Dr. Christopher M. Roman
Biography
Dr. Christopher Michael Roman is Professor of English and the Graduate Studies coordinator. He specializes in Comics Studies and the Graphic Novel, LGBTQ+ Literature, Queer Theory, the work of Michel Foucault, and Sounds Studies. His previous work in medieval studies includes, Domestic Mysticism in Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe (2005), which interrogates queer family formation in medieval mystical texts, Queering Richard Rolle (2017), which investigates the queer identity of the understudied and important medieval hermit, Richard Rolle. Finally, his co-edited collection Medieval Futurity: Essays for the Future of a Queer Medieval Studies (2021), explores new theoretical directions for queer identity in the Middle Ages. He is still the co-editor of the book series, New Queer Medievalisms (MIP). However, his new work has turned to Comics Studies where he investigates queer theory and the superhero, Wolverine, critical race studies and police brutality as it is represented in N.K. Jemisin’s and Jamal Campbell’s Far Sector, and sound studies as they pertain to the comic book Daredevil.
Education
Publications
- Queering Richard Rolle: Eremiticism and Mystical Theology in the 14th Century. New York: Palgrave, 2017
- Domestic Mysticism in Margery Kempe and Dame Julian of Norwich: The Transformation of Christian Spirituality in the Late Middle Ages. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.
- “Religious Debate and Polemic in the Retraction.” The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. opencanterburytales.com. [publication August 2016]
- “Ancrene Wisse and Actor-Network Theory.” [Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, publication 2017].
- “Bios in The Prick of Conscience: The Apophatic Body and the Sensuous Soul.” Life is But a Thoroughfare. Punctum Books. [June 2016].
- “The Counter-conduct of Medieval Hermits.” Foucault Studies. 21 (2016): 80-97.
- “Mouthing the Passion: Richard Rolle’s Soundscapes.” Special Issue of Sounding Out! http://soundstudiesblog.com/2016/04/04/mouthing-the-passion-richard-rolles-soundscapes/ (Indexed by the MLA Bibliography) (April 2016).
- “Introduction: Medieval Sound.” Co-authored with Dorothy Kim. Special Issue on Medieval Sound of Sounding Out! http://soundstudiesblog.com/2016/04/04/17060/ (Indexed by the MLA Bibliography) (April 2016).
- “The Dialogue of Catherine of Siena: A Charity Born of Solitude.” Magistra: A Journal of Medieval Feminist Theology. 21.1 (2015): 111-133.
- “Thinking with the Elements: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Object-Oriented Ontology.” We Should Look at Green Again: Representations of Nature in Middle Earth. Ed. Martin Simonson. Zollikofen: Walking Tree Publishers, 2015. 95-119.
- “The Owl of the System: Alice Notley’s Queer Poetics in The Descent of Alette.” Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies (2015): 1-13.
- “The Ethical Movement of Daenerys Targaryen.” Studies in Medievalism 23 (2014): 61-68.
- “Uncoupling the Hermit: Richard Rolle’s Hermit-ing.” Glossator: Practice and Theory of the Commentary 7 (2013): 117-135.
- “Contemplating Finitude: Animals in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess.” Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts. Ed. Carolynn Van Dyke. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. 148-153.
- “Margery Kempe and Italy: Sacred Space and the Community in Her Soul.” Travels and Travelogues in the Middle Ages. Ed. Dr. Jean-Francois Kosta-Thefaine. New York: AMS Press of New York, 2009. 157-188. http://www.amspressinc.com/titles/64168.html.