International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Thought

Richard North - Keynote Speaker

Richard North, Professor of Old English Literature at University College, London, received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England, in 1987.  North conducted postdoctoral work in Groningen the following year, and has since been teaching English literature of all periods, but mainly Old and Middle English, and also Old Icelandic, to students of all kinds at University College, London. His interest in Anglo-Saxon paganism came out in his books Pagan Words and Christian Meanings and Heathen Gods in Old English Literature, as well as in a number of articles.  North has also written on Beowulf and other Old English poetry, especially on poems from the Exeter Book, including The Seafarer, The Wanderer, Deor and Widsith, as well as on The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell Cross, in which he did some collaborative work with Professor Éamonn Ó Carragáin (Emeritus) of Cork.

His more recent books include The Origins of Beowulf: from Vergil to Wiglaf, an introductory book (co-edited with Joe Allard) for sixth-formers and first-year undergraduates, 'Beowulf' & Other Stories, and (as principal editor, with Joe Allard and Patricia Gillies) the Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures. His book on Beowulf had the temerity to argue for a date and author’s name (AD 826-27, Abbot Eanmund of Breedon), on the premise that this work was commissioned after the death of King Beornwulf of Mercia (823-6) by the latter’s would-be successor, an ealdorman named Wiglaf. He has also edited Skaldic poems such as the Haustlöng of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (c. 900) and the Húsdrápa of Úlfr Uggason (c. 995) and has written essays on Færeyinga saga and Víga-Glúms saga, as well as an essay on illusion in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Currently North is conducting research on the influence of Beowulf on the Old English poem Andreas, and on the early fifteenth-century Grettis saga.

Robert Adams

Robert Adams is a Professor of English at Sam Houston State University. He has published many scholarly articles on Middle English literature, most of them on Piers Plowman.

Robert is the former Director of the International Piers Plowman Society and one of the senior editors of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. His talk at the conference is entitled “A Demonstration of the Research Capabilities of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Using MS Rawlinson Poetry 38 for Examples.”

Additional Speakers

Anne Babson, ““Un Nouvel Royaume de Femenie”: Christine de Pizan’s Construction of Kingdom Come for Women,” University of Mississippi.

Mith Barnes, “A Theology of Eating in The Divine Comedy,” Bellarmine University.

Kimberly Bell, “Playing the Wheel of Fortune in Somer Soneday: Serious Fun,” Sam Houston State University.

Matthew Bennett, “Teaching Paradise Lost: Let’s Be Honest,” Sam Houston State University.

John Boyer, “Eternal God Divinity: Atemporality in Thomas Aquinas,” University of St. Thomas.

Rochelle Bradley, “Wiping ‘the table of [his] memory’: The Conflict of Memory and Will in Hamlet,” Blinn College.

Rosalind Brown-Grant, “Visualizing the Law in Literature: The Case of Burgundian Prose Romance,” University of Leeds, U. K.

Matt Brumit, “The Inheritance Plot of Jonson’s Volpone,” University of Dallas.

Cayla Clinkenbeard, “The Noblest Roman’s Death: Brutus’s Justification for Suicide,” Angelo State University.

Ashlie Contos, “Dispossession of Language and Sense: Interrogation of Women in Titus Andronicus and King Lear,” University of Texas - Tyler.

Romana Cortese, “Dante’s Tree of Life: Argument and Image in The Divine Comedy,” Lone Star College.

David J. Davis, “Godly Knowledge: Platonism, Alchemy, and Religious Epistemology in England, 1530-1640,” Houston Baptist University.

Susanna Davis, “Women’s Roles in Early Medieval Literature: Defining and Limiting by Text,” Abilene Christian University.

Daniel De Haan, “The Priority of Necessary and Possible Existence: Avicenna’s Innovation on Aristotelian Act and Potency,” University of St. Thomas.

Benjamin Dobbs, “Understanding the Origins of Musica poetica in the Sixteenth Century,” University of North Texas.

James Early, “Theodore of Tarsus: The Syrian Archbishop of Canterbury,” Sam Houston State University.

Katherine Echols, “Old Angels, Wasted and Spent: Representations of the Wanton Widow in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Popular Culture and ‘The Boke of Mayd Emlyn,’” University of Houston.

Matthew Elrod, “Milton’s Precursors and Epic Contribution,” Sam Houston State University.

Joshua Farris, “What is Augustine’s View of the Human Soul?” University of Bristol, England.

Leann Fischel, “The Devil Within: The Psychology of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost,” Sam Houston State University.

Amanda Fowler, “‘Souls Exhaled’: Anxiety of the Soul in Donne’s “Valediction,”” Angelo State University.

James Frankki, “The Heavener Rune Stone Revisited: Did Scandinavian Explorers Visit Oklahoma in the 8th Century?” Sam Houston State University.

Jennifer Gauntt, “Rereading Culture: Revisiting the Depiction of Barabas in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta,” Sam Houston State University.

María Margarita Tascón González, “The Strength of Queen Isabella the Catholic: The Power, Knowledge and Leadership of an Accomplished Monarch,” University of León, Spain.

Clinton Hale, “Anglo-Saxon Christianity: Militant and Violent,” Sam Houston State University.

Helena Halmari, “Codeswitching in a Late Medieval Sermon Collection,” Sam Houston State University.

Brian Harding, “The Philosophical Life in Boethius of Dacia’s de Summo Bono,” Texas Women’s University.

Ron Heckelman, “Promyse is dette: The Subversive Rhetoric of Promising and Death in Everyman and Medieval Religious Drama,” Lone Star College.

Alexandra Hopkins, “Romeo and Juliet’s Quarto 1 and Implications of Suicide in 3.3,” Angelo State University.

Brendan Kinsella, “The Hopeless Romantic: Girolamo Frescobaldi’s (1538-1643) Keyboard Toccatas and the Music of the Future,” University of Texas - Pan American.

Martha Ann Kirk, “The Feast of Fools: Putting Down the Mighty and Raising Up the Lowly,” University of the Incarnate Word.

Donna LaRue, “Theatrical and Musical Forms of Thought: Their Recension and Reception in Certain Liturgical Documents,” Arlington, Maryland Independent Scholar.

Lucian López, “Retribution Miracles of Late Antique Gaul and the Metaphysics of Transference, “St. John’s Abbey and School of Theology.

Phuc Luu, “Traversing the Difficulties: An Explanation of Aquinas’s “Fourth Way”,” Sam Houston State University.

John Macias, “John Finnis and the Political Community,” University of St. Thomas.

Christopher Marek, “Satan as Calvinist Tragic Hero in Paradise Lost,” Sam Houston State University.

Bruno Méniel, “Tragedy as Conflict of Rights: The Case of Robert Garnier’s Antigone,” Université de Rennes.

Audrey Murfin, ““Let not Your Sorrow Die, though I am Dead”: Corpse as Commodity in Titus Andronicus,” Sam Houston State University.

Edward Plough, “Titus Andronicus Underwater,” Delta State University.

Timothy Ponce, “The Heroic Struggle: Classical and Christian Heroism in Paradise Lost,” Sam Houston State University.

Katelyn Quinley, “Distortions of Chastity in the House of Busyrane,” Loyola Marymount University.

Elizabeth Nogan Ranieri, “The Central Plan, the Architectural Treatise and Leonardo,” University of Texas - Dallas.

Bernard Ribemont, “Compiling and Writing a Legal Treatise in French: The Livre de justice et de plet,” University of Orleans, Paris.

John Romey, “The French Renaissance Viol Consort: Reevaluating the Sources and Reclaiming the Music,” Case Western Reserve University.

Rueben Sanchez, “‘The Sad Prophet Jeremiah’ as an Icon of Renaissance Melancholy,” Sam Houston State University.

David Schmitt, “Medieval Philosophy to the Rescue: a Thomistic Neuroscience & the Mind-Brain Opportunity,” Independent Scholar.

Katharine Scherff, “Saint Quiteria: Virgin and Martyr. An Investigation of Saint Quiteria’s Developing Iconography throughout Medieval Spain.”

Nico Schüler, “Cornelia Schröder-Auerbach (1900-1997) and Her Contributions to Early Music Research and to Historical Performance Practice,” Texas State University.

Margaret Sellers, “Paradise Lost: Milton’s Compromise in the Spirit of Individualism,” Sam Houston State University.

Tara Sewell, “Common Misconceptions of the Medieval Period in Modern Popular Culture,” Texas A&M University.

John Skalko, “Avicenna’s Argument Against Infinite Regress as Step in Proving the Existence of God: Is it Successful?” Center of Thomistic Studies.

Kate Stevenson, “A Question of Honor: Gender and Suicide in Renaissance Tragedy,” University of Texas-Austin.

Edward Thomas, “What Europe’s Renaissance Owed to Islamic Civilization: The Case of Astronomy,” Institute of Medieval and Post-Medieval Studies.

John Thornburg, “Beowulf, Aristotle, and Case Grammar,” San Jacinto College.

Justin Vance Tyree, “The Malleable Viking: Life Between the Raids,” Sam Houston State University.

Jamie Weaver, “The Persuasive Difference: Acknowledging Diversity in Rhetorical Approaches to Music in the Late Sixteenth Century,” Stephen F. Austin State University.

Kevin West, “Dante and Orpheus: Ovidian Intertext in Inferno 5,” Stephen F. Austin State University.

Myriam White-Le Goff, “Le Roman de Silence by Heldris de Cornouailles: Speech, Truth and Beauty,” Université d’ Artois.