Fiona C. Tolhurst *95

Fiona died unexpectedly in Fort Myers, Fla., Dec. 21, 2021, at age 53.

Born Feb. 25, 1968, she majored in English literature at Rice in 1990. Fiona attended Princeton on a Mellon Fellowship and earned a Ph.D. in 1995 under the direction of John Fleming *63. Her area of scholarship was Arthurian literature.

Fiona worked for one year at Texas A&M before taking up a tenure-track position at Alfred University, becoming one of the youngest female faculty members to become full professor. Unhappy with American politics, Fiona and her husband, Christoph Neuendorf, moved to Switzerland for several years, where he worked in finance and she taught and continued her scholarship. After returning to North America, Fiona became a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she was chair of the Department of Language and Literature at the time of her death.

Fiona was a recognized authority on Geoffrey of Monmouth, particularly feminist approaches to Geoffrey. She edited a special collection of Arthuriana devoted to theoretical approaches to Geoffrey. Her work consistently focused on medieval women, particularly Eleanor of Aquitaine, and she published articles emphasizing the extent of C.S. Lewis’ Arthurian interests.

Fiona is survived by her husband, Christoph Neuendorf.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.