Research Groups

Medieval Research Consortium
Faculty Sponsor: Seeta Chaganti (English)
Coordinators: Kendra Smith, Keri Wolf, and Barbara Zimbalist (English)

The Medieval Research Consortium aims to foster publishable research in medieval subjects through cross-disciplinary conversations, shared resources, and collegial encouragement; we work to facilitate interactions between faculty and graduate students working in medieval studies across the disciplines at UCD. The MRC has for several years sponsored sessions at the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, and traditionally Davis students presenting papers at the conference are invited first to present them to the group. We have upcoming talks by Elizabeth Robertson (University of Colorado) and Nicholas Watson (Harvard); we also co-sponsor talks with other groups, including a recent presentation by Marguerite Waller (UC Riverside), presented jointly with the Early Modern Studies Cluster. We welcome anyone interested in attending our events to join the mailing list; please contact kosmith@ucdavis.edu.

The Medieval Research Consortium is supported by the Davis Humanities Institute, http://dhi.ucdavis.edu/.

Early Modern Studies Cluster
Coordinator and Faculty Sponsor: Fran Dolan (English)

This collaborative research group defines the early modern generously—as the space between medieval studies and the eighteenth-century—and invites participation from colleagues in many disciplines (speakers this year include scholars working on Spain, Germany, France, England, and China and from disciplines including literature, religion, history, art history, and science and technology studies). Speakers from the past few years include Jean Howard (Columbia University), Shannon Miller (Temple University), Allison Coudert (UC Davis) and Chandra Mukerji (UC Davis). Upcoming we have Emilie Bergmann (UC Berkeley), Kathy Stuart (UC Davis), and Katharine Burnett (UCDavis), as well as Jennifer Summit (Stanford) and Marguerite Waller, whose visits were co-sponsored with the Medieval Research Consortium. The EMSC welcomes collaborations with other groups and we are always happy to make additions to our e-mail list announcing upcoming events of interest. Please contact fdolan@ucdavis.edu for further information.

The Early Modern Studies Cluster is supported by the Davis Humanities Institute, http://dhi.ucdavis.edu/.

Medieval and Early Modern Dissertations Recently Completed

Jane Beal (2002; currently Visiting Assistant Professor at Wheaton College, Illinois) "John Trevisa and the English Polychronicon: Authority and Vernacular Translation in Late-Medieval England" (English; Marijane Osborn)

Brad Busbee (2006; currently Assistant Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University) “N. F. S. Grundtvig's Interpretation of Beowulf as a Living Heroic Poem for the People” (English; Marijane Osborn)

Michael Edwards (2004) "Geometric Theology and the Meaning of Clannesse in the Poems of the Pearl Manuscript" (English; Margaret Ferguson)

Janice Hawes (2004; currently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior) "Monsters, Heroes and Social Identity in Medieval Icelandic and English Literature" (English; Marijane Osborn)

Katie Kalpin (2006; currently Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina-Aiken) "Charming Tongues: Representations of Women's Speech in Early Modern England" (English; Fran Dolan)

Yvette Kisor (2001; currently Assistant Professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey) "The Inner Beowulf: Theories of Structure and Composition of the Poem and Their Implications for Modern Readers"

(English; Marijane Osborn)

Andrew Majeske (2003) "Equity in English Renaissance Literature: Thomas More's Utopia and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene" (English; Margaret Ferguson)

Medieval and Early Modern Dissertations in Progress

Keith Banks (History; Sally McKee) Medieval Italy and the Ottoman Empire

April Boyd (English; Claire Waters) “The Anglo-Norman Brut Chronicle in Manuscript Context”

Tina Boyer (German; Winder McConnell) Giants and dwarves in Middle High German literature

Shennan Hutton (History) "Women and Economic Activities in Fourteenth-Century Ghent, a Medieval Flemish City" (Awarded Fulbright full grant for research in Belgium, 2003–04)

Lisa Justice (History; Joan Cadden) Fourteenth-century Scottish origin mythology and historiography

Sean Marsh (History; Beverly Bossler) Foreign communities in Chinese port cities during the Song dynasty (10th-13th centuries)

Brooke Newman (History; Joan Cadden) "Betwixt Brutes and Invisible Spirits: The Uncertainty of the Human and the English Press, 1650-1750"

Anne Salo (Comparative Literature; Brenda Schildgen)

Kendra Smith (English; Claire Waters) "Courtly Knots: Feminine Translatio in British Courtly Literature, 1300–1450"

Candace Hull Taylor (English; Claire Waters) “Reading Prudence: Allegorical Representations of the Cardinal Virtue in Classical, Patristic and Medieval Literature”

Patty Turning (History) “The Making of French Toulouse: State Building, Social Relationships and Civic Identity in Medieval Languedoc, c. 1250-1350” (Awarded the first Birgit Baldwin Fellowship from the Medieval Academy of America for research in France on medieval history)

Jake Whittaker (History; Susan Mann) "Indigenous Elites and Cultural Brokerage in Late Imperial Yunnan: The Lu-ho Polity, the Feng Family Native Prefects, and Nasu Yi Civilization in Wuding, 1174-1745"