Faculty Bios & Scholarship

Personal Biography

BA in English Studies, University of Huddersfield, UK; MA in English, University of Manchester, UK; PhD in English, University of Huddersfield, UK

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Early Modern British Literature; Digital Editing; Literary and Cultural Theory

Research

Seventeenth and eighteenth century British literature and culture

Selected Publications

‘Defoe’s Europe: Allies and Enemies,’ in J.A. Downie and N. Seager (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Daniel Defoe (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Associate Editor, with Nicholas Seager.

Robinson Crusoe after 300 Years (Bucknell University Press, 2021). Co-Editor, with Glynis Ridley.

‘For Those Who Did Not See It: Transgenerational Trauma and Postmemory in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year,’ in E. Peters & C. Richards (eds), Early Modern Trauma: Europe and the Atlantic World (University of Nebraska Press, 2021)

‘Richard Hurd’s Letters on Chivalry and Romance and Cultural Nationalism,’ Eighteenth-Century Life 43.1 (2019).

‘Daniel Defoe,’ Oxford Bibliography in British and Irish Literature, Gen. Ed. Andrew Hadfield, (Oxford University Press, 2017).

‘Politics, Politeness, and Panegyrics: Defoe, Addison, and Philips on Blenheim,’ Philological Quarterly 94.1-2 (2015).

‘Defoe in the miscellanies,’ Digital Defoe: Studies in Defoe & His Contemporaries 6:1 (Fall 2014): 128-136.

‘“A Body Unfitt”: Daniel Defoe in the Pillory and the Resurrection of the Versifying Self,’ The Eighteenth Century: Theory & Interpretation 54:3 (Fall 2013).

A Critical Study of Daniel Defoe’s Verse. (Mellen Press, 2010)

Personal Biography

Professor of English, specializing in Literature, Film and Media Studies. Areas of expertise: Comparative literature; medieval Germanic languages and literature (Old English, Old Norse, Middle High German); English and European literature; cultural criticism; literary theory; gender theory; monster theory.

Education

B.A. University of California, Berkeley; M.A., Ph.D. Brown University

Recent Publications

“The Case for Hildeburg: Beowulf and Ethical Subjectivity.” Quidditas, vol. 43, 2022, pp. 37-53.

“Exploring the Cultural Mechanics of Social Inequality and Global Cultural Interdependence, “Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, winter 2022, pp. 111-127.

“Only Lovers Left Alive: Expat Vampires and Post-Imperial Cosmopolitanism.”Vampire Films Around the World: Essays on the Cinematic Undead of Sixteen Countries, edited by James Aubrey, McFarland, 2020, pp. 195-208.

With Andrew Pantos, “Organizing the History of English Course by Linguistic Topic.” Teaching the History of the English Language/MLA Options for Teaching Series, edited by Colette Moore and Chris Palmer, Modern Language Association, 2019.

“Sublime Discomforts and Transformative Milksopishness: William Morris in Iceland.” Journal of William Morris Studies, vol. XXII, no. 3, winter 2018, pp. 23-37.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Medieval/Renaissance British literature, film, mythology, classics, early world literature, fairy tales, children’s literature and comics/graphic novels, rhetoric, research, essay-writing.

I’m Dr. Jim Aubrey. I’ve been on the faculty here for over thirty years–probably the only Vietnam war veteran still on campus. In the 1980s I was for a time an intelligence officer and then a professor at the Air Force Academy before I came to MSU Denver. My educational degrees are a BS from the Air Force Academy, an MA from Northwestern University (in Evanston, outside Chicago), and a PhD from the University of Washington (in Seattle). Besides the USA, where I grew up (in Pennsylvania), I have lived for a year or more in four other countries (Denmark, Thailand, India, and England/UK). These days I’m teaching British literature and film studies. I published my fourth book recently: Vampire Films Around the World (McFarland, 2020). When I’m not working with students or reading, or watching movies or women’s soccer, I like to hang out with my daughters, one of whom commutes to the Colorado Supreme Court from her place in the mountains (above Idaho Springs) and the other who manages an Irish pub in Colorado Springs (Jack Quinn’s). I am happy to live in Denver–an easy city to like!

Personal Biography

I have been teaching at MSU Denver since 1996. I originally came to MSU Denver to teach elementary language arts, with a focus on K-16 writing instruction. In 2007 I joined the Department’s writing faculty.

I love teaching in the First Year Writing program, especially 1008/1009 sequence.

My husband, Richard, is a Denver native and is a retired principal and science teacher for Denver Public Schools. We have two children: Evan and Janie. I enjoy spending time with family, reading murder mysteries and taking naps.

Education

PhD, English, Rhetoric and Composition Theory, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada,  1996.

MA, English, American Literature and American Drama, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah,  1991.

BA, English Secondary Teaching, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1988.

Publications

Vigil, J. C., Parker, J. L., (2016). Moving Forward: What General Studies Assessment Taught us About Writing, Instruction, and Student Learning. Reclaiming Accountability: Improving Writing Programs through Accreditation and Large-Scale Assessments. In Will Banks, Wendy Sharer, Tracy Ann Morse, Michelle F. Eble (Ed.),  Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press.

Vigil, J. C., (2011). “The Rhetoric of John Cotton: Individual Revelation and Community Preservation”. In Jim Aubrey, special editor (Ed.), (vol. 6, pp. 36-40). Research Digest: A Quarterly Journal of Higher Education.

Vigil, J.C., Carlson, C.L., Prosenjak, N., Griffin, J.,  (1999). Strategies for Literary Reading, Writing and Research. Denver, Colorado: MSCD, Department of English.

Carlson, C. L., Vigil, J.C., Griffin, J., Prosenjak,  N., (1998). A Research Writer’s Guide to ENG 1020: Writing, Research and Technology.

Personal Biography

Critical race, feminist and gender studies scholar with a particular interest in American and multi ethnic women’s writing focusing specifically on literature, poetry and life writing.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

American Literature, African American Literature, African American Women Writers, Women’s Literature, Hip-Hop and Literature, Composition, US Women of Color Literature, Life Writing and Auto/biography Studies

Research

African American Studies, American Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Critical Race Studies, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Hip-hop Studies, Life Writing Studies, Feminist Studies

Personal Biography

BA and MA in English Linguistics – Linguistics University, Pyatigorsk, Russia, Ph.D. in Linguistics – Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Have taught numerous courses for the Metro Linguistics program since 2002. Associate Professor in the English Department since Aug 2010. Professor of English since 2014. Advisor of the Linguistics Club.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Intro to Linguistics, Morphology and Syntax, Historical Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Typology, Phonology, Translation Studies

Research

Morphosyntax of English, text analysis, translation theory, grammaticalization, historical linguistics, literary semantics

Personal Biography

Rebecca Gorman O’Neill is from Akron, Ohio, and she holds a BA in Drama and English from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.  She has worked professionally in film and stage theatre for the last 20 years. Her plays have been published and produced and across the country. At MSU Denver, she is a tenured professor whose expertise and courses cover playwriting, screenwriting, film and media studies, comics and the graphic novel, adaptation, and dramatic literature.

Publications

Selected Plays and Screenplays:

Lucia, Originally produced by Morehead Theater, Semifinalist, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Picnic Under a Gibbet, Richard Corso Films, Dark Rabbit Theatre, released 2020 (writer and producer)

The Ghosts of Us. Originally produced by the Athena Project, published by Next Stage Press, 2020.

Mynx & Savage. Originally Produced by Vortex Theater, Winner of the American Association of Community Theatre AACT NewPlayFest.  Published by Dramatic Publishing, 2018.

“The Green Crayon”. Originally Produced by And Toto Too Theatre Company, Published in Best Scenes for Kids Ages 7-15 In Lawrence Harbison (Ed.), New York, NY: Applause Books.

“Poison Control” originally produced by the InspiraTO Theatre, Toronto, Canada, Published by Heuer Publishing.

Selected Articles and book chapters:

“The Stuff of Legend: The Graphic Novel’s Re-imagination of Toy Literature.” Toy Stories: The Toy as Hero in Literature, Comics, and Film. Tanya Pell Jones (Ed.). MacFarland & Company: MacFarland & Company.

“Y: The Last Man”. Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes and Superheroes In Bart H. Beaty, Stephen Weiner (Ed.), (vol. 2, pp. 6p). Ipswich, Massachusetts: Salem Press.

“I See What You Mean”: Using Visuals to Teach Metaphoric Thinking in Reading and Writing. The English Journal, 100(1), p92-99. 8p. (with Dr. Gloria Eastman)

Personal Biography

I am an enthusiastic lifelong learner and am proud to teach and have taught English (composition, rhetoric, literature, and film classes) student-centrically at MSU Denver since fall 1999.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Composition, literature (specifically Victorian literature and culture, British Literature, children’s literature, mythologies, and horror/monster studies), cultural studies, film, folklore. My teaching philosophy is student-centric.

Research

Composition Studies, Monster Studies, Folklore, Mythology, British literature (Victorian, as well as 17th and 18th centuries), early American literature (17th-19th centuries), popular culture studies, extinction, rhetoric and pedagogical theory.

Education

PhD, English (Literary Studies), University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, 2015.

MA, English (Literature), University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, 1999.

BA, English, University of Colorado at Boulder,  Boulder, Colorado, Magna cum laude. 1994.

Publications

Hoge, C. W., (2020). “Don’t…Don’t Believe the Hype! Vampiric Evolution in What We Do in the Shadows”. Vampire Films Around the World. In James Aubrey (Ed.), Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Hoge, C. W., (2020). “Monstrous Life Finds a Way: Jurassic Park and Monstrosity”. The Science of Sci-Fi Cinema: Essays on the Art and Principles of Ten Films. In Vincent Piturro (Ed.),  (pp. 209-228). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Hoge, C. W., (2014). Crawling Out of the Middle Ages: The Deep Literary Roots of the Vampires in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend.  Reading Richard Matheson: A Critical Survey. Cheyenne Mathews and Janet V. Haedicke, eds. Baltimore, MD: Rowman & Littlefield: 2014. Print. 1-13..  In Cheyenne Mathews and Janet Haedicke (Ed.),  ( pp. 1-13.).

Hoge,  C.  W. ,  (2014).  The Dodo in the Long Eighteenth Century: An Exploration of the Gray Ghost Outside of the English Sentimental Eye.  In Lauren Beard and Antonio Viselli (Ed.),  (3 ed.,  vol. 83,  pp. 687-704).  Toronto, Ontario, CA : University of Toronto Quarterly.

Hoge,  C.  W. ,  (2013).  contributing editor.  Writing Guide for ENG 1008/1009 and ENG 190G.  In Roger Green, Jessica Parker, Luis Rivas, Jane Chapman Vigil, Charles Hoge (Ed.),  Southlake, TX : Fountainhead Press.

Personal Biography

If you listen carefully, you’ll catch just a bit of my Long Island roots in the way I say “peanut butter” and “orange.” I grew up just a short walk from the beach in Northport, NY, and then moved to the Washington, D.C. metro area when I was 9, where I learned the proper way to use the word “y’all.” I moved to Illinois for college, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American history from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and Master’s and doctoral degrees in English Studies from Illinois State University.

After earning my Master’s, I moved to Denver on a whim and began teaching at the Community College of Aurora and Red Rocks Community College. I eventually joined the full-time faculty at Red Rocks Community College, where I taught until 2008, when I joined the MSU Denver faculty.

My hobbies include – of course – reading and writing. Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, e.e. cummings, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, and Michael Chabon are some of my favorite authors. I also like to cook and bake. Desserts are my specialty (some might say obsession) – my family and friends like to play “stump the dessert chef” with me. Other hobbies include traveling (especially to Mayan ruins in Central America or any place with plentiful water); camping, rafting, and other outdoor pursuits; yoga, running, and working out; and lounging outside with smart companions and a tall glass of almost anything.

I am a stroke survivor and have low vision and face blindness.

I blog about grief, disability, and joy at https://elizabethkleinfeld.com/.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

disability studies, writing center theory/practice, rhetoric, ethnographic research methods

My teaching philosophy is here: https://elizabethkleinfeld.com/students.

Research

You can find information about my research here: https://elizabethkleinfeld.com/current-projects.

Current/Selected Projects

You can find information about my current projects here: https://elizabethkleinfeld.com/current-projects.

Other

You can learn more about me here: https://elizabethkleinfeld.com/.

Professor Cynthia Kuhn teaches creative writing, literature, and film. She aims to offer student-centered courses that invite energetic and meaningful engagement with different texts, viewpoints, and voices.

Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern; Copper Nickel; Literary Mama; Prick of the Spindle; Muddy River Poetry Review; The Edge; Mystery Most Diabolical; Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life; Reflective Activities: Helping Students Connect with Texts; and other publications.

Scholarly books include Self-Fashioning in Margaret Atwood’s Fiction: Dress, Culture, and Identity; Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature; and Reading Chuck Palahniuk: American Monsters and Literary Mayhem.

Novels include The Semester of Our Discontent, The Art of Vanishing, The Spirit in Question, The Subject of Malice, The Study of Secrets, and How to Book a Murder.

Originally from upstate New York, she attended the University of Kansas, University of Colorado-Denver, and University of Denver.

Mike McLane is an assistant professor in the Department of English. His educational background includes a PhD in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University, an MA in Secondary Education at the University of Notre Dame, and a BA in English also at the University of Notre Dame. His professional background includes five years teaching English at secondary schools throughout Texas and Michigan.

His research is grounded in the study of student and teacher experience of space and place, drawing upon the traditions of design, discourse, and phenomenology. He has examined the presence of legible curricula in the built-worlds of schools and the possibilities for identity and craft therein. Mike is passionate about teacher education and apprenticeship, aiming always to help prepare future generations of teachers to educate actively, joyfully, and curiously, speaking with many voices and shining through many lenses.

Mike loves spending time with his family, finding his way from point A to B and back, coaching, and storytelling

Personal Biography and Education

J Eric Miller grew up in the mountains of Colorado and Montana.  Educated at the University of Montana (Bachelor’s degree), the University of Southern California (Master’s degree), and the University of Denver (Doctoral degree), he has been a professor of Creative Writing since 2000.

He is a faculty advisor for the university literary journals, The MSU Denver Roadrunner Review.

He believes in comfort of nostalgia, life choices that take animal welfare into account, the hypnotic effect of a good film or a book, second reads of everything, and the way a liberal arts centered education sets one up for success not just in a variety of career paths, but to be a thoughtful and thus useful citizen of the world.

Publications

His book length publications include Animal Rights and Pornography; Bloodletting and Fruits of Lebanon; and Decomposition.  Decomposition.  Animal Right and Pornography and Decomposition have been published in a variety of languages, including, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, and Russian.  Several short stories from the collection Animal Rights and Pornography as well as Decomposition have been optioned for film development.  His short fiction has appeared in:  American Short Fiction, Eclectica, decomP, Semaphore, Starry Night Review, Clementine Unbound, The The/tEmz/Review, Litbreak, The Scarlet Leaf Review, eFiction, and others. His short story “Invisible Fish” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Personal Biography

* 2017 Recipient of MSU Denver’s Universal Design for Learning Award for providing inclusive learning environments for all learners
*Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Naropa University
* Master of Arts in Folk Studies, Western Kentucky University
* Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism and Spanish, Western Kentucky University

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

I teach with a feminist, trauma-informed, learner-centered philosophy. Students and I work together to create and maintain diverse and inclusive learning environments where all learners are respected, valued, and engaged. My role in and out of the classroom is guide and mentor for all students.

Research

Universal Design for Learning; Rhetoric Culture Theory in the Writing Classroom; Teaching with Technology and Online Learning; Folk Narratives, particularly women and queer narratives of trauma; Feminist Cultural Theory; and Memoir.

Personal Biography

Andrew Pantos is a Professor of Linguistics in the English Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Dr. Pantos is a sociolinguist whose research focuses on language attitudes and their cognitive processing, identity, discourse, sociophonetics, forensic linguistics, and issues of language and gender and sexuality. Dr. Pantos has published a number of journal articles on the nature of social judgments listeners make about speakers based on foreign accent. In addition, he is currently working on a textbook on the descriptive and prescriptive aspects of English grammar. Dr. Pantos regularly teaches a number of linguistics courses, including Phonetics, Semantics, Anthropological Linguistics, Language & Society, and Analyzing English. Dr. Pantos earned his PhD from Rice University in 2010.

Publications

Pantos, A. J., Weber, W. (2019). Organizing the HEL course by linguistic topic. In Teaching the History of the English Language, Colette Moore and Chris Palmer (Eds.). New York: MLA.

Pantos, A. J. (2019). Implicitness, automaticity, and consciousness in language attitudes research: Are they related and how do we characterize them? Linguistics Vanguard, 5(1).

Pantos, A. J. (2015). Applying the Implicit Association Test to language attitudes research. In Language Attitudes: Variability, Processes, and Outcomes, Alexei Prikhodkine and Dennis Preston (Ed.), (pp. 117-136). Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Pantos, A. J. (2014). Defining the cognitive mechanisms underlying attitudes toward foreign-accented speech. In Cognitive Sociolinguistics: Social and Cultural Variation in Cognition and Language Use, Martin Pütz, Justyna Robinson, Monika Reif (Ed.), (pp. 187-212). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Pantos, A. J. (2014). Implicit Social Cognition and language attitudes research. Exploring Implicit Cognition: Learning, Memory, and Social Cognitive Processes In Jin Zheng (Ed.), (1st ed., vol. 1, pp. 337). New Brunswick, NJ: InfoSci-Books (Rutgers University Libraries).

Pantos, A. J., Perkins, A. W. (2013). Measuring implicit and explicit attitudes toward foreign accented speech. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 32(1), 3-20.

Pantos, A. J. (2012). Defining the cognitive mechanisms underlying attitudes toward foreign-accented speech. Review of Cognitive Linguistics/John Benjamins Publishing Co., 10(2), 427-453.

Personal Biography

Vincent Piturro is a Professor of Film and Media Studies in the English Department and holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. His areas of study include Science Fiction, Westerns, Documentaries, and World Cinema. He hosts a yearly Science Fiction Film Series in conjunction with scientists from the Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Film Society. He recently published a book, co-written with those same Museum scientists, entitled The Science of Sci-Fi Cinema.

Dr. Charlie Potter is an Assistant Professor of English at MSU Denver. Prior to joining MSU, she worked in a wide range of fields, including software development, public policy, librarianship, and secondary education. Additionally, she served in several leadership roles in higher education, including Associate Dean and Associate Vice President positions. Her research considers the intersections of these experiences, and she has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on topics related to literacy, student success, data science, and literature. As a teacher and faculty member, she has taught a variety of courses related to digital humanities, American literature, organizational behavior, instructional design, program evaluation, educational finance, literacy, statistics, and secondary education.

Personal Biography

JJ holds a B.A. in English from Saint John’s University (MN) and an M.A. in Rhetoric and Teaching Writing from the University of Colorado Denver. He lives in Arvada, CO.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Composition, Rhetorical Theory, Literacy

Research

Composition and Rhetorical Theory, Pedagogy, Discourses, Language and Identity, Gender, Popular Culture and Rhetoric

Personal Biography

I am a composition and rhetoric scholar who enjoys making my two fields accessible and relevant to scholars from all educational backgrounds.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

Advanced Composition (aka Composition Studies), Introduction to Rhetoric, Rhetoric and Style, Professional and Scholarly Writing, First-Year Writing, Honors

Research

19th Century Rhetorical History, Women’s Rhetoric, Rhetorical Performance, Student Engagement & Success, Code-Meshing and Dialectal Diversity, Enrollment Trends

Personal Biography

Craig Svonkin is Executive Director of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association and Full Professor of English at MSU Denver. Craig is a fan of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, David Wilson’s meta-museum, Disneyland, the Muppets, and most things fake, faux, or simulated. Craig’s most recent publication is the co-edited Bloomsbury Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry (2023), which includes his essay “From Shingled Hippo to Gay Unicorn: Self-Othering in Bob Kaufman and Other Beats,” as well as interviews with quite a few American poets and poetry scholars. Craig’s essays—including “From Disneyland to Modesto: George Lucas and Walt Disney”; “A Southern California Boyhood in the Simu-Southland Shadows of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room”; “Manishevitz and Sake, the Kaddish and Sutras: Allen Ginsberg’s Spiritual Self-Othering”; “Melville and the Bible: Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale, Multivocalism, & Plurality”; and “From Robert Lowell to Frank Bidart: Becoming the Other; Suiciding the White Male ‘Self’”—explore American and children’s literature, poetry, culture, and film. He has or soon will publish on family structures as seen in literature, comics, and picture books; Jewish literature and film; Beat and mid-century American poetry; urban spaces and unusual museums; children’s poetry; and a variety of authors or filmmakers including Gertrude Stein, Bob Kaufman, Juan Delgado, J.K. Rowling, Mani Leyb, Saul Bellow, Sylvia Plath, Herman Melville, George Lucas, Walt Disney, Ernst Lubitsch, and John Fowles.

Teaching Interests

American Literature; Children’s Literature and Culture; American Film and Visual Culture; Poetry; Critical Theory

Research

American Literature; Children’s Literature and Culture; Poetry; American Film and Visual Culture

Personal Biography

J. H. Taylor, PhD (Southern Illinois 1994)

A Mexican national (de Chihuahua) by birth and descent, I became a US citizen while in college. My areas of expertise are Medieval & Early Modern Literature, Mythology, Postcolonial Literature, and Online Education. I am also an internationally recognized scholar of the literature and mythopoeic postmodernism of the Oxford Inklings movement and serve as an Esteemed Advisor to the Own Barfield Literary Estate.

Selected Publications

Barfield, Owen. The Tower: Major Poems and Plays. Ed. Leslie A. Taylor and J. H. Taylor. Clemson, SC: Parlor Press, 2021.

Taylor, J. H. and Leslie A. Taylor. The Influence of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae on John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2017.

Taylor, J. H. Four Levels of Meaning in the York Cycle of Mystery Plays: A Study in Medieval Allegory. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2006.

Taylor, J. H. “The Dutch Translations of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae.” in Vernacular Traditions of Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae. Ed. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Philip Edward Phillips. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2016.

Gorlach, Marina, J. H. Taylor, and Leslie A. Taylor. “The Hebrew Translations of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae.” in Boethius and Vernacular Traditions of The Consolation of Philosophy. Ed. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr. and Philip Edward Phillips. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2016.

Taylor, J. H. “Can Life Be Golden? – Gendered Duality in the Evolution of Consciousness.” The Owen Barfield Society. Oct. 2015 <http://barfieldsociety.org/Taylor_2015.pdf>

Taylor, J. H. and Leslie A. Taylor. “Participation Lost: Theatricality and Allegory on the Cusp of Modern Consciousness.” The Owen Barfield Society. Oct. 2014.<http://barfieldsociety.org/Taylor_2014.pdf>

Taylor, J. H. “Synthetic Tensions: Kenneth Burke’s Pentad Meets Mary Douglas’s Grid/Group Cosmology.” KB Journal. 8 July 2004.

Teaching Interests/Philosophy

I teach a variety of courses that include ancient and medieval literature and the critical writing and analytic skills of textual studies. My goal is to help students acquire cultural knowledge, perspective, and skills that they can carry forth into an intellectually lively future.

ENG2000 Introduction to Textual Studies, English Department majors/minors

LING2011 Origins of English Words, General Studies/AHUM or English Department majors/minors

ENG2150 Legends of Troy, General Studies/AHUM or English Department majors/minors

​ENG2170 Medieval Mythologies, General Studies/AHUM & Global Diversity

ENG 3011 Analyzing English, English Department majors/minors & Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences

ENG3100 Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, English Department majors/minors

ENG3110 Studies in Early World Literature, English Department majors/minors

ENG3430 Classical Mythology, English Department majors/minors

ENG3440 Myth and Literature, English Department majors/minors

ENG3506 Academic Editing and Composition, English Department majors/minors

ENG411L Arthur and the Legends of the British Isles, English Department majors/minors

Current/Selected Projects

Global Medieval Contexts, 500 – 1500: Connections and Comparisons. Publisher: Taylor & Francis/Routledge, U.K., 2021. Co-authored with Dr. Kimberly Klimek of the MSU History Department, along with Dr. Sarah Secord-Davis, University of New Mexico and Dr. Bryan Keene, Riverside Community College and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Currently under contract for the second edition.

Spring 2018, published “Canterbury Trails: On the Road with Refugees, Pilgrims, and the Man of Law” in The Once and Future Classroom, Journal of the Consortium for Teaching Medieval Studies (TEAMS). The article recounts my experiences introducing Chaucer’s “Man of Law’s Tale” to readers outside of a traditional medieval literature classroom, especially recent immigrants and refugees. It is a project that proves the contemporary relevance of a “medieval” story.

Some recent presentations:
“Teaching (and Learning) the Global Middle Ages,” Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, Denver, (June 2021)

“Globetrotting with Tricksters,” Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, Denver, (July 2019)

Organized Plenary for Centers and Regional Associations. Working the the Middle: Writing the Global Medieval Textbook. Paper “Active African Gospel,.” Medieval Academy of America, University of Pennsylvania, (March 2019)

Symposium: Refuge, “At What Cost? — Contemporary Analogues to a Medieval Tale,” George Washington University Medieval and Early Modern Institute, Washington, D.C. (October 2016).

Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, “X-treme Sports: Crusades and Courtship in the Getty -Romance of Gillion de Trazegnies-,” University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. (June 2016).

International Piers Plowman Society Congress, “Workshop on Changes to the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive,” International Piers Plowman Society, University of Washington. (July 2015).

Higher Education Diversity Summit (HEDS), “Other People’s Children/Other People’s English: Teaching Toward Inclusive Excellence,” MSU: Office of Institutional Diversity, MSU. (April 10, 2015).

New Chaucer Society Biannual Congress, “Tabloid Tales: Chaucer Extorts Pious Princesses,” New Chaucer Society, Reykjavik, Iceland/University of Iceland. (July 17, 2014).