Katherine Terrell

Katherine H. Terrell specializes in Middle English and Middle Scots literature. Her work has appeared in The Chaucer Review, Studies in Philology and Romance Quarterly and Cultural Diversity in Medieval Britain. Terrell is the co-editor of Scotland and the Shaping of Identity in Medieval Britain. Her current project examines how the poetic and historical discourses of medieval Scotland create a nationalist discourse through their responses to English writings. Terrell's teaching interests include Old English, Chaucer, women's writing and medieval Christian depictions of Muslims and Jews. She received her doctorate from Cornell University.

Recent Courses Taught

Gender, Sex, and Violence in the Middle Ages
Heroic Narratives
Introduction to Old English
Chaucer: Gender and Genre
The Making of English
Other Worlds in Middle English Literature
Alterity and Identity in the Middle Ages

Research Interests

Middle English and Middle Scots literature, especially Geoffrey Chaucer, the Pearl-poet, alliterative poetry, historical writing and romance; medieval women’s writing; medieval discourses of alterity (including depictions of Muslims and Jews); medieval nationalism; Old English language and literature; Old French literature; Dante and Boccaccio; Early Modern literature

Distinctions

• Visiting Fellowship, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2013-14
• American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant, 2013-14
• Visiting Research Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, October 2007-January 2008
• Research award, Class of 1966 Faculty Innovation Fund, Hamilton College, 2007
• Stanford Humanities Postdoctoral Mellon Fellowship, 2006-08 (declined)
• Falkenau Teaching Fellowship, English Department, Cornell University, 2003-04

Selected Publications

• “Scots Literature in the Age of the Makars and Beyond,” in The Blackwell Companion to British Literature, Volume II: Early Modern Literature, 1450-1660, ed. Robert DeMaria, Jr., Heesok Chang and Samantha Zacher (Blackwell, 2014).
• The Anglo-Scottish Border and the Shaping of Identity, 1300-1600, essay collection, co-edited with Mark P. Bruce. New Middle Ages Series. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
• “‘Kyndness of blude’: Kinship, Patronage, and Politics in Gavin Douglas,” in “Northern Book Cultures in the Later Middle Ages,” special issue of Textual Cultures: Texts, Contexts and Interpretation, ed. Kate McClune and Joanna Martin (Indiana University Press, 2012).  
• “Depicting Identity: Cartography and Chorography in Pre-Reformation Scotland,” in The Shaping of Scottish Identities: Family, Nation, and the World Beyond, ed. Jodi Campbell, Elizabeth Ewan, and Heather Parker. Guelph Series in Scottish Studies (University of Guelph Press, 2011), pp. 79-95.
• “‘Lynealy discendit of þe devill’: Genealogy, Textuality, and Anglophobia in Medieval Scottish Chronicles,” Studies in Philology 108 (Summer 2011): 320-44.

More

College Service

• Faculty Secretary 2014-15
• Honor Court, spring 2010, 2011-13
• Chair, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, 2011-13
• Acting Chair, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, 2008-09; 2010-11
• Medieval and Renaissance Studies Committee, 2006-08; 2009-10
• Coordinating Council, Diversity and Social Justice Project, 2006-07

Professional Affiliations

Medieval Academy
Modern Language Association
New Chaucer Society
Scottish Medievalists (by invitation)

Appointed to the Faculty

2004

Educational Background

Ph.D., Cornell University 
M.A., Cornell University
M.A, University of Toronto
M.Phil. Oxford University, St. Hilda’s College
B.A., Kenyon College