CURRICULUM VITAE
Anthony Adams
Brown University email: Anthony_Adams@brown.edu
Department of English office phone: (401) 863-2111
Box 1852 office fax: (401) 863-7412
70 Brown Street mobile phone: (401) 345–6117
Providence, RI 02912 brown.academia.edu/AnthonyAdams
Citizenship: US research.brown.edu/myresearch/Anthony_Adams
EDUCATION AND AWARDS
University of Toronto, Centre for Medieval Studies
M.A., Ph.D. 2008, Medieval Literature and Languages
Dissertation: ‘Heroic Slaughter and Versified Violence: A Reading of Sacrifice in Some
Early English and Carolingian Poetry of War’ (Andy Orchard, supervisor)
Nominee, Canadian Association for Graduate Students / UMI Distinguished Dissertation
Award 2009
Connaught Scholar 2000–2004
Killam Research grant in palaeography 2006, 2007
Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2002–2003, 2004–2005
Teaching Assistant Training Programme Award Nominee 2006, 2007
School of Graduate Studies Travel Bursary
University of Toronto Open Fellowship
Research areas: Old and Middle English, Chaucer, Arthurian romance, Medieval Latin, Old
Norse, Scandinavian history, Medieval Welsh, utopian literature, Boethius, palaeography
and textual criticism, Carolingian France, philology
Uppsala International Swedish Language School. Vuxenskolan, Uppsala, Sweden. 2001
Uppsala International Summer Session Scholarship. 2001
Harvard University Extension School. Cambridge, MA. January 1997–May 1998
Coursework: Old English Language and Literature, Folklore Studies, History
of the English Language, Modern German
Emerson College
Fiction Writing (with Boston’s Poet Laureate Sam Cornish), Summer 1992
Wesleyan University
B.A., English and American Language and Literature
Senior Essay: ‘Critical Perception and Reception of Hamlet, from A.C. Bradley to Derrida’
Olin Fellowship, awarded for research project in literature (‘The Immensely Immanent
Prose of Harold Brodkey’)
Wesleyan Poetry Writing Prize Finalist
rev. April 2011
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Virginia M. Delahanty Scholarship
Alma Driscoll Scholarship
Concentrations: English Renaissance, Modernism, creative writing, critical theory,
contemporary fiction
EMPLOYMENT AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Brown University, English, Visiting Assistant Professor. 2009–present
Angels and Demons, Heavens and Hells: The Otherworld in Medieval and Early Modern
Literature; History of the English Language (two semesters); Seminar in Old English
Literature (two semesters); Trends and Traditions in Supernatural Literature; Medieval
Zoographies and the Origins of the Human; Violence, Sacrifice, and Medieval Narrative; An
Introduction to Old Norse; Independent Study in Old English; Medieval Perspectives;
Reading Medieval Latin (informal group study); Graduate Seminar in Beowulf
University of Alabama at Birmingham, English, Visiting Assistant Professor. 2008–
2009
Composition; British and Irish Literature (Anglo-Saxon to Shakespeare) (two sections); The
Good, the Bad, and the Unlucky: Outlaws in Saga, Song, and Story; Beowulf in Context;
Middle English Literature: Trauma, Memory, Narrative (grad seminar)
University of Tennessee, English, Lecturer in Composition, 2007–2008
First Year Composition: Dreadful Dances of Death and Delight: An Inquiry into the Macabre
(two sections); British Literature I: Beowulf through Johnson (three sections); First Year
Composition (two sections); Honors British Literature I: Beowulf through Johnson
University of Tennessee, MARCO and Classics, Lecturer. Summer 2008 and 2009
Introductory and Advanced Medieval Latin
University of Toronto, Coordinator, Teaching Assistant Training Programme. 2004–
2005
University of Toronto at Scarborough, English, Instructor. 2003–2007
Critical Writing about Poetry (four sections); Critical Writing about Literature (six sections);
Critical Writing about Narrative (four sections)
University of Toronto, Medieval Studies, Instructor. 2002–2007
Introductory Medieval Latin (eight sections); Intermediate Medieval Latin (five sections);
Advanced Medieval Latin (two sections); Intensive Intermediate Medieval Latin
University of Toronto, Medieval Studies, Teaching Assistant. 2001–2002
Introductory Medieval Latin (three semesters)
University of Toronto, English, Teaching Assistant. 2002–2004
Technical Writing for Engineers (two semesters); History of the English Language
University of Toronto, Classics, Instructor. 2003–2004
Introductory Latin (two semesters)
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Chaucer, Malory, Middle English romance; Middle English lyric
Old English, Old Norse, Medieval Latin epic and allegory, literary theory, cultural studies
History of the English language, history of English spelling, creolization, language in new media
Renaissance poetry and intellectual history; Marlowe, Browne, Burton, Crashaw
Sacrifice and violence in literature; melancholy and the soul; immanence
Medievalism, spirituality in contemporary literature; mysticism and hermetic revivals
Trauma theory and theories of horror and abjection; macabre fiction
Creative writing: poetry, fiction, genre fiction; translation
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
BOOK IN PROGRESS
The Succor of Horror: Sacrifice, Trauma, and Narrative in the Middle Ages [My book
will provide an examination of the ways that medieval narratives are animated, structured,
and disrupted by scenes of sacrificial and traumatic violence. Five chapters will include 1) an
critical introduction to sacrifice and trauma theory in relation to medieval literary criticism, 2)
melancholy and mourning in Beowulf and Anglo-Latin war poetry, 3) the elegiac nature of
traumatized things and objects, 4) viciousness in the Middle English Havelok and The Siege
of Jerusalem, and 5) memorialization and sacrifice in Malory’s Morte Darthur. I supplement
my close readings of the texts with current medieval scholarship on violence, sacrifice, and
the body, as well as with concepts adapted from contemporary theorists LaCapra, Bill Brown,
Girard, and Ricoeur. I argue that memorialized scenes of violence served as sources of
aesthetic pleasure for their audiences, through the discourses of sacrifice and trauma. Trauma,
usually viewed by contemporary critics as a strictly negative event or discourse, actually
serves a unifying and energizing purpose in much medieval literature.]
ARTICLES COMPLETED AND IN PROGRESS
‘Making Mockery of Majesty in the Middle English Charlemagne Romances’, under
revision, for submission to the Haskins Society Journal [10,000 words]
‘Sacrifice and Substitution in Malory’s Morte Darthur, Book VII’, under revision
[10,000 words]
‘A Verse Translation of Abbo of St. Germain’s Bella Parisiacae urbis’, with A.G. Rigg,
The Journal of Medieval Latin 14 (2004), 1–68. [contains my extensive introduction
and commentary; translation is a collaboration with George Rigg; 30,000 words]
‘Norwegian Fathers, Icelandic Sons: Pride and Poetry in Egils saga’, submitted, Journal
of English and Germanic Philology [15,000 words]
‘“He took a stone away”: Cruelty and Castration in Sturlunga saga’, forthcoming in
Historia Calamitatis: Castration and Culture from Antiquity through Early Modern
Europe, ed. Larissa Tracy [approx. 10,000 words]
‘Butter-Spades, Footnotes, and Omnium: The Third Policeman as Pataphysical Fiction’,
accepted by Review of Contemporary Fiction, Special Centenary Issue: Flann
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O’Brien, guest editors Neil Murphy & Keith Hopper (forthcoming Fall 2011) [5,000
words]
PLANNED PROJECTS
Medieval and Early Modern Fonts of Macabre Fiction
‘Soul and Substance in Thomas Browne’, for submission to a collection of essays on the
soul in Renaissance England
‘Unde rubor vestris: Style and Sustenance in Crashaw’s Latin Epigrams’
REVIEWS
The Year’s Work in Old English Studies, Reviewer, 2009–. An ongoing annual reviewer-
position covering Anglo-Latin books and articles. Selected reviews include:
Brown, George Hardin, ‘Ciceronianism in Bede and Alcuin,’ in Intertexts: Studies in
Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Paul E. Szarmach, ed. Blanton and Scheck
(Tempe, AZ, 2008), pp. 319-30.
Castro Caridad, Eva María, ‘La poesía rítmica en Beda el Venerable,’ in La filología
latina hoy: Actualización y perspictivas, ed. Ana María Aldama Roy, María del
Barrio, et al. (Madrid, 2003), pp. 627-33.
Gretsch, Mechthild, ‘Æthelthryth of Ely in a Lost Calendar from Munich,’ Anglo-
Saxon England 35 (2006), 159–77.
Heimann, Claudia, ‘Das Schreiben Cathwulfs an Karl den Grossen,’ Studentische
Festschrift zur Verabschiedung von Professor Dr. phil. habil. Peter Segl, ed.
Jebramcik and Goßler (Fürth, 2005), pp. 58–76.
Hill, Joyce, ‘Making Women Visible: An Adaptation of the Regularis Concordia in
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 201,’ in Conversion and Colonization in
Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Karkov and Howe (Tempe, AZ, 2006), pp. 153–67.
Howlett, David, Insular Inscriptions (Dublin, 2004).
Lawrence-Mathers, Anne, ‘The Problem of Magic in Early Anglo-Saxon England,’
Reading Medieval Studies 33 (2007), 87–104.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine, ‘Leaving Wilton: Gunhild and the Phantoms of
Agency,’ Journal of English and Germanic Philology 106 (2007), 203–23.
Ruff, Carin, ‘The Perception of Difficulty in Aldhelm’s Prose,’ in Insignis Sophiae
Arcator, ed. Wieland et al. (Turnhout, 2006), pp. 165–77.
Anglo-Saxon England 2009, Notes & Queries 2011 (forthcoming)
CONFERENCE PAPERS, SESSIONS ORGANIZED, INVITED LECTURES
1. ‘Torn Testimony: Speaking and Dwelling in the Old English “Book” Riddles’,
46th International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University, May 2011
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2. ‘Literary Games, Nonsense, and Follies’, invited speaker, Alpha Delta Phi
Literary Society, Brown University, April 8, 2011
3. Session moderator, ‘Landscape through Texts and Readers: Liminal Spaces’, New
England Medieval Studies Graduate Colloquium, March 5, 2011
4. ‘Gazing on Calamity: Words, Wounds, and Things in the Middle Ages’, English
Department, University of Maine, February 2011
5. ‘Traumatized Objects in Anglo-Saxon England’, invited lecture, University of
Connecticut at Storrs, January 2011
6. ‘The Succor of Horror: Finding Pleasure in Pain in the Middle Ages’, Invited
conference speaker, Dancing with Death: Warfare, Wounds, and Disease in the
Middle Ages, California University of Pennsylvania, October 2010
7. ‘The Scars that Won’t Heal Your Eyes: Scapegoat and Sacrifice in the Old
English Daniel’, 45th International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan
University, May 2010
8. Session organizer, ‘Medieval Automata and Simulacra: From the Hydraulic to the
Daemonic’, 45th International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University,
May 2010
9. Session presider, ‘Crossing Borders: Hybridity and Hegemony in Post-Conquest
England’, 45th International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University,
May 2010
10. ‘The Traumatic Landscape of Memory in Pearl’, 16th Biennial New College
Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 2010
11. ‘The Sacrifice of History and the Succor of Horror’, invited lecture, Brown
University, Medieval Circle of Rhode Island, October 2009
12. ‘Falling Bodies and the Traumatic Gesture in Margery Kempe and Kafka’,
American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Harvard University,
March 2009
13. ‘The Memory of Karolus Magnus and the Question of Power and Privilege in
Late Medieval England’, Haskins Society 27th International Conference,
Georgetown University, November 2008
14. ‘The Outlaw’s Fatal Embrace: Viewing the Pardoner’s Tale through the Lens of
John Ford’s The Searchers’, 39th Convention, Northeast Modern Language
Association, April 2008
15. ‘Deferred Sacrifice and Chivalric Cenotaphs: Malory’s Morte Darthur, Books VII
and VIII’, 15th Biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, March 2008
16. ‘Discors machina: Gruesome Violence and Chaos in Carolingian Poetry of War’,
Beholding Violence: A Conference on Medieval and Early Modern
Representation and Culture, Bowling Green State University, February 2008
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17. ‘The Manuscript Tradition of Abbo of St-Germain-des-Prés’ Bella Parisiacae
urbis’, Manuscript Books in the Early Middle Ages (saec. VI–XI), Villa
Barberini, Rome, June 2004 (withdrawn—illness)
18. ‘Alfredian Texts and Augustinian Contexts’, 39th International Medieval
Congress, Western Michigan University, May 2004
19. ‘Augustine’s Soliloquies and King Alfred’s Old English Translation’, 11th
Biennial Conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, August
2003
20. ‘Formulas in Anglo-Latin Literature’, 38th International Medieval Congress,
Western Michigan University, May 2003
21. ‘Norwegian Fathers, Icelandic Sons: Pride and Poetry in Egils saga’, Vagantes
Medieval Conference, University of Toronto, March 2003
22. ‘Werewolves, Lone Wolves, Bears and Berserkir: The Old Norse Outlaw
Tradition’, Work in Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, March 2002
23. ‘Learned Lore and Folklore in the Old English Phoenix’, 20th Medieval Forum,
Plymouth State University, April 1999
TALKS AND WORKSHOPS ON TEACHING
24. ‘On Being a First-Time Teaching Assistant in the Humanities’, invited lecture,
University of Toronto, September 2005 and January 2006
25. ‘Effective Student Evaluation’, invited lecture, Seminar for Graduate Teaching
Assistants, University of Toronto, January 2006
26. ‘Diversity in the Classroom’, invited lecture, Seminar for Gender and Equity
Studies Department, University of Toronto, November 2005
27. ‘Effective Classroom Teaching and Student Evaluation’, invited lecture,
Woodsworth College, University of Toronto, November 2005
28. ‘Leading Effective Seminars’, invited lecture, Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Department, November 2005
29. ‘Effective Classroom Teaching’, invited lecture, History Department, University
of Toronto, October 2005
30. ‘On Being a First-Time Graduate TA’, invited lecture, Psychology Department,
University of Toronto, October 2005
31. ‘The Classics Curriculum and Undergraduate Teaching’, invited lecture, Classics
Department, University of Toronto, October 2005
32. ‘Effective Classroom Teaching’, invited lecture, German Department, University
of Toronto, September 2005
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SUPERVISED THESES
Anna Waymack, B.A. Honors Thesis, ‘Seas, Streams, and Springs: Water–Based Liminal
Places and the Early Medieval Otherworld,’ Medieval Studies and English, Brown
University. Supervisor, 2011
Amy Heuer, B.A. Honors Thesis, ‘Unlettered Men: Druids in their Classical Context,’
Department of Classics, Brown University. Second reader, 2011
Jeff Olshan, B.A. Honors Thesis, ‘Natural Imagery in Vergil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s
Pharsalia,’ Department of Classics, Brown University. Second reader, 2011
Eunice Eun, M.A. Thesis, ‘The “Fearful” Female: Veneration of the Germanic Woman,’
Department of English, Brown University. Supervisor, 2010
RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE
Research Assistant, Anglo-Saxon Formulary Project, University of Toronto. 2002–2004
Conducted corpus-based searches for specific word strings; created concordances;
edited and proofread editions of Old English and Latin texts; used various software
database and concordance programs
Coordinator, Teaching Assistant Training Programme, University of Toronto. 2004–2005
Designed and coordinated lecture series and conducted seminars for teaching
assistants at the University of Toronto; supervised various ‘micro-teaching’ seminars
to assist graduate students become better teachers; evaluated teaching assistants on-
site in classrooms for the TATP Certificate Programme; offered critical feedback for
graduate students designing teaching dossiers
Continuing Education Instructor and Trainer, Computer Career Institute, Clark
University. February–August 1999
Taught various day and evening courses in computer operating systems, network
administration, and computer repair to continuing education students at the Computer
Career Institute, Clark University.
Research Assistant, English Department, Harvard University. 1998–1999
Assisted Prof Daniel Donoghue in the preparation of class materials, and helped with
research tasks such as writing an online bibliography, proofreading, and library work.
Technical Writer and Corporate Trainer, Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC), Framingham, MA. June 1997–June 1998
Wrote software manuals for Global Positioning System engineering project for the
City of Boston (snow removal division), and conducted on-site software training for
end users. Worked with engineers and programmers to develop training methods and
simplify software interface. Co-wrote a business plan.
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Editor/Abstractor, Information Access Company, Foster City, CA. June 1993–January
1997
Wrote and edited abstracts of journal articles from business, financial, and academic
journals, trade magazines, and newsletters for a professional and academic audience,
for publication in online and CD-ROM databases.
Research Assistant, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. June
1992–March 1993
Wrote quantitative and qualitative reports on media coverage of the 1992 presidential
campaign. Studied tone and candor of television broadcasts and newspaper articles.
Organized study groups and forums for discussion of election issues and observation
of voter response to political advertisements. Project findings were published in
Marion R. Just, Ann N. Crigler, Dean E. Alger, et. al., Crosstalk: Citizens,
Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996), winner of the American Political Science Association: Doris
Graber Outstanding Book Award.
Public Relations Assistant, Office of Public Information, Wesleyan University,
Middletown, CT. May 1991–September 1991
Assisted with editing of the Wesleyan Alumni Magazine. Acted as proofreader and
office assistant for Wesleyan University public relations. Wrote and proofed press
releases for campus events.
SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS
Sophomore Advisor, Brown University
Chairman, Student Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
Co-Chairman, Student Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
Chair, Sources and Resources Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies
Student Representative, Graduate Student Union, Centre for Medieval Studies, University
of Toronto (two years)
Member, Modern Languages Committee, School of Graduate Studies, University of
Toronto
Member, Latin Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
Student Representative, Search Committee for the Director of the Centre for Medieval
Studies, Office of the Dean, University of Toronto
Student Representative, Special Committee for the Modern Language Association
Student, Steering Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
Committee Member, Celtic Studies Association of North America Conference Planning
Committee, Centre for Medieval Studies
Student Volunteer, Centre for Medieval Studies Annual Conference, March 2000,
‘Teaching, Learning, and Using Latin in the Middle Ages: A Conference in Honour
of A. G. Rigg’
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FOREIGN LANGUAGES
ANCIENT and MEDIEVAL
Classical and Medieval Latin, Old and Middle English, Old Norse-Icelandic, and Middle
Welsh.
(received Toronto/CMS M.A.- and Ph.D.-level Latin certificates)
MODERN
German, French, Italian, Swedish, and Icelandic.
ACADEMIC REFERENCES
Professor Andy Orchard Professor Elizabeth Bryan
Provost and Vice-Chancellor Department of English
Trinity College Brown University
University of Toronto 70 Brown Street
6 Hoskin Avenue Providence, RI 02912
Toronto, ON M5S 1H8 (401) 863-3745
(416) 978-4884 Elizabeth_Bryan@brown.edu
andy.orchard@utoronto.ca
Professor Robert Hasenfratz Dr Ian McDougall
Department of English, U-4025 Dictionary of Old English
University of Connecticut Robarts Library, Room 14285
Storrs, CT 06269 130 St. George Street
(860) 486-1525 Toronto, ON M5S 1A1
robert.hasenfratz@uconn.edu icm@doe.utoronto.ca
Professor Joseph Pucci Professor George Rigg
Department of Classics Centre for Medieval Studies
Brown University 125 Queen’s Park, 3rd Floor
Macfarlane House University of Toronto
48 College Street Toronto, ON M5S 2C7
Providence, RI 02912 (416) 978-4884
Joseph_Pucci@brown.edu (no email)