Programs and Areas
Old and Middle English Literature Area
With nationally-recognized strength in the study of medieval literature, language, and culture, our department offers students a rich variety of courses and many opportunities for interdisciplinary work. We currently have faculty members with interests that range from Old English Studies to the literature of the late fifteenth century. Richard Firth Green, a specialist in Ricardian poetry as well as in literature and the law, is currently working with medieval folkloric materials; and is the present director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Leslie Lockett teaches Old English and medieval Latin literature, and she is currently completing a book-length study of the concept of embodiment in early medieval psychology. Christopher A. Jones works in Old English and medieval Latin philology; Lisa J. Kiser, mostly a Chaucerian, is now also working on late medieval conceptions of nature in romance, hagiographical and academic contexts; Ethan Knapp has written about Thomas Hoccleve and the rise of bureaucracy and is now working on allegory and medieval hermeneutics; and Karen Winstead specializes in saints' legends, gender issues, and fifteenth-century studies.In the department, medieval faculty and graduate students meet occasionally for the Medieval Reading Group, a session devoted to discussion of a primary or secondary work in medieval studies. The Works-in-Progress Group meets when faculty members or students would like to share their ongoing research with the group at large. Every other year, there is also a Graduate Workshop with a visiting medievalist. In addition to the regularly-scheduled courses, lectures, and group work sponsored by the department, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosts speakers, symposia, and colloquia that enrich all of our intellectual and social lives.
Over the years, the Ohio State University has made a major financial commitment to support the study of medieval literature and culture, and the Department benefits from strong library holdings in the field and interdisciplinary ties to other units in the College of Humanities and the College of the Arts. Opportunities for interdisciplinary study abound, with courses in Art History, History, Music, Women's Studies, Greek and Latin, the medieval vernacular languages, and Comparative Studies forming a part of many of our grad students' programs. Our Ph.D. students work on dissertations in an astonishing variety of areas; currently we have dissertations being completed on the theopolitics of Christ’s sacrifice; the Robin Hood tradition; medieval marriage and its postcolonial implications; Richard Rolle and language theory; Wycliffitism in its Anglo-Bohemian contexts; women writers and academic knowledge; secrecy and subjectivity in late medieval secular texts; and Lydgate and the limitations of poetic truth. Three recently completed dissertations treat the ecology of war; relics and relic custodians; and the manuscript contexts of romances. Our community is close-knit and energetic, we are an important presence in the Department of English, and our job placement statistics are impressive.Web Resources
- New Chaucer Society -- The purpose of the New Chaucer Society is to provide a forum for teachers and scholars of Geoffrey Chaucer and his age.
- Voice of the Shuttle:Anglo-Saxon & Medieval -- List of On-line resources dealing the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Literature
- The Medieval Institute at Western Michigan U -- The Medieval Institute ranks within the top ten of the some 90 institutes, centers, and programs focusing on Medieval Studies in North America.
