Upcoming and Recent Events
Speakers for Spring 2009
- Sharon Rowley, Christopher Newport University
- Clare Lees, Kings’ College London
- Judy Kem, Wake Forest University
Medievalists Win Teaching Award
Professors Overing and Wiethaus were the recipients of the TLC Annual Teaching Innovation Award for their course “The Other Middle Ages” in Spring 2008.
Speakers
The Medieval Studies program again brought in a wide variety of speakers this year. In the fall, we hosted three speakers, Patrick Toner from the WFU Philosophy department, and one of our most distinguished alumnae, Mary Kate Hurley (‘04), who is now completing her PhD at Columbia (she also participated in a round table discussion with our current graduate students) and we hosted a return visit from Ken Addison from the St. Peter’s College, Oxford summer program in the Fall.
This Spring we hosted four more talks, and received co-sponsorship from Women’s and Gender Studies the Interdisciplinary Honors Program and the Environmental Studies Program: Eileen Joy (Southern Illinois University), Charles Wilkins (WFU History), Liz Herbert McAvoy (Swansea University, Wales) and a return visit from Ken Addison who lectured medieval studies undergrad and graduate students in the Chaucer course on the landscape and history of medieval monasteries, by focusing on Tinterm Abbey. Professors Joy and McAvoy came for several days, teaching classes and meeting informally with our medieval studies students.
Minors
Our current crop of 5 graduating minors are: Rachael Mongold, Mary Elizabeth Crawley (English majors) and Shane Thompson and Devin Phipps, and Danielle Goodwin (History majors).
Juniors who have signed on for the minor are: Zach Hines (English) and Christopher Commins (history). Jim Zachry and Jake Sullivan (both English majors) are also considering the minor.
Two medieval studies graduate students have successfully defended theses this Spring, Lisa Brewer and Sarah Winter.
One MALS student, Britany Waddell, wrote a thesis on Tolkein which was directed by Prof. Sigal and read also by Prof. Overing.
Awards
Graduate student, Ben Wilkinson, received a Richter grant to work on a project on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight while attending the St. Peter’s College, Oxford, Medieval Studies Summer school.
Danielle Goodwin, graduating senior and medieval studies minor, was awarded the Robert Shorter prize for Excellence in Medieval Studies.
Conference Papers Presented
- Lisa Brewer: “‘No One Guessed Who I Was When I Came Here This Morning’: Humor as Political Subversion in the Outlaw Sagas of Gisli and Grettir.” Conference, “HumorFest,” East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, November 3, 2007.
- Hannah Godwin: “Was she hatefully cruel?: An Iceberg, a Warrior, or a Witch? Multivalent Meaning in Riddle 33 of theAnglo-Saxon Exeter Book. Play: Towards A Critical Concept,” University of California - Irvine, April 4th and 5th, 2008.
- Sarah Reeder: “Hell in the Hall, ‘reclining near the king’: the Significance of Hall-life in Beowulf.” Louisiana Conference on Language and Literature, Feb. 21-23, 2008.
- Ben Utter: “Grounds for Appreciation: Landscape and Emotion in the Icelandic Sagas.” North Carolina Colloquium in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill, February 15-16, 2008.
- Ben Wilkinson: “The Eighth Deadly Sin: Dejection as ‘Passion’ in The Wanderer.” North Carolina Colloquium in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill, February 15-16, 2008.
International Medieval Congress Scholarships
We continue to have record numbers of applicants for International Medieval Congress scholarships; and we have awarded partial funding to five students, three graduate and two undergraduate. Students repeatedly report that attending this conference is a formative and inspiring experience.