Susanna Fein
Biography
Susanna Fein, Professor Emerita of English, is a scholar of medieval literature with special interest in the history and range of Middle English texts and manuscripts, including Chaucer. In her teaching career at Kent State, 1985鈥2020, Prof. Fein served terms in the English Department as Chair, as Ph.D. in Literature Chair, and as Undergraduate Studies Coordinator. She also founded the A&S Minor in Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies (AMRS) in 2001 and served as its coordinator until 2021. In addition to her extensive record of publication, Prof. Fein has edited, since 2001, a quarterly academic journal, The Chaucer Review. .
In 2017, Prof. Fein received two of Kent State鈥檚 highest awards: the President鈥檚 Faculty Excellence Award and the Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award. In addition, her body of scholarship has been recognized by a festschrift of essays: Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein, edited by Michael Johnston, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, and Derek Pearsall (Berlin and Kalamzoo: De Gruyter and Medieval Institute Publications, 2023). .
Expertise
- Chaucer Studies
- Early Middle English (1100-1350)
- Late Middle English (1350-1500)
- Medieval English Manuscripts
- Medieval Lyric
Scholarly Editions
- The Owl and the Nightingale and the English Poems of Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2022. (Edition and translation)
- The Roland and Otuel Romances and the Anglo-Norman Otinel. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019. (Edited with Elizabeth Melick and David Raybin)
- The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript in Three Volumes. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2014-15. (Edition and translation, with translational collaboration of David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski)
- John the Blind Audelay, Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302). Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2009.
- Moral Love Songs and Laments. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1998.
Essay Collections on Chaucer
- Chaucer: Visual Approaches. University Park: Penn State UP, 2016. (Edited with David Raybin)
- Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. University Park: Penn State UP, 2009. (Edited with David Raybin)
- Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991. (Edited with David Raybin and Peter C. Braeger)
Essay Collections on Manuscripts and Texts
- Interpreting Manuscript Digby 86: A Trilingual Book from Thirteenth-Century Worcestershire. MS Culture of the British Isles 9, York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2019.
- The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. MS Culture of the British Isles 7. York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2016.
- Robert Thornton and His Books: Essays on the Lincoln and London Manuscripts. MS Culture of the British Isles 5. York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2014. (Edited with Michael Johnston)
- My Wyl and My Wrytyng: Essays on John the Blind Audelay. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2009.
- Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, and Social Contexts of British Library MS Harley 2253. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000.
Select Articles and Chapters
- 鈥淧roportion, Perspective, and Number in The Parlement of the Thre Ages.鈥 Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123 (2024): 185-214.
- 鈥淪ecular Poetry.鈥 In The Oxford History of English Poetry in English, Vol. 2: Medieval Poetry 1100-1400. Ed. Helen Cooper and Robert R. Edwards. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 274-93.
- 鈥淪atire, Performance, and English Rustic Comedy in Harley 2253.鈥 Chaucer Review 58 (2023): 361-74.
- 鈥The Royal Associations of Thomas of Hales鈥檚 Love Rune and Oxford, Jesus College MS 29 (II).鈥 Early Middle English 5 (2022): 1-29.
- 鈥When Holy Church Is Under Foot: A Precursor to The Simonie in Oxford Jesus College MS 29.鈥 Medium 脝vum 91(2022): 10-27.
- 鈥淩eading Dreams, Casting the Future, and Other Learned Mirths: The Harley Scribe as Proto-
Chaucerian Clerk.鈥 In Writers, Editors, and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts. Ed. Sharon Rowley. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. Pp. 15-41.
- 鈥淓arly Middle English in Trilingual Manuscripts: Eruptions, Collisions, Colloquies.鈥 Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser. 14 (2017): 33-68.
- 鈥淪tanding Under the Cross in the 笔补谤诲辞苍别谤鈥檚 and Shipman鈥檚 Tales.鈥 In Chaucer: Visual Approaches. Ed. Susanna Fein and David Raybin. University Park: Penn State UP, 2016. Pp. 115-38.
- 鈥淭he 鈥楾hyng Wommen Loven Moost鈥: The Wife of Bath鈥檚 Fabliau Answer.鈥 In Medieval Women and Their Objects. Ed. Jenny Adams and Nancy Mason Bradbury. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 2016. Pp. 15-38.
- 鈥淭he Harley Scribe鈥檚 Early Career: New Evidence of a Scribal Partnership in MS Harley 273.鈥 Journal of the Early Book Society 19 (2016): 1-30.
- 鈥淟iterary Scribes: The Harley Scribe and Robert Thornton as Case Studies.鈥 In Insular Books: Vernacular Manuscript Miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain. Ed. Margaret Connolly and Raluca Radulescu. Proceedings of the British Academy 201. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015. Pp. 61-79.
- 鈥淥f Judges and Jewelers: Pearl and the Life of Saint John.鈥 Studies in the Age of Chaucer 36 (2014): 41-76.
- 鈥淭he Four Scribes of MS Harley 2253.鈥 Journal of the Early Book Society 16 (2013): 27-53.
- 鈥淢ary to Veronica: John Audelay鈥檚 Sequence of Salutations to God-Bearing Women.鈥 Speculum 86 (2011): 964-1009.
- 鈥淭he Epistemology of Titles in Editing Whole-Manuscript Anthologies: The Lyric Sequence, in Particular.鈥 Poetica 71 (2008): 49-74.
- 鈥淭he Lyrics of MS Harley 2253.鈥 In A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500. Vol. ii. Ed. Peter G. Beidler. New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005. Pp. 4168-4206, 4311-4361.
- 鈥淟ife and Death, Reader and Page: Mirrors of Mortality in English Manuscripts.鈥 Mosaic 35 (2002): 69-94.
- 鈥淭welve-Line Stanza Forms in Middle English and the Date of Pearl.鈥 Speculum 72 (1997): 367-98.
Affiliations
Early Book Society
International Piers Plowman Society
John Gower Society
Medieval Academy of America
New Chaucer Society
Editorial Positions
Editor, The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism
Associate Editor, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series
Editorial Boards
Early Middle English (term completed)
Journal of the Early Book Society (ongoing)
Mediaevistik: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Medieval Research (ongoing)
Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies (term completed)
麻豆传媒 Press (term completed)
Advisory Boards
Archive of Early Middle English (term completed)
KSU Foundation, Board of Trustees (term completed)
New Chaucer Society, Trustee (term completed)
Teaching Association for Medieval Studies (TEAMS) (term completed)
Education
M.A. University of Virginia
Ph.D., M.A. Harvard
Awards/Achievements
- 2008 Department of English Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award Recipient,
- 2010 Bloomfield Fellow in Medieval English Studies, Harvard University,
- 2014 Visiting Professor of English, University of Notre Dame,
- 2017 Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award
- 2017 President's Faculty Excellence Award
- Director of NEH Seminars for Secondary School Teachers, London, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014,
- Director of NEH Seminar for College Teachers, Kent, Ohio 2016,
- 1997 NEH Summer Stipend
- 1991 Ohio Humanities Council Conference Grant, 麻豆传媒