EDWARD S. LOUIS/E. L. RISDEN

Professor of English, Emeritus                     

St. Norbert College                       

edward.risden@snc.edu                       

Education

PhD in English, Purdue University, August 1990

Major area:  Old and Middle English Language and Literature

Secondary areas:  English Renaissance literature; writing

Dissertation:  "Beowulf and Apocalypticism"

MA in English, John Carroll University, May 1985

Major area:  British Romantic Poetry

Thesis: “John Keats’s Literary Theory:  A Study of the Letters and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’”

BS, magna cum laude, Baldwin-Wallace College, June 1979

Teaching Experience (with course titles) 

St. Norbert College, 1990-2021

The English Language Advanced Expository Writing

Freshman Seminar Literary Genres

Intro. to Literature English Renaissance Literature

Modern Poetry Fiction Writing

Medieval Literature Survey of English Literature

The English Epic Survey of Engl. Lit. I & II 

Concepts of Heroism Dante

Shakespeare Reshaken Classical Myth

Readings from Hell Science, Literature, and Culture

Lit. Old and New The Distant Mirror 

Chaucer Shakespeare's Drama

Authoring Arthur Tolkien’s World

Milton Literary Humor

Shakespeare's Drama Literature of Love

Literature and Film Science, Literature, and Social Issues (grad.)

Heroes, Gods, and Monsters (grad.) Aesthetics of Literature and Film

Heroes and Sages Poetry Workshop

Shakespeare:  Text and Film (grad.) Ideas of Science Fiction (grad., spring 2020)

Independent studies directed:  Shakespeare; European Epic; Classical Epic; Playwriting; Intro. to Linguistics; Novel writing; Editing and Publishing; Heroes Ancient and Modern; British Literature Survey; Middle English Romances; Old English I and II; Reading and Writing Myth; Virgil, Dante, and Boccaccio; Readings in Tolkien’s Sources; Globalizing Tolkien’s World

Honors Tutorials taught:  The Hobbit and World-Building; Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain; Tai Chi Chuan and the Tao Te Ching; Invented Languages; Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Adapting Literature to Film:  Joyce’s “The Dead”; Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness:  The Thought Problem and World Building

Workshops:  Co-taught “Collage in Art and Poetry,” Oklahoma Fine Arts Institute, October 2015

Online Instruction: parts of Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 terms 

University of Houston-Victoria, 1990 (January-August)

Chaucer (undergrad and grad.) The English Epic (grad. and undergrad.)

Shakespeare Advanced Composition

Purdue University, (graduate instructor) 1985-89

Introduction to Poetry World of King Arthur (team-taught)

Great Narrative Works Greek and Roman Lit. (in trans.)

Science Fiction Vocabulary Building

Freshman Comp. I and II Advanced Freshman Composition

Business Writing Technical Writing

John Carroll University, (teaching assistant) 1983-85

Freshman Composition, Developmental Composition, assisted in British Literature Survey I and II

Scholarly Volumes

Spiritual Shakespeare: Religious Subtext in the Plays. Washington, DC: Academica Press, 2019. 

Seeking the Beautiful: A Study in Literary Aesthetics.  Washington, DC: Academica, 2018.  

On Shakespeare, In Sonnets:  A Study in Reader Response Criticism.  Cambridge:  Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.

Narrative Subversion in Medieval Literature.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland 2016.

Shakespeare’s Dramatic Maxims.  Palo Alto, CA:  Academica Press, 2016.

Tolkien’s Intellectual Landscape.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2015.

Beowulf on Film:  Adaptations and Variations. Co-authored with Nick Haydock.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.

Shakespeare and the Problem Play:  Crossed Genres, Complex Forms, and Moral Quandaries.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2012.

Toward a Theory of Anglo-Saxon Humor:  Riddles, Poetry, Prose, and Illuminations.  Lewiston:  Mellen Press, 2013.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2016 (31).  Co-edited with Jane Toswell, Jesse Swan, and Richard Utz.  Fall 2016.  Includes my postscript.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2015 (30).  Co-edited with Richard Utz, Spring 2016.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2014 (29). Co-edited with Gale Sigal and Richard Utz, Spring 2015.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2013 (28).  Co-edited with Richard Utz and Karl Fugelso, Spring 2014.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2012. (27) Edited, Fall 2013.

The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2011. (26)  Edited, Fall 2012.

Heroes, Gods, and the Role of Epiphany in English Epic Poetry.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland 2008.

Hollywood in the Holy Land:  The Crusades in Film.  Edited with Nick Haydock.  McFarland 2009.

Includes my Epilogue and my chapter “Nobody but the Other Buddy:  Hollywood, the Crusades, and Buddy Pictures.”

Special issue of Enarratio:  Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, honoring Robert Kindrick and Norman Hinton, co-edited with Carlos Hawley-Colon and Kristen Figg.  Includes my essay “Gawain’s Ambivalent Christianity.”  Volume 14, 2007.

Special issue of Enarratio:  Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, on “Punishment, Penance, and Reward in the Middle Ages,” co-edited with William Hodapp and Mel Storm. Includes my essay “Plowing, Bowing, Burning, Journeying:  Penance and Subverting Penance in Medieval Literature.” Volume 16, 2009.

Sir Gawain and the Classical Tradition.  Edited; includes my chapter "The 'Tresounous Tulk' in SGGK."   Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2006.

Beowulf for Business: Leadership Lessons from a Heroic Age.  Albany:  Whitston Publishing, 2007.

Prophet Margins:  The Medieval Vatic Impulse and Social Stability.  Co-edited with Karen Moranski and Stephen Yandell; includes my chapter "Old English Poet-prophets and Their (Un)stable Histories" and my introduction.  New York:  Peter Lang, 2004.

Special issues of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, co-edited with Russell Rutter, on connecting research and teaching. Includes my essay "Walking Hadrian's Wall:  Learning, Teaching, and Pounding the Pavement."  Vols. 1-2, 2004.

How English Works.  2nd ed.  Ann Arbor:  XanEdu Original Works, 2007.

Beowulf:  A Translation for Students.  Translated and introduced.  Revised version of Beowulf in Faithful Verse.  Albany, NY:  Whitston Publishing, 2006. E-book version from Witan Publishing, fall 2012.

Beasts of Time:  Apocalyptic Beowulf. Studies in the Humanities Series #8.  NY:  Peter Lang, 1994.

An Introduction to Shakespeare for Undergraduate Students. A Publication of St. Norbert College (e-book for classroom use), 2015, rev. 2020.

Scholarly Articles, Book Chapters, Essays, Reviews, and Interviews

“Paradise Lost and the Physical/Spiritual Implications of Expandable/Contractible Space.” Proceedings of the Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Summer 2021: 87-96.

“Tolkien, Manuscripts, and Dialect.” The Journal of Tolkien Research (online) 12.1, Article 4 (June 2021). 

“A Room of One’s Own, ‘Of Other Spaces,’ and ‘A Letter from a Birmingham Jail’: Thoughts on Literary Expandable/Contractible Space.” Academia.edu (online) June 2021.

“Desire and the Flexible Grail: The Japanese Fate Franchise and evolving Notions of Arthurian Power.” The Arthurian World, ed. Miriam Edlich-Muth, Victoria Coldham-Fussell, and Renée Ward. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.

“Classic Hollywood Meets PTSD Head-on”: The Best Years of Our Lives.” Into the Valley of the Shadow: An American Soldier’s Military Journey and His Battle with PTSD,” by Joseph Haynes. Hellgate Press, 2019. 69-81.

“Remembering the Power of Archetypal Stories.” Interview by Dr. Franklin Annis for The Evolving Warfighter series, on You Tube, August, 2019.

“Marie’s Dream: An Exercise in Remix Studies.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 7.2/3 (Fall 2017): 192-97, online journal.

“Clemence Housman’s The Life of Sir Aglovale de Galis and the Psychology of Knighthood.”  Wormwoodiana (online), November 2016.

“Miyazaki’s Intellectual Landscape:  Myth, Ecomedievalism, Coming of Age.”  YWiM 2016, 162-69.

Interview.  The Lone Medievalist (website), April 2016

“All’s Well That Ends Well:  Not Really.” Chapter from Shakespeare and the Problem Play reprinted in Literary Criticism.  New York:  Gale/Cengage, 2016.

“Heroic/Apocalyptic Metalandscapes for Some Anglo-Scandinavian Art.”  Forthcoming in Telling Tales and Crafting Books:  Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren.  Kalamazoo:  Medieval Institute Publications, 2016.  139-58.

“Overview: Shakespeare’s Comedies.”  The Definitive Shakespeare Companion, ed. Joseph Rosenblum.  Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-CLIO—Greenwood: 2017. 477-84.

“Monument.”  Medievalism:  Key Critical Terms.  Ed. Elizabeth Emery and Richard Utz.  Cambridge:  D. S. Brewer, 2014. 157-63.

“Middle-earth and the Waste Land:  Greenwood, Apocalypse, and Post-war Resolution.”  In Tolkien and the New Century:  Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey.  Ed. John Houghton, et al. Jefferson:  McFarland, 2014.  57-64.

“Tom Shippey, and a Few New Leaves on Some Old Roots and Branches.” Tolkien in the New Century:  Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey.  16-19.

“Miyazaki’s Medieval World:  Japanese Medievalism and the Rise of Anime.”  The Year’s Work in Medievalism 28.1 (2014):  1-8.

“Ecovian Aesthetics and Beowulfian Poetics:  A Brief Poetics of Heroic Dignity, Alliterative Lines, and Nodal Narrative.”  Appendix to Beowulf:  A Translation for Students. Witan, 2012.

“Aragorn and the Twentieth-century Arthur.”  LOTR Plaza Forum (online).  February 2012.

“A Corporate Neo-Beowulf:  Ready or Not, Here We Come.”  Studies in Medievalism 20 (2012):  49-56.

“The World of the Text:  Source Study, Philology, and Teaching the Middle Ages Through Tolkien.”

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 19.2 (2012):  81-94.

“Shakespeare:  Making Medieval Character.”  Cahier Calin.  Makers of the Middle Ages.  Essays in Honor of William Calin.  Ed. Richard Utz and Elizabeth Emery.  Kalamazoo, MI:  Studies in Medievalism, 2011.  13-14.

“The Cinematic Sexualizing of Beowulf.”  Essays in Medieval Studies (2010):  109-15.

“Source Criticism:  Background and Applications.”  Tolkien and the Study of His Sources.  Ed. Jason Fisher.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2011. 17-28.

“Tolkien’s Resistance to Linearity:  Narrating The Lord of the Rings in Fiction and Film.”  In Picturing Tolkien:  Essays on The Lord of the Rings in Fiction and Film, edited Janice Bogstad and Philip Kaveney.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland 2011.  70-83.

“Medievalists, Medievalism, and Medievalismists:  Defining (but not too closely) the Territory.”  Studies in Medievalism 18 (2009):  44-54.

“Sandworms, Bodices, and Undergrounds:  The Transformative Mélange of Neomedievalism.  Studies in Medievalism 19 (2011):  58-67.

“A Revelation of Purgatory and Chaucer’s Prioress.”  Fifteenth-Century Studies 35 (2009):  105-11.

“Subversive Threads in the Medieval Narrative Labyrinth.”  Enarratio:  Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 13 (2008):  1-23.

 “Who We Are, What We Do.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 15.1 (spring 2008):  11-19. 

 “Tolkien, Eliot, and Ricoeur: The Lord of the Rings and the Twentieth Century Wasteland.”  The Year’s Work in Medievalism (2003): 20-25.

"Red, White, and the Wars of the Roses:  Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece."  Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (2003): 143-53. 

"National Poems, Global Themes:  Duty in the Epic Tradition."  Globalization Redux:  New Name, Same Game.  Ed. Tom Conner and Ikuko Torimoto.  Lanham, MD:  UP America, 2003.  195-206.

"Script-based Semantic Theory of Humor and the Old English Riddles."  Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (2001):  61-70.

"William Blake and the Personal Epic Fantastic."  Journ. of the Fantastic in the Arts 12.4 (2002):  417-24. 

"Thematic Implications of Anglo-Saxon Humor." In Geardagum (2001): 77-90.  Reprinted in Winlandes Sagu 24 (Fall 2002):  3-8.

"The World's Greatest Knight:  Malory, Theme and Form." Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Vol. 7 (2000):  126-38.

"Teaching Anglo-Saxon Humor:  Yes, Virginia, There Is Humor in Beowulf."  Studies in Medieval and

 Renaissance Teaching 9.1 (2001):  1-18.

"Irony in Beowulf."  Essays in Old, Middle, Modern English and Old Norse.  Ed. Loren Gruber.  Lewiston, NJ:  Edwin Mellen, 2000. 

"Anglo-Saxon Heroic Humor and Beowulf."  Humour in Anglo-Saxon Literature.  Ed. Jonathan Wilcox. D.S. Brewer, 2000.  71-78. 

"Dante's Vita Nuova as Ante-Chapel to the Commedia." Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (Spring 2000):  87-94.

"Beowulf, Tolkien, and Epic Epiphanies."  Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 9.3 (1998):  192-99.

"Butterflies, Strange Attractors, and Fractal Universes:  Arthur, Gawain, and a Mandelbrot Faerie."  The Fractal Spring/Summer (1996):  39-44.

"The Gosforth Cross Narrative and Beowulf."  Proceedings of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 3 (1995):  1-14.  

"Fragments:  A Meditation on Imagery."  North Dakota Quarterly 61.4 (1993):  122-29.

"Notes on a Poetics of Compassion."  Wisconsin English Journal 35.1 (1992):  20-24.

"Notes on a Mathematics of Criticism."  WEJ 34.1 (1991):  46-55.

"Medieval Drama and the Sacred Experience."  Studia Mystica (1991):  74-83.

"Deor:  The Old English Ode and Gnomic Compassion." In Geardagum 11 (June 1990):  57-70.

"The Owl and the Nightingale, Post-modernist Play and Medieval Stand-up Comedy."  Humor 3.4 

(1990):  403-13.

Review.  Tolkien and the Classics, ed. Roberto Arduini, Giampaolo Canzonieri, and Claudio Testi. Journal of Inklings Studies 10.1 (Spring 2020): 72-74.

Review.  Death and the Pearl Maiden, by David K. Coley. Speculum, 95.2 (April 2020): 533-34.

Review.  Tolkien’s Modern Middle Ages, ed. Jane Chance and Alfred K. Siewers. SMART Spring 2019: 139-43.

Review.  Approaches to Teaching Tolkien:  The Lord of the Rings and Other Works, ed. Leslie A. Donovan.  Arthuriana 26.2 (2016):  139-41.

Review.  Beowulf:  A Translation and Commentary, by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Enarratio 22 2016:  126-29.

Review.  Honour, Exchange and Violence in Beowulf, by Peter S. Baker. SMART, 26.2, Fall 2019, 97-100.

Review.  Beowulf at Kalamazoo:  Essays on Translation and Performance, ed. Jana Schulman and Paul Szarmach. Speculum 89.3 (July 2014):  826-27. 

Review.  The Chronic Maiora of Thomas Walsingham (1376-1422).  SMART 21.1 (2014): 133-35.

Review.  Mythology and the Middle Ages:  Heroic Tales of Monsters, Magic, and Might, by Christopher Fee.  Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (2017): 171-73.

Review.  Humanism, Machinery, and Renaissance Literature, by Jessica Wolfe.  Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 20.2 (Fall 2013):  151-53.

Review of A Summarie of the Chronicles of England, by John Stow, ed. Barrett Beer.  Sixteenth Century Journal 41.3 (Fall 2010):  913-14.

Review of Shakespeare’s Letters, by Alan Steward.  Sixteenth Century Studies, Spring 2011.

Review of Studies in Etymology, 2nd ed., Charles Dunmore and Rita Fleischer.  NECTFL Review 64 Spring/Summer 2009:  93-95.

Review of John M. Hill’s The Narrative Pulse of Beowulf.  Mediaevalia e Humanistica 36 (2010): 164-66.

Review of Beatus Vir:  Studies in Early English and Norse Manuscripts in Memory of Phillip Pulsiano.  Envoy, Fall 2008.

Review of Medieval Lyric Poetry, ed. John Cherry.  Sixteenth Century Journal 38.3:  836-37.

Review essay of Old English Poetry, by Burton Raffel.  Allegorica (Spring 1999):  121-27.

Review of Mid-American Review. Literary Magazine Review 16.1-2 (1997):  27-30.

Review of The New Faculty Member, by Robert Boice.  The Journal of Higher Education 66.1 (1995):  106-08.

Review of Publish, Don't Perish, by Joseph Moxley.  The Journal of Staff, Program, and Organizational Development 11.4 (1995):  237-39. 

Review of Crabbe Evers' Tigers Burning and Troy Soos' Murder at Fenway Park.  Aethlon 13.1 (Fall 1995):  140-41.

Review of They Still Play Baseball the Old Way, by R. J. Stout. Aethlon 13.1 (Fall 1995):  145-46. 

Review of At the Grave of the Unknown Riverdriver, by Paul Corrigan.  Aethlon 11.2 (1994):  155-56.

Review of The Gettysburg Review.  LMR 13.1 (1994):  10-13.

Review of The Harvard Review.  LMR 11.4 (1992-93):  26-28.

Review of Medieval Games:  Sports and Recreations in Feudal Society. Aethlon 10.2 (1993):  134.

Review of The Concho Review LMR 10.2 (1991):  21-23.

Review of Inner Edge, by Syed Hassan.  Friday (Bangladesh) 19.2 (September 29, 1989).

Review of The Fiddlehead.  LMR 8.2&3 (1989):  26-28.

Review of Greensboro Review.  LMR 6.4 (1987):  8-10.

Creative Writing Publications

Novel. The Quantum Detectives. Mirador Publishing, 2021

Novel. Between Such Distant Shores. Mirador Publishing, 2020.

Holidays Unfolding: The Continuing Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy. Elm Grove Publishing, 2022.

The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy. Artwork with short stories, art by Kristy Deetz. Elm Grove Publishing, 2019.

Novel.  Wiskalo Chookalo.  De Pere, WI: Peregrino Press, 2018.

A Walk in the Dark. Collection of short stories co-authored with Beverly Green, Peregrino Press, 2018.

Novel.  White Shoes.  Brownsville, TX:  Anaphora Literary Press, 2017.

Novella.  “Marie de France Dreams of Steampunk.”  Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 7.2/3 (Fall 2017): 174-92, online journal.

Novel.  The Monster Specialist.  Zurich:  Walking Tree Publishers, 2014.

Short novel.  Alfgar’s Stories from Beowulf.  Witan Publishing, 2012. Print edition released 2020. 

Short novel.  A Living Light.  Eugene, OR:  Wipf and Stock, 2009.

Novel.  Odysseus on the Rhine.  Waterville, Maine:  Five Star, 2005. 

Novel.  Sir Severus le Brewse.  Lansdowne, PA:  Silver Lake Publishing, 2005.

Video.  St. Norbert College:  A Centennial Remembrance.  One-hour video celebrating the history of the college.  Spring 2000. Archived for viewing on SNC Commons.

Play.  A Living Fire.  (Based on the life of Hildegard of Bingen.) Performed at St. Norbert College, November 5-7, 12-14, 1992.

One-act play for readers’ theater.  “The Battle of Maldon.”  Performed at the 43rd Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2008 and also at the Medieval Association of the Midwest Conference, Fargo, ND, September 2008. Published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism 2010, 59-74.

One-act play.  "The Day I Met My Mother."  Performed at St. Norbert College, February 1993.

Short Story (with poetry).  “Five Short Acts, with Interludes.”  Pennsylvania Literary Journal, 2017.1: 91-98.

Short Story.  “Little Fotungus.”  The Long Story 35 (2017):  124-37.

Short Story. “Gil,” or “Had the Earth Grown No Flowers: A Fable.” No Rhyme or Reason (1995): 26-28.

Short Story.  "Grendel's Mother."  The Fractal (Fall 1994):  37-55.

Short Story/humor.  "How to Market Your College.  Thalia:  Studies in Literary Humor 19.1&2 (1999):  77-80.

Short Story/humor.  "A Review of Guglielma Mendez' Post-Apocalyptic Trilogy.  Thalia:  Studies in Literary Humor 14.1&2 (1994):  60-65.

Short Story.  "Willie Redux."  Aethlon 9.1&2 (1991):  73-81.

Short Story.  "White Shoes."  Aethlon 7.1 (1989):  1-7.

Blog.  “The Bingley Chronicles” (edwardslouis.com—website)

Blog.  “Writer’s Notes” (edwardslouis.com—website)

Reading. From Holidays Unfolding: The Continuing Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy. NewArtSpace, Gallery, De Pere, WI, April 2022.

Reading. From The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy. NewArtSpace, De Pere, WI, March 2022.

Reading. From Between Such Distant Shores and On Shakespeare, In Sonnets. St. Norbert College retirement event, online, April 2021. 

Reading (online). From Book of Hours, Book of Days and Nights. The Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, Green Bay, WI, November 2020

Reading. From Wiskalo Chookalo, The Monster Specialist, and Book of Hours. ArtStart Gallery, Rhinelander, WI, March 2019.

Reading. From Wiskalo Chookalo and Book of Hours, Book of Days and Nights. The Yardstick bookstore, Algoma, WI, January 2019.

Reading. From Wiskalo Chookalo. Reader’s Loft Bookstore, Green Bay, WI, September 2018.

Reading. From Wiskalo Chookalo, SNC Alumni Weekend, De Pere, WI, July 2018.

Reading. From Wiskalo Chookalo, Kress Public Library, De Pere, WI, June 2018.

Reading.  “Partytime,” from White Shoes, De Pere, September 2017.

Reading.  “Marie de France Dreams of Steampunk.” Salon Supper Club, Green Bay, March 2017.

Reading.  “Uppsala, Wisconsin,” Chapter 1 from Wiskalo Chookalo, Duluth, MN, October 2016.

Reading.  Selected poems.  Quartz Mountain, OK, October 2015.

Reading.  Poems from “Timepiece.”  Pittsburgh, PA, October 2015.

Reading.  The Monster Specialist.  SNC Library, November 2014.

Reading.  From The Monster Specialist.  Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, GA, October 2014. 

Poems for presentation to music by Eileen Moore: “Warrior Maidens of Middle-earth:  A Musical Suite.” Performed at the Int’l Medieval Congress and elsewhere 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021. 

Reading.  “Freawaru’s Lament.”  Minnesota State University—Moorhead, March 2011.

Reading.  Selected poems.  Neville Public Museum, November 2006.

Reading.  Selections from novels and poetry.  St. Norbert College bookstore, October 2005.

Reading.  From Odysseus on the Rhine.  Barnes & Noble bookstore, Green Bay, WI, November 2005.

Reading.  From “A Living Light” (short novel based on the life of Hildegard of Bingen), CAES/International Hildegard Society Conference, Muncie, IN, October 2004.

Reading.  "Freawaru's Lament."  18th Annual MAM conference, De Pere, WI, September 2002. 

Reading.  "The Fifty Excuses for Dropping a Fly Ball and Other Essential Information."  Annual Meeting of the Sports Literature Association, Stevens Point, WI, August 1996.

Book of Poems. Book of Hours, Book of Days and Nights.: Selected Poems. Quannah, TX: Anaphora Literary Press, 2018. 

Book of Poems.  The Streets of Harmon Falls.  Troy, NY:  The Troy Book Makers, 2016.

Book of Poems.  A Second City Street Prophet Sings the Blues.  Lewiston, NJ:  Mellen Poetry Press, 2005.

Book of Poems.  Through a Glass Darkly.  Lewiston, NJ:  Mellen Poetry Press, 1996.

Chapbook of Poems.  Among Dusty Shelves.  East Meadow, NJ:  East Coast Editions, 1994.

Chapbook of Poems.  Songs of the City.  West Lafayette, IN:  Demosthenes Press, 1989.

Chapbook of Poems.  Light on Stone.  Cassandra Press, 2004.

Individual poems in the following publications:

Caesura, Campus Column, Chameleon, Gryphon, The Haraka Reader, Hiram Poetry Review, Indiannual 3, Indiannual 4, Journal of Irish Literature, Kentucky Poetry Review, Literati Chicago, Minneapolis Review of Baseball, Negative Capability, One Mind, One Heart in God, Parnassus Literary Journal, Poetry Wales, Presbyterian Record, Riverside Quarterly, SPSM&H, Sunrust, Water 

Scholarly Presentations (national and international)

“Tolkien’s Living Medieval Landscape.” 57th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, online, May 2022.

“The Nei Jia: Medieval and Medievalism in Theory and Practice.” 57th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, online, May 2022.

“If Magic be the Food of Love, Play on: Boundaries of Love in The Faerie Queene and Le Morte Darthur.” Int’l Society for Study of Medievalism annual conference, online, November 2021. 

“Space, Place, and Identity in Dante’s Commedia.” Illinois Medieval Association mini-conference, online, September 2021.

“Tolkien and Spatiality: What Expandable/Contractible Space Implies in The Lord of the Rings.” 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2021. 

“Tolkien, Manuscripts, and Dialect.” Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium, May 2021. 

“Shakespeare’s Henry V: The Stage as Space, Place, and Mind.” Pearl Kibre Medieval Conference 2021, CUNY, New York, May 2021. 

“Paradise Lost and the Physical/Spiritual Implications of Expandable/Contractible Space.” 28th Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Sioux Center, IA, April 2021.

Marie’s Lais and the Movement from Romantic to Religious Space. Annual Conference of the Illinois Medieval Association, Chicago, IL (online), February 2021.

“Expandable, Contractible Space in the Canterbury Tales: Some Theoretical Measures from the French Fringe.” 34th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, West Lafayette, IN, October 2018.

“Would You Write More, or What? The Quest to Publish Historically-Based Creative Writing in the Contemporary Literary Marketplace.” Panelist.  52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2017.

“The Politics of the Liberal Arts, Then and Now.”  52nd Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2017.

“Materiality, Maxims, and Murder:  Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Richard III, and King John.”  32nd Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Duluth, MN, October 2016.

“Gamelyn and Athelson:  Looking Back and Looking Forward.” 51st Annual Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2016.

“The Past and Future of Medievalism Conferences:  Personal Reflections.”  30th Annual Conference on Medievalism.  Pittsburgh, PA, October 2015.

“Tai Chi Chuan:  Practical Chinese Medievalism.”  39th Annual Int’l Conference on Medievalism. Pittsburgh, PA, October 2015

“Cartography and the Fantasy Novel:  The Monster Specialist and the Fantastic World.”  North American   Review Bicentennial Conference, Cedar Falls, IA, June 2015.

“Poetry as Criticism:  On Shakespeare, In Sonnets.” North American Review Bicentennial Conference, Cedar Falls, IA, June 2015.

“A Lesser-known Sister Rehabilitates a Lesser-known Brother:  Clemence Housman’s Sir Aglovale de

Galis.  29th Annual Conference on Medievalism, Atlanta, GA, October 2014.

“Detective Dee:  Chinese Cinematic Medievalism and the Acrobatic Art of Detection.  29th Annual Conference on Medievalism, Atlanta, GA, October 2014.

“The Sociolinguistics of HEL for Education Students.”  49th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2014.

“Teaching Vita Nuova:  Values in Public and Private Prophecy.”  49th Int’l Congress on Medieval

Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2014.

“Narrative Subversion in Piers Plowman—and Again and Again,” 55th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Milwaukee, WI, November 2013.

“Hamlet:  Shakespeare’s “Comic” Medievalism.  28th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, De Pere, WI, October 2013

“Miyazki’s World:  Myth, Cultural Impasse, and Coming of Age.”  SNC/Nihon University 6th International Conference, De Pere, WI, September 2013.

“An Architectural Aesthetic of Beowulf.”  29th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Terre Haute, IN, September 2013.

“Shakespeare and the Making of Medieval Kingship.”  48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2013.

“Splintered Light and Word:  Tolkien’s Myth, Philology, and Faith.”  48th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2013.

“The Hobbit:  Book to Film.”  Symposium on the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit and the release of the The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey.  Milwaukee, WI, February 2013.

“Tolkien and the 20th Century:  The Center or the Margins?”  27th International Conference on Medievalism.  North Canton, OH, October 2012.

Roundtable participant:  Response to ISSM publications:  The Year’s Work in Medievalism.  27th International Conference on Medievalism.  North Canton, OH, October 2012.

Shakespeare’s Henry V and Medieval Kingship:  Fighting, Wooing, and Dying.”  28th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Cincinnati, OH, September 2012.

“On J.R.R. Tolkien’s Contributions to Medieval Scholarship.”  28th Annual Conf. of the Medieval Assoc. of the Midwest, Cincinnati, OH, September 2012.

“King Lear:  His Heart Burst Smilingly.”  Great River Shakespeare Festival Summer Symposium, Winona, MN, July 2012.

“Tolkien, Classical Myth, and Said’s Orientalism:  Othering the East and the South.”  47th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2012.

“Beowulf Goes Corporate:  Epic Medievalism Gets Mod at the Movies,” panel presentation, 47th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2012.

“Sport and Virtue in the Renaissance.”  Sport and Culture Conference, De Pere, WI, May 2012.

“How a Trojan’s Trumpet Revises Chaucer and Undermines Genre:  Acid Character in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.  29th Annual Conference of the Illinois Medieval Association, DeKalb, IL, February 2012. 

“Tolkien’s Aragorn and the Twentieth-Century Arthur.”  26th International Conference on Medievalism, Albuquerque, NM, October 2011.

“No Such Thing as Beowulf film.”  Medieval Association of the Midwest 27th Annual Conference, De Pere, WI, September 2011.

“Ecovian Aesthetics and Beowulfian Poetics:  Toward a Poetics of Heroic Dignity.  46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2011.

“Jane Chance’s Contributions of Medievalism through Medieval Studies” (roundtable contribution).  46th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2011.

“Our Man Beowulf:  C. M. Bowra and the Cinematic Struggle with Epic Heroism.”  Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, Winona, MN, April 2011.

“Hero, Id, and a Feminist Beowulf:  Freud Meets Epic Flicks.”  Invited Honors Lecture at Minnesota State University—Moorhead, March 2011. 

“O Dragon, Where art Thou?:  Othering in Beowulf Films.”  28th Conference of the Illinois Medieval Association, Chicago, February 2011.

“Beowulf and an Ecovian Aesthetic of Narrative.”  Medieval Association of the Midwest 26th Annual Conference, Iowa City, September 2010.

“Meta-, Para-, Neo-, Socio-phrase:  Langue and Parole in Gavin Douglas’s Eneados.”  Read by proxy at the Author-Translator in the European Literary Tradition conference, Swansea, Wales, June 2010.

“Middle-earth and the Waste Land:  Greenwood, Apocalypse, and Post-War Resolution.”  43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2010.

“Mentoring,” roundtable presentation in “Paying Forward, Looking Back:  Fostering Medieval Studies in the Twenty-first Century:  In Honor of Cynthia Z. Valk.”  43rd Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, May 2010.

“Walter Ong on Consciousness, and the Rise of the Renaissance Mind.”  Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media.  Dekalb, IL, April 2010.  (This conference is largely for graduate students, but I presented a paper at the request of a former student and to accompany a group of SNC undergraduates who presented their first professional papers there.)  

“The Cinematic Sexualizing of Beowulf.”  Medieval Association of the Midwest and Illinois Medieval Association Joint Conference, Chicago, IL, February 2010.

“Sonnets, Marital Love, and Shakespeare’s Lost Romance.”  44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2009.

“In Honor of Tom Shippey:  A Few Leaves on the Roots and Branches.”  Panel discussion at the 44th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2009.

“Gendering the Muse:  Recreating Hildegard of Bingen.”  33rd Annual Wisconsin Women’s Studies Conference, Madison, WI, April 2009.

“Plowing, Bowing, Burning, Journeying:  Penance and Subverting Penance in Medieval Literature.”  50th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis, MN, November 2008.

“From Epic to Heaneywulf to Digital 3-D:  Beowulf and the Cultural Quantum of Consciousness.”  24th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Fargo, ND, September 2008.

“The Movement Toward the Renaissance Mind:  Art and Architecture.”  43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2008.

“In Body, Out of Body:  Tolkien’s Monsters, Norse Tradition, and the Conjunction of Spirit and Flesh.”  5th Annual Tolkien Conference, Burlington, VT, April 2008.

“Narrative Subversion and the Solutionless Problem.”  49th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Cleveland, OH, November 2007.

“Subverting ‘Troilus and Cressida’:  Hyperstructures and the Evolving Narrative.”  23rd Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Terre Haute, IN, October 2007.  

“What Tolkien Really Said about Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”  22nd Int’l Conference on Medievalism, London, Ontario, October 2007.

“Evolving Troilus and Cressida:  Beginnings, Middles, and Ends.” 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, May 2007.

"Lost in the Not-So-Funhouse:  Subversive Threads in the Medieval Narrative Labyrinth."  Plenary lecture for the 22nd Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, January 2007.

"Myth and the Problem of Generational Succession in The Silmarillion."  21st Int'l Conference on Medievalism, Columbus, OH, October 2006.

"The Sword that was Broken":  Analogues and Interpretations."  41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2006.

Nearly Perfect, Not So Perfect, and Not at All Perfect:  The Problem of Perceval and the Grail Quest."  12th Annual ACMRS Conference, Tempe, AZ, February 2006 (read by proxy:  travel problem).

“Old English Exile Poems: Insider as Outsider as Insider.”  47th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Milwaukee, WI, November 2005.

“Tolkien and Leadership Theory.”  20th International Studies in Medievalism Conference, Towson State Univ., Towson, Maryland, October 2005.  

“The Grail Quest and the Problem of an Ending.”  21st Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Springfield, Illinois, September 2005.

“Ends After Ends: Death and the Dead in Völuspá and Some Sagas.”

40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2005

Rountable Discussion Participant: “Teaching the Middle Ages in the Small Liberal Arts College.”  40th Int’l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2005.

Beowulf and the Tradition of Epic Epiphanies.  Illinois Medieval Association Annual Conference, Carbondale, IL, February 2005.

“Humor in Anglo-Saxon Prose.”  20th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest Marquette, MI, Sept. 2004.

"The Lord of the Rings: Films, Texts, and Tolkien’s Resistance to Linearity.”  Mythcon 35, Ann Arbor,MI, July 2004. 

“Gawain’s Ambivalent Christianity.”  39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2004.

"Verticality:  A Medieval State of Mind." 19th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest.  Indianapolis, October 2003.

Tolkien, Ricoeur, Eliot:  The World of the Text and the 20th-Century Wasteland.  18th International Conference on Medievalism.  St. Louis, October 2003.

Mimetic/Prophetic Heroism:  Auerbach, Shepherd, Tolkien, and the Paratactic Poetics of the "Battle of Maldon."  Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, November 2003. 

"Teaching Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, and The 13th Warrior as Medievalist Cinema:  The Least, the King, and the Norse; the Beast, the Ring, and a Horse," 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2003.

"Apocalyptic Metalandscapes in Anglo-Scandinavian Art and Literature."  37th Annual Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2002.

"Eddic/Heroic Literature and Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture."  Southeast Medieval Association Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, October 2001 (read by proxy:  travel problem).

"Women as Colonial Icon in Beowulf and Laxdaela Saga."  Medieval Assoc. of the Midwest Annual Conf. Madison,WI, September 2001.

"Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece:  Red, White, and the War of the Roses."  Central Renaissance Conference, Emporia, KS, Sept. 2001

"Incantation and Epic Epiphany in Spenser's Faerie Queene."  Central Renaissance Conf., Emporia, KS. Sept. 2001

"Thundy's Millenium:  Apocalypse and Antichrist and Old English Monsters:  More on the Monsters," 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2001. 

"William Blake and the Personal Epic Fantastic."  22nd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 2001.

"Renaissance Magic Woods."  Panel presentation, part of "Magic Forests:  An Enduring Theme," ICFA, Ft. Lauderdale, March 2001.

"Script-based Semantic Theory of Humor and the Old English Riddles," 16th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Duluth, MN, Oct. 2000.

"Geoffrey Shepherd's 'Prophetic Cædmon':  A Poetics of Old English Prophecy by Way of Deor, Dream

of the Rood, and The Wanderer."  2000 MidAmerican Medieval Association Conference, Tulsa, OK, Feb. 2000.

"Heart of Darkness, Heart of Light:  Conrad, Eliot, Excalibur, and the Grail Quest." Also, "Response to William Hodapp's 'Connerian Medievalism.'"  41st Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis, November 1999.

"The 'Tresounous Tulk' in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  13th Annual Interdisciplinary CAES Conf. and 15th Annual Medieval Assoc. of the Midwest Conf., Muncie, IN, October 1999. 

"W. G. Collingwood's Saga-novels:  The Turn-of-the-century Medievalist's Local-color Medievalism." 14th Annual Intern'l Conference on Medievalism, Bozeman, MT, Sept. 1999.

"Anglo-Saxon Heroic Poet-prophets and Their (Un)stable Histories."  34th Annual Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1999.

"Some Cruxes in Translating Beowulf." Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Convention, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 1998

"Toward a Theory of Anglo-Saxon Humor."  14th Annual Conference, Medieval Association of the Midwest, Canton, OH, Sept. 1998.

"Teaching Vita Nuova as an Anti-Chapel to Dante's Commedia." Teaching the Middle Ages Conference, Emporia, KS, Sept. 1998.

"Anglo-Saxon Visual Humor."  33rd Int'l Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1998.

"Mixed Blessings:  Response to 'The Baptismal Formula of the Stowe Missal.'" MMLA Annual Convention, Chicago, November 1997.

"How the Heroes Joke." 13th Annual Conference, Medieval Association of the Midwest, Iowa City, IA, September 1997. 

"Humor in Beowulf." 32 Annual International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1997.

"Humor in Medieval Drama."  31st Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1996.

"Butterflies, Strange Attractors, and Fractal Universes:  Arthur, Gawain, and a Mandelbrot Faerie." 17th annual conference, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 1996.

"Epic Leadership from Homer to Beowulf."  Leadership and Scholarship conference, DeLand, FL, February 1996.

"Beowulf's Varied Apocalypses."  Discussion at the 37th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, MO, November 1995.

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as Chastity Fable."  11th annual conference, Medieval Association of the Midwest, Marquette, MI, September 1995.

"Beowulf, Tolkien, and Epic Epiphanies."  16th annual conference, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 1995.

"The Fortunes of Men:  Phoenix and anti-Phoenix in Old English Poetry."  30th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1995.

"A Revelation of Purgatory and Chaucer's Prioress."  10th annual conference, Medieval Association of the Midwest, Emporia, KS, September 1994.

"Magic, Prayer, and Intentionality:  When Word Becomes Deed in the Canterbury Tales."  29th Annual International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1994.

"The Seduction of Eve:  Temptation Scenes in Genesis B, Le Mystere d'Adam, and Paradise Lost."  28th Annual International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1993.

"The World's Greatest Knight:  Teaching Malory."  8th annual Conference, Medieval Association of the Midwest, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, September 1992.

"Beowulf and the Signs of Doom."  27th Annual International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1992.

"Beowulf and the Christian/Pagan Question."  19th Annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN, April 1992.

"The Gosforth Cross and Reading Beowulf."  25th Annual International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1990.

"Writing the Professional Self:  Towards an Ethics of Resume Writing."  Midwest ABC, Detroit, MI, April 1990.

"Beowulf and Apocalyptic Narrative."  5th annual conference, Medieval Assoc. of the Midwest, Chicago, IL, September 1989.

"Deor:  Gnomic Compassion."  Committee for the Advancement of Early Studies, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, October 1988.

"A Reconsideration of King Lear and Catharsis."  CAES, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, October 1988.

"The Owl and the Nightingale, Post-modernist Play, and Medieval Stand-up Comedy."  WHIM VII--7th National Conference on Humor, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, April 1988.

"The Resume as Professional Writing Paradigm."  10th Annual Conference on Technical and Professional Writing, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, October 1987.

"Medieval Drama and the Sacred Experience."  CAES, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, October 1987.

Presentations (local)

Guest lecture on Geoffrey Chaucer, St. Norbert College, September 2022.

Introduction to The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy. With Kristy Deetz. Peninsula Art School Summer Lunch Talk, online, June 2020. 

Panelist. “I Believe in Yesterday: How History and Place Illuminate Fiction.” Fox Cities Book Festival, Neenah, WI, October 2019.

“Finding Spiritual Shakespeare.” SNC sabbatical lecture, October 2019.

Informal Discussion. “Some Ideas on Ghost Stories.” SNC Day, September 2019. 

“Introduction to The Merry Wives of Windsor, SNC ESL students, July 2019.

“Shakespeare’s Language,” Brown County Library, Howard, WI, May 2019.

“From the Medieval to the Renaissance Mind,” Brown County Library, Howard, WI, May 2019. 

“From Decades Past,” panel participant (presentation/discussion on the use of history in fiction), Kress Library, De Pere, WI, November 2018.

“The Liberal Arts: Why They Matter More than Ever.” SNC Day, De Pere, WI, September 2018.

“Introduction to The Comedy of Errors, SNC ESL students, SNC, July 2018.

“Introduction to Twelfth Night,” SNC ESL students, SNC, July 2017.

Lecture-discussion with high-school students about the transition from high school to college.  SNC, March 2017.

“Brief Introduction to American Literature.”  Lecture for ESL students, SNC, January 2016.

“Tolkien and the Problem of Suffering.”  SNC Day lecture, September 2016.

“Introduction to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  SNC Summer ESL Institute lecture, July 2016.

“Introduction to The Tempest.  Brown County Library (Green Bay), April 2016,

“Introduction to Romeo and Juliet.  SNC Summer ESL Institute lecture, June 2015.

“The Humor and Sorrow of Myth.”  SNC Alumni College, April 2015.

“Hildegard of Bingen.”  SNC Sacred Hour, March 2015.

“Poetry and Collage.”  Lecture for art students at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, November 2014.

“Shakespeare Transgressing:  Problem Plays for Fun and Profit.”  Sabbatical presentation, SNC, April 2013.

“Shakespeare’s Maxims.”  Annual SNC day, September 2012.

“Tolkien and the Problem of Evil.” Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Green Bay, WI, August 2012.

“Shakespeare’s Spirituality.”  Unitarian Universality Fellowship, Green Bay, WI, April 2012.

Introduction to Hildegard of Bingen.  Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI, November 2011.

“Spiritual Poetry, Ancient and Modern.”  Unitarian Universality Fellowship, Green Bay, WI, February 2011.

“The Emergence of the Renaissance Mind.”  Door County Auditorium Distinguished Lecture Series, January 2011.

“Shakespeare’s Problem Plays:  What Makes Them Problems?”  Door County Auditorium Distinguished Lecturer Series.  March 2010.

“Varieties of Mystical Experience.”  Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Green Bay, WI, January 2010.

“Shakespeare’s Women and the Sounds of Silence.”  Women’s Enrichment Series, St. Norbert College, November 2009.

“Hildegard as Intellectual:  The Spiritual and Creative Muse.”  Center for Norbertine Studies program “Abbess Hildegard of Bingen:  Mystic, Composer, Healer.”  St. Norbert College, Sept. 2009.

"Ecumenism and Renaissance Copia:  Poets, Affiliations, and the Pious Imagination."  For "Crossing Boundaries:  God in the Poetic Imagination" public seminar, SNC, October 2006.

"Tolkien, Harry Potter, and the Power of Myth."  Door County Lecture Series, February 2006.

"The Lord of the Rings and the Twentieth-Century Wasteland."  Humanities Lecture Series, Neenah, WI, October 2002.

"Have You Heard the One About . . .:  Humor as Renewal."  Faculty Development "Food for Thought" series, SNC, April 2002.

"'Spiritual Trajectories' in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages."  Humanities á la Carte Lecture Series, Neenah, WI, April 2002.

"National Poems, Global Themes:  'Duty' in the Epic Tradition.” Globalization in the 21st Century:  Effects on the World, symposium at St. Norbert College, October 2001.

"The Grail Quest, Medieval and Modern."  Public Humanities series, Menasha, WI, September 2000.

"Apocalypticism in Medieval Millennial Prophetic Literature." "Confronting Crucial 'Isms' in a New Millenium" series, Menasha, WI, March 2000.

"The Year 1000:  'Dark Age' Millenarianism in Literature and Art."  "Confronting Crucial 'Isms' in a New Millenium" series, Menasha, WI, Sept. 1999.

"Hildegard of Bingen and the Medieval Intellectual."  "Earthquakes of Dissent, Revisited," series, Menasha, WI, May 1996.

"Blake, Wordsworth, and Barrett Browning:  Internalizing Heroic Poetry."  "Earthquakes of Dissent, Revisited" series, Menasha, WI, October 1995.

"Gilgamesh and the Ethics of Kingship."  "All Roads Lead to Ethics" Humanities Lecture Series, Menasha, WI, October 1994.

"Shakespeare's Ethic and the Great Chain of Being."  "All Roads Lead to Ethics" series, Menasha, WI, November 1994.

"Beowulf's Contribution to Christian Heroism."  "Scanning the Humanities--the Road from Egocentricity to Agape," Humanities Lecture Series, Menasha, WI, March 1994.

"Dante, Boccaccio, and the Year 2000."  "Humanities á la Carte" series, Menasha, WI, December 1992.

"The Female Sensibilities of the Beowulf Poet."  "Languages in Contact" series, St. Norbert College, April 1992.

"Apocalypticism in Anglo-Saxon Culture."  Faculty Colloquium, University of Houston-Victoria, Victoria, TX, March 1990.

Volumes of Student Writing Edited/Published

Scraps to Food, by Jasmine Babineaux. De Pere, WI:  Demosthenes Press, 2017, 33 pages.

Encaustic Poems from Quartz Mountain.  Quartz Mountain, OK:  2015, 22 pages. 

From Beowulf to Bergman:  Student Essays in Literature and Film.  A Publication of St. Norbert College, 2010, 99 pages.

What’s Love Got to Do with Lit? Studies in the Literature of Love.  A Publication of St. Norbert College, 2007, 154 pages.

Authoring Arthur.  A Publication of St. Norbert College, 2004, 135 pages.

Tolkien’s World.  A Publication of St. Norbert College, 2005, 161 pages.

“Carmen’s Boogie” and Other Poems, by James Cunningham. West Lafayette, IN: Demosthenes Press, 1990, 24 pages. 

Work in Progress 

.

“A Brief History of Friendship.” Collection of short stories completed, seeking publisher.

“Ekphrases.” Chapbook of poems completed, seeking publisher.

“Expandable/Contractible Space in Medieval Literature and Medievalism.” Nearly finished scholarly project.

“Sacred Blue World.” Science-fiction novel completed, seeking to publisher.

“The Godfather of State U.” Novel completed, seeking publisher.

“From the Medieval to the Renaissance Mind: Vertical versus Horizontal Images.” Essay completed, preparing for submission.

“Once and Future Noir,” a study of the periphery of film noir, begun.

“O Zombie, Why Art Thou?” Essay in film criticism, completed, preparing for submission.

Awards and Honors

Professor Emeritus, SNC, May 2021

Elected to Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Spring 2015

Tai Chi Instructor Certificate, conferred by Dr. Jesse Tsao of Tai Chi Healthways, March 2015

Leonard Ledvina Award for Excellence in Teaching, St. Norbert College, April 2011

Promoted to Professor, spring 2009

Lifetime Achievement Award, Marquis Who’s Who in America, 2017

Donald B. King Distinguished Scholar Award, SNC, May 1999

Sabbaticals, fall 1996, fall 2004, spring 2012, spring 2019

Promoted to Associate Prof., spring 1995

Tenured, spring 1994

Elected councilor, Medieval Assoc. of the Midwest, '94, '98, '01, '06, ’09, ‘11 

Served as vice president of MAM, 2003, 2012, president 2004, 2013

Faculty Development Student-Faculty Research Grants, 1992, 1999, 2013

Summer Faculty Development Research Grant, 1991, '92, '95, '99, 2015

Teaching Load Reduction Grant (for research), 1999

Excellence in Teaching Award, Purdue English Dept., 1988

David Ross Summer Research Grant, 1988

Teaching Assistantship, 1984-89

Purdue Literary Awards:  Medieval Studies Essay Awards, 1987-89, Shakespeare Essay Award, 1988, Literary Criticism Award, 1988

Joseph T. Cotter Memorial Poetry Prize, JCU, 1984 and '85

College and Professional Service

Article referee for Academia.edu, 2021

External referee for scholarly book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

English Discipline Assessment, 1991-2021

Conducted teaching evaluation of two colleagues, fall 2019

Hiring committees for Divisional Secretary and Office Manager, fall 2019

English Faculty Search Committee (12)

External referee for scholarly book, Cambridge Open Publishing, summer 2019

External referee for scholarly book, Palgrave Macmillan, spring 2019

External referee for scholarly book, Springer Nature India, spring 2019

Drafted College’s Liberal-Arts Identity Statement, fall 2018

Extra-departmental hiring consultant pool, 2018-2021

External reader/referee for Peregrino/TitleTown Publishing, fiction projects, 2018

Consultant for Catholic Devotional volume, Peregrino Press, 2018

McNair Scholarship Mentor, 2017

External reviewer for faculty-member promotion, Washington and Jefferson University, 2017

External referee for scholarly book on J. R. R. Tolkien, McFarland Publishing, 2016

External reviewer for promotion candidate, Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada, 2016

Task force to revise procedures for tenure and promotion, 2015-16

External reviewer for candidate for promotion, Miami University (Ohio), 2016

Council member, International Society for the Study of Medievalism, 2010-2016

Hosted 2013 International Society for the Study of Medievalism Conference, SNC 10/17-19

Council member, Medieval Association of the Midwest, 1995-2014

External referee for scholarly book on medievalism, Cambria Press, 2013

Hosted 27th Medieval Association of the Midwest Annual Conference, SNC 9/29-10/1/2011

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Advisory Committee, 2009-12

Ad hoc Course Schedule Grid Committee, 2010-2011

Faculty Review Committee, 2009-2011

Editor, The Year’s Work in Medievalism, 2011-2016

External reviewer for candidate for promotion, Ramapo College, 2013

External reviewer for candidate for tenure and promotion, Baruch College, 2009

External referee for scholarly book on medieval Romances, Routledge, 2009

Harassment Issues Resource Committee, 2008-2018

General Education Review and Assessment Groups (Areas 5, 10, and 12), 2007-present

Classical Studies Advisory Committee, 2007-present

External reviewer for English Department, Bridgewater State College, April 2008

External reviewer for English Department, Carroll College, April 2006

External reviewer for English Department, Mount Union College, October 2004

New Faculty Mentor, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2018-2020

Masters of Liberal Studies Program Development Committee, 2004-2006

Hosted 18th Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, SNC, September 2002 

Personnel Review Committee, 2003-04

Faculty Representative to Advancement Committee, Board of Trustees, 2002-03

Academic Dean search committee, Spring 2002 

English Discipline Coordinator, 1994-96, 2008-10

Faculty Advisory Council, 1995-97, 2001-2003

Created new college day/hour course schedule adopted 2002; working on new schedule 2010

Fiction Editor, Aethlon:  The Journal of Sport Literature, November 1994-August 1996

Reader/referee for Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, Allegorica, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, Studies in Medievalism, MMLA Journal, The Year’s Work in Medievalism, Journal of Tolkien Research, The Once and Future Classroom

Personnel Committee, 1997-98

Humanities Advisory Council, 1997-99

Long-range Planning Committee, 1993-96

College Governance Task Force, 1995

Academic Rigor Committee, 1994-95

Diversity Planning Committee, 1993-96

College Community Relations Board, 1994-96

Speakers Committee, 1991-93

Nominations and Elections Committee, 1993-95

Hourly Staff Associates Committee (faculty rep.), 1993-94

New Faculty Host, 1993, '94, '99

Faculty Mentor for incoming freshman, 1992-94

Global Ecology Program planning committee, 1992-93

Co-advisor, National English Honor Society chapter, 1992-96

Conducted memo writing workshop for businesspeople, 1995

Conducted resume writing workshops for teachers, 1990

Assisted in freshman composition textbook review, 1989, 1992

Coordinated Artificial Intelligence Symposium, SNC, April 1992

Hosted Purdue Poets Series, WBAA Radio, 1988

Coordinated Humanities Division Colloquium Series, 2000-2001, and English Dept. Colloquium Series, 1985-87

"Jazz and poetry" readings and introductory lectures on Beowulf at local high schools, guest lectures on Hildegard of Bingen at University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and local churches (periodically) 

Published several short essays and reviews in The Beacon and SNC Magazine, SNC

Recommendations

Prof. Thomas Shippey, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of English, St. Louis University, tshippey@slu.edu 

Prof. Emeritus Robert Boyer, St. Norbert College, robert.boyer@snc.edu

Prof. Mel Storm, Dept. of English, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS  66801, 620-341-5563 (office), mstorm@emporia.edu

Prof. William Hodapp, Dept. of English, College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN  55811, 218-723-5947 (office), whodapp@css.edu

Prof. Mickey Sweeney, Dept. of English, Dominican University, River Forest, IL  60305, 708-366-2490, msweeney@dom.edu

Prof. Nick Haydock, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, nickolas.haydock@upr.edu

Prof. Laurie MacDiarmid, English, St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI  54115, 920-403-3498 (office), laurie.macdiarmid@snc.edu