturer in French at Faculty level (1989–98). He subsequently moved to King’s College London (1998–2021), where he served as Head of French (1998–2004) and as Head of the School of Arts and Humanities (2013), a role equivalent to Dean of Faculty.