Katherine Terrell
Professor of Literature
Katherine H. Terrell specializes in Middle English and Middle Scots literature. Terrell’s 2021 monograph, Scripting the Nation: Court Poetry and the Authority of History in Late Medieval Scotland, examines how the poetic and historical discourses of medieval Scotland create a nationalist discourse through their responses to English writings. She has translated the Middle English Romance of Richard Coeur de Lion (2019), co-edited Scotland and the Shaping of Identity in Medieval Britain (2012), and published in numerous scholarly journals and essay collections. 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
Medieval Monsters and Marvels
Introduction to Old English
King Arthur: Myth and History
Chaucer: Gender and Genre
The Making of English
Medieval Women and the Written Word
Gender and Violence in the Middle Ages
Race and Nation in the Middle Ages
Research Interests
Middle English and Middle Scots literature (esp. William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, Geoffrey Chaucer, the Pearl-poet, alliterative poetry, historical writing, and romance); medieval women’s writing; medieval discourses of alterity (including western European depictions of Jews and Muslims); the medieval nation; Old English language and literature; Old French literature; Dante and Boccaccio; Early Modern literature.
Distinctions
- Margaret Bundy Scott Humanities Professorship, July 1, 2023-June 30, 2028
- Scripting the Nation shortlisted for Scottish National Book Award (Research Book of the Year), 2022
- Notable Year Award, Hamilton College, 2021
- Christian A. Johnson Teaching Enhancement Award, 2020-21
- 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
Selected Publications
- “‘How the erde is of a figure round’: Mapping Space in the Buik of Alexander the Conqueror” Studies in Scottish Literature 48 (2022).
- Scripting the Nation: Court Poetry and the Authority of History in Late Medieval Scotland. (Ohio State University Press, 2021).
- The Romance of Richard Coeur de Lion: An Edition and Translation. Broadview Anthology of English Literature Edition (Broadview, January 2019).
- “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.
- “Subversive Histories: Strategies of Identity in Scottish Historiography,” in Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages: Archipelago, Island, England, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 153-172.
- “Competing Gender Ideologies and the Limitations of Language in Le Roman de Silence,” Romance Quarterly 55 (2008): 35-48.
- “Rethinking the ‘Corse in Clot’: Cleanness, Filth, and Bodily Decay in Pearl,” Studies in Philology 105 (Fall 2008): 429-447.
- “Reallocation of Hermeneutic Authority in Chaucer's House of Fame,” Chaucer Review 31 (1997): 279-90.
College Service
- Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Board, 2023-present
- Committee on Academic Standing, 2021-present
- First-Year Course Committee, 2020-present
- Faculty Secretary 2014-15
- Honor Court, spring 2010, 2011-13
- Chair, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, 2011-13; 2017-20
- 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
2004Educational 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
