Graduate Medievalists at Berkeley

• Erik Born (GMB co-chair)

Department of German

My research focuses on the German tradition of mysticism, especially the notions of dialogue and vernacular theology, which link up with my interest in Film Studies and Medievalisms.

born at (berkeley.edu)

• Marcos Garcia (GMB co-chair)

Department of English

marcosgarcia at (berkeley.edu)

• Ryan Perry (GMB co-chair)

Department of English
Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory

I work primarily on Chaucer and his English and French reception.  I also have interests both in Reform movements in England and on the Continent after the Fourth Lateran Council and in the influence of Medieval Philosophy and Theology on Modern Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory.

perry.ryan at (gmail.com)

• Rachel Beck

Department of English

Research interests: book history and collaborative writing, especially in the late medieval period and the late 20th century

whollyword at (yahoo.com)

• Michael Bigley

Department of English

Research interests: Poetry, Music and Affect in the 12th through 14th centuries

zbigley at (berkeley.edu)

• Katherine R. Bollinger

Department of History

Research interests: Early medieval political ethics

kbollinger at (berkeley.edu)

• Chad Crosson (former GMB co-chair, 2008-2010)

Department of English

I work primarily on Geoffrey Chaucer with a further focus on medieval grammar traditions and theory.  Other research interests include moral theory and penitential literature.

ccrosson at (berkeley.edu)

• Sean Curran

Department of Music

Research interests: Singing, singers and songs in Latin, French, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, Occitan, and related literature, from 1100-1450; the thirteenth-century motet; paleography and codicology of music manuscripts; devotion and prayer as modes of performance; and Maurice Ravel and French modernism.  He won the Gibbs Prize from the University of Oxford in 2005, a Mellon Foundation Fellowship in 2009, and will take up the Sydney Ehrman Fellowship, funded by UC Berkeley, at King's College, Cambridge, in October 2009.

seancurran at (berkeley.edu)

• Kenneth Fockele

Department of German

Research interests: My primary interests are Middle High German lyric and narrative poetry and the material cultures of both the medieval manuscript and early film.

kfockele at (berkeley.edu)

• Jacob Hobson

Department of English

I work primarily in Anglo-Saxon literature (Old English and Anglo-Latin) and Old Norse literature, with particular interests in philological approaches to Old English, Anglo-Scandinavian crossings, and questions of ethnic and national identity in Anglo-Saxon England.

jehobson42 at (gmail.com)

• Molly Jacobs

Department of Scandinavian

My main interests include sagas, particularly legendary sagas and romances; heroic poetry; gender; and contacts with continental literature and culture.  I am currently working on vision in Old Norse literature and early translations of romances into Old Norse.

mollyjacobs at (berkeley.edu)

• Kathryn Jasper

Department of History

My dissertation focuses on eleventh-century monastic reform.  In my research I integrate social network theory and archaeological data with historical method to examine reform strategies on the ground.

Dissertation title:  "Mapping a Monastic Network: Peter Damian and Fonte Avellana in the Eleventh Century"

kjasper at (berkeley.edu)

• Andrea Lankin

Department of English

Research interests: Early Middle English, manuscript studies, hagiography, medieval romance, multilingualism, geography, portrayals of Jews and Muslims in medieval English literature

• Jennifer Lorden

Department of English

Research interests: Old English, poetry and aesthetics, and translation and reception of medieval texts

jlorden at (berkeley.edu)

• Alexandre Roberts

Department of History

Research interests: Byzantium and medieval Islam. Religious, cultural and intellectual history.

alexandre.roberts at (berkeley.edu)

• Benjamin A. Saltzman (Former GMB co-chair, 2009-2011)

Department of English

Research interests: Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Latin and Old English Literature. Paleography and Codicology. Medieval Law. Monastic Culture. Critical Theory.

BenjaminSaltzman at (berkeley.edu)

• Matthew Sergi (former GMB co-chair)

Department of English

Matthew's dissertation, "Recreation and Festival in the Chester Plays, 1400-1577," will explore the ways in which Chester’s extant dramatic texts provide at once for the representation and for the public practice of the two centuries of urban festival that generated them. Chapters (so far) will focus on public feasting, gambling, tourism, and community-based urban religion, within and around the dramatic action. Matt's research and teaching specialties, outside of his dissertation topic, include Old English, Old Norse, Chaucer, the History of the English Language, composition and pedagogy, contemporary drama, and new media.

mmsergi at (berkeley.edu)

• Elizabeth A. Terry

Department of History

Research interests: The Valois Dukes of Burgundy, Chivalric orders of the late Middle Ages, 16th century Spain

elizabethaterry at (berkeley.edu)