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I received my PhD in English from Queen’s University and my MA and BA from the University of Manitoba.
Before joining the Department of English and Film Studies at Laurier, I worked at The University of British Columbia, Memorial University and University of Northern British Columbia.
Here at Laurier, I have been Chair of Department, acting coordinator of the Cultural Studies program, coordinator of the Medieval and Medievalism Studies program, and undergraduate advisor for English.
The main focus of my research is the genre of Patience Literature, a literary genre that praises the endurance of suffering and that reached its height in the Middle Ages. My research has involved study of works in Old English, Middle English and Old Icelandic, among other languages, and I have published research results concerning Beowulf, saints’ lives, Old Icelandic sagas and various works of Geoffrey Chaucer. I often employ feminist approaches.
My current multi-year project is "Child Abandonment, Language, and Landscape in the Sagas of Icelanders."
- My research has been supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. My most recent book project, "Child Abandonment, Language, and Landscape in the Sagas of Icelanders," is being funded by SSHRC for the next four years.
I am willing to supervise graduate students in the areas of Old English Studies, Middle English Studies and Old Icelandic Studies. My recent grant allows me to hire research assisstants.
Books
- Monograph: The Genre of Medieval Patience Literature: Development, Duplication, and Gender. Palgrave Macmillan (2012). The New Middle Ages Series. SSHRC-funded. 230 pp.
- Editor, with Dr. Peter V. Loewen, of Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture: Conflicted Roles, an interdisciplinary collection of fifteen essays with an introduction and bibliography. Routledge (2014). Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture. 304 pp.
- Editor, with Dr. James Weldon, of The Hero Recovered: Essays on Medieval Heroism in Honor of George Clark, a collection of thirteen essays with an introduction, tribute, and bibliography. Western Michigan University Press/ Medieval Institute Publications (2010). 263 pp.
Articles in Refereed Journals
- "A Pious Knight's Flaw, Quandary, and Burden: Gold and Fee in Sir Isumbras," Viator 51 (2022 for 2020): 263-96.
- "Satire of Patience Advice in Sir Isumbras," Studies in Philology 118 (2021): 459-90.
- "Josian and the Heroism of Patience in Bevis of Hampton," English Studies 99 (2018): 609-23.
- "Language, Landscape, and Maternal Space: Child Exposure in Some Sagas of Icelanders," Exemplaria 29 (2017): 234-53.
- “The Testament of Job as an Example of Profeminine Patience Literature,” Journal of Biblical Literature. 133 (2014): 777-93.
- “Ongitan and the Possibility of Oral Seeing in Beowulf,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 53 (2011): 238-51.
- “The Foster-Mother’s Language: Anti-representation, Pseudo-feminization, and other Consequences of a Mistake of Gender Charm in Heiðarvíga saga,” Scandinavian Studies 83 (2011): 307-64.
- “The Blindness Curse and Nonmiracles in the Old English Prose Life of Saint Guthlac,” Modern Philology 106 (2009): 399-426. Special Issue.
Medieval Poetry of the Fantastic
Chaucer and the Middle Ages
Diversity in the Middle Ages
Medieval Patience Literature
Dangerous Medieval Sexualities
Contact Info:
F: 519.884.8307
Office location: Dr. Alvin Woods Building 3-118
Office hours: By appointment
Languages spoken: English