Profile Detail
Susanna Fein
Professor,
Literature Program Chair
Literature Program Chair
Ph.D. Harvard University, 1985
Susanna Fein is Professor of English, Coordinator of the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Minor, and Fellow of the Institute for Bibliography and Editing. In the Department of English she has served terms as Department Chair (2000-04), Undergraduate Studies Coordinator (1991-94), and Chair of the Graduate Program in Literature (2010-12). Her research focuses on the literatures, languages, and manuscripts of medieval England, ca. 1100-1500.
Professor Fein edits The Chaucer Review, a learned journal that has been published quarterly by Penn State University Press since 1966. She is the recipient of several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, one from the Ohio Humanities Council, and a KSU Retention Grant that allowed the English Undergraduate Studies Center to be established in 2001.
The author of numerous books and articles, Professor Fein frequently presents at national and international conferences. She is on the Advisory Board of the Middle English Texts Series (University of Rochester) and the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Early Book Society. She has served as Core Group Member of the Medieval Song Network (University College London) and as elected Trustee of the New Chaucer Society (2006-10).
Professor Fein looks for students who enjoy literature, history, and languages and who are curious about human differences across time. In the summer months she undertakes archival research on medieval English manuscripts, frequently in London and Oxford. What she discovers there renews her teaching during term. Professor Fein’s favorite subjects for discussion in undergraduate courses are the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood, and such epics as Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Inferno.
In summer 2012 Professor Fein will direct an NEH seminar on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Designed for American high school teachers, the seminar will be held in London with excursions to Canterbury and Oxford.
Susanna Fein is Professor of English, Coordinator of the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Minor, and Fellow of the Institute for Bibliography and Editing. In the Department of English she has served terms as Department Chair (2000-04), Undergraduate Studies Coordinator (1991-94), and Chair of the Graduate Program in Literature (2010-12). Her research focuses on the literatures, languages, and manuscripts of medieval England, ca. 1100-1500.
Professor Fein edits The Chaucer Review, a learned journal that has been published quarterly by Penn State University Press since 1966. She is the recipient of several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, one from the Ohio Humanities Council, and a KSU Retention Grant that allowed the English Undergraduate Studies Center to be established in 2001.
The author of numerous books and articles, Professor Fein frequently presents at national and international conferences. She is on the Advisory Board of the Middle English Texts Series (University of Rochester) and the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Early Book Society. She has served as Core Group Member of the Medieval Song Network (University College London) and as elected Trustee of the New Chaucer Society (2006-10).
Professor Fein looks for students who enjoy literature, history, and languages and who are curious about human differences across time. In the summer months she undertakes archival research on medieval English manuscripts, frequently in London and Oxford. What she discovers there renews her teaching during term. Professor Fein’s favorite subjects for discussion in undergraduate courses are the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood, and such epics as Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Inferno.
In summer 2012 Professor Fein will direct an NEH seminar on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Designed for American high school teachers, the seminar will be held in London with excursions to Canterbury and Oxford.
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Current Projects
- Blind Seeing: Late Medieval Piety in the Book of John Audelay (book project)
- MS Harley 2253 (a 3-volume edition/translation of the trilingual Harley Lyrics MS, forthcoming in the TEAMS Middle English Texts Series; general editor, in collaboration with D. Raybin and J. Ziolkowski)
- Robert Thornton and His Books: Essays on the Lincoln and London Manuscripts (essay collection; ed. with M. Johnston)
- Manuscripts and Literariness (a special issue of The Chaucer Review planned for 2013; ed. with D. Raybin, A. Gillespie, and A. Bahr)
Select Publications
Books
- John the Blind Audelay, Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302). 2009.
- Moral Love Songs and Laments. 1998.
Edited Collections
- Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. 2010. (Ed. with D. Raybin)
- My Wyl and My Wrytyng: Essays on John the Blind Audelay. 2009.
- Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, and Social Contexts of British Library MS Harley 2253. 2000.
- Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. 1991. (Ed. with D. Raybin and P. C. Braeger)
Recent Articles and Chapters
- “English Devotions for a Noble Household: The Long Passion in Audelay’s Counsel of Conscience.” In After Arundel: Religious Writing in Fifteenth-Century England. Ed. V. Gillespie and K. Ghosh. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. Pp. 325-42.
- “Mary to Veronica: John Audelay’s Sequence of Salutations to God-Bearing Women.” Speculum (2011): 964-1009.
- “Example to the Soulehele: John Audelay, The Vernon Manuscript, and the Defense of Orthodoxy.” The Chaucer Review 46 (2011): 182-202.
- Somer Soneday: Kingship, Sainthood, and Fortune in MS Laud Misc. 108.” In Text and Context in Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 108: The Shaping of English Vernacular Narrative. Ed. K. K. Bell and J. N. Couch. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. 275-97.
- John Audelay and His Book: Critical Overview and Major Issues.” In My Wyl and My Wrytyng, 2009 (see above). Pp. 3-29.
- “Death and the Colophon in the Audelay Manuscript.” In My Wyl and My Wrytyng, 2009 (see above). Pp. 294-306.
- “The Epistemology of Titles in Editing Whole-Manuscript Anthologies: The Lyric Sequence, in Particular.” Poetica 71 (2008): 49-74. Special issue: Editing Middle English, ed. T. Kato and A. S. G. Edwards.
- “Compilation and Purpose in MS Harley 2253.” In Essays in Manuscript Geography: Vernacular Manuscripts of the English West Midlands from the Conquest to the Sixteenth Century. Ed. W. Scase. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007. Pp. 67-94.
Descriptive Bibliography
- “The Lyrics of MS Harley 2253.” In A Manual of Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500. Vol. 11. Ed. P. G. Beidler. New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005. Pp. 4168-4206, 4311-61.
Journal Special Issues
- Studies in Middle English Literature in Honor of C. David Benson. The Chaucer Review 46.1 & 2 (2011): 1-258. (Ed. with D. Raybin, D. Donoghue, J. Simpson, and N. Watson)
- Time, Measure, and Value in Chaucer’s Art and Chaucer’s World. The Chaucer Review 43.4 (2009): 345-474. (Ed. with D. Raybin, C. P. Collette, and N. M. Bradbury)
- The Legacy of New Criticism: Revisiting the Work of E. Talbot Donaldson. The Chaucer Review 41.3 (2007): 213-323. (Ed. with D. Raybin, B. Wheeler, and C. Van Dyke)
- Chaucer and Aesthetics. The Chaucer Review 39.3 (2005): 225-340. (Ed. with D. Raybin)
Journal Editorship
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The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism. Editor since 2001. Quarterly journal founded 1966 and published by Penn State University Press.
Research Areas
- Chaucer
- Middle English Poetry
- Medieval English Manuscripts and Culture
- Textual Editing
Affiliations
Council of Editors of Learned Journals
Early Book Society: Editorial Board, JEBS
Institute for Bibliography & Editing, (Kent State University): Fellow
International Piers Plowman Society
John Gower Society
Medieval Academy of America
Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Medieval Song Network (University College London): Core Group Member
Middle English Texts Series, TEAMS (University of Rochester): Advisory Board
New Chaucer Society: Trustee (2006-10); Nomination Committee Chair (2009-10)
John Gower Society
Medieval Academy of America
Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Medieval Song Network (University College London): Core Group Member
Middle English Texts Series, TEAMS (University of Rochester): Advisory Board
New Chaucer Society: Trustee (2006-10); Nomination Committee Chair (2009-10)
OFFICE
Department of EnglishOFFICE HOURS
Office Hours for Spring 2012
10:45-12:00 MWF and by appointment
I prefer contact by email and not by phone.
CONTACT INFO
Phone: 330-672-1784sfein@kent.edu
COURSES TEACHING
Spring 2013- ENG 34001 - 001 Medieval Literature
- ENG 66791 - 001 Sem : Brit And Irish Lit
- ENG 69199 - 005 Thesis I
- ENG 76791 - 001 Sem : Brit And Irish Lit
- ENG 22071 - 002 Great Books I
- ENG 49091 - 003 Senior Seminar
- ENG 89299 - 007 Dissertation Ii
EXPERTISE
- Chaucer Studies
- Middle English Literature
- Medieval English Manuscripts
- Medieval Lyric