CURRICULUM VITAE
(Retired) Chair, Department of English
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035
Address: 1510 Freyaldenhoven Lane, Conway AR 72032
Phone: (501) 472-8549
e-mail: jruud@uca.edu
- Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1981 (English)
- MA University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1974 (English)
- BA University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 1972 (English)
FULL-TIME TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- 2003-2016, University of Central Arkansas, Professor of English (Conway, Arkansas)
- 1985-2003, Northern State University (Aberdeen, South Dakota)
- Assistant Professor 1985-1989;
- Associate Professor;1989-1994,
- Full Professor 1994-2003
- 1984-1985 University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, Lecturer (Wausau, Wisconsin)
- 1977-1983 University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Lecturer (Kenosha, Wisconsin)
ADMINISTRATIVE AND RELATED EXPERIENCE
- 2003-2016: Chair, Department of English, University of Central Arkansas
- 1998-2003: Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Northern State University
- 1997-1998: Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Northern State University
- 1996-1997: Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Northern State University
- 1988-94: Chair, Department of Language, Literature, and Communication, Northern State University
- 1983-84: Coordinator of Testing, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
- Harvard Institutes for Higher Education “Management and Leadership in Education” program, Harvard University, June 2002.
- Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences “Marketing, Media, and the Arts and Sciences” workshop, St. Louis, Mo., March 2002.
- Wharton-IRHE Executive Education Program for the Knight Collaborative, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, July 1998.
- Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences Seminar for New Deans, San Diego, Cal., July 1998.
At UCA (2003-2016):
- Introduction to Poetry
- Introduction to Drama
- World Literature I
- English Literature I
- Research Methods Workshop (undergraduate course)
- Language and Grammar Studies
- Medieval Literature: The English Arthurian Tradition (graduate course)
- Medieval Literature: Chaucer’s Contemporaries (graduate course)
- Medieval Literature: Medieval and Early Tudor Drama (graduate course)
- Medieval Survey (graduate/undergraduate)
- History and Structure of the English Language (graduate/undergraduate)
- Tudor and Stuart Drama (graduate/undergraduate)
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Chaucer (graduate/undergraduate)
- Dante
- J.R.R. Tolkien (graduate/undergraduate)
- Literary Representations of Joan of Arc
- Research Methods (graduate course)
At NSU (1985-2003):
- Composition I
- Composition II
- Introduction to Literature
- English Literature I
- English Literature II
- English Literature III
- Introduction to Literary Study (gateway course for majors)
- The Modern Short Story (graduate/undergraduate)
- Arthurian Literature (graduate/undergraduate)
- Bible as Literature
- Mythology in Literature
- Film as Literature (graduate/undergraduate)
- Medieval Survey
- Ancient and Classical Survey
- Enlightenment Survey
- History and Structure of the English Language (graduate/undergraduate)
- Modern Grammar
- Chaucer (graduate/undergraduate)
- Shakespeare II: Comedies and Histories
- Metaphysical Poetry (graduate course)
- Milton (graduate/undergraduate)
- Dante
- Comedy
- Philosophy of Religion
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Scholarly Books
- “Many a Song and Many a Lecherous Lay”: Tradition and Individuality in Chaucer’s Lyric Poetry. New York: Garland Press, 1992 [Rpt., London and New York: Routledge, 2020].
- Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
- A Critical Companion to Dante. New York: Facts on File, 2008.
- A Critical Companion to Tolkien. New York: Facts on File, 2011.
- The “T” Is Silent, Dammit: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to English Usage, With Occasional Rants. Conway: The Doggery Press, 2022.
Novels
- Fatal Feast (Five Star Press, 2015)
- The Knight’s Riddle: What Women Want Most (Five Star Press: 2016)
- The Bleak and Empty Sea: The Tristram and Isolde Story (Encircle Press, 2017)
- Lost in the Quagmire: The Story of the Grail (Encircle Press, 2018)
- The Knight of the Cart (Encircle Press, 2019)
- To the Great Deep: The Death of Arthur (Encircle Press, 2020)
- Sleuth of Sherwood (Encircle Press, 2022)
- Ghoul of Sherwood (Encircle Press, 2022)
- Treasure of Sherwood (Encircle Press, 2024)
Short Stories
- “Nuns Fret Not.” Eccentric Circles: Short Stories Vol. 1. Edited by Cynthia Brackett-Vincent. Encircle Press, 2022. 181-191.
- “A Question of Vengeance.” Food, Migration, and Diversity: The Many Flavors of the Short Story. Edited by Maurice A. Lee and Aaron Penn. Lee and Penn Publishing, 2021. 538-544.
- “The Green Knight and the Beheading Game.” The Radiance of the Short Story: Fiction from Around the Globe. Edited by Maurice A. Lee and Aaron Penn. Edições Húmus, Lda., 2018. 559-568.
Conference Proceedings
- Proceedings of the First Dakotas Conference on Earlier British Literature. Ed. Jay Ruud. Aberdeen, SD: NSU Press, 1993.
- Proceedings of the Seventh Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Jay Ruud. Aberdeen, SD: NSU Press, 1999.
Journal Articles or Sections of Books
- “Tim O’Brien as Grail Knight: ‘On the Rainy River.’” Journal of the Short Story in English 69 (Autumn 2017): 133-47. https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/1864?lang=en
- “‘I’m a Popularizer’: Rescuing Gardner’s Life and Times of Chaucer.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 24.1 (Spring 2017): 141-60.
- “Troilus’s Hymn in Book III: Before the Wheel Turns Down.” Proceedings of the 24th Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Eds. Bruce Brandt, Mick Nagy, and Sharon Smith. South Dakota State University: Brookings, SD, 2016. 41-55. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2016.pdf?ver=1681693301258
- “‘Loveforsaken, from the land banished’: The Complexity of Love and Honor in Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” Mallorn 56 (Winter 2015): 5-:10.
- “‘Never Built at All, and Therefore Built Forever’: Camelot and the World of P.G. Wodehouse.” Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 24.1 (2014/2015): 105-21. https://www.connotations.de/article/jay-ruud-never-built-at-all-and-therefore-built-forever-camelot-and-the-world-of-p-g-wodehouse/
- “Pratchett’s The Last Continent and the Act of Creation. Philosophy and Terry Pratchett. Ed. Jacob Held and James South. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 287-306.
- “Dante and the Jews.” Jews in Medieval Christendom: “Slay Them Not.” Ed. Kristine T. Utterback and Merrall Llewelyn Price. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013. 147-62.
- “The N-Town Joachim and Anne and the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.” Medieval Perspectives 28 (2013): 63-81.
- “Anne of Bohemia and the Making of Europe.” Selected Proceedings of the 20th Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Lysbeth Em Benkert. Northern State University: Aberdeen, SD, 2012. 2-38. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2012.pdf?ver=1681693301258
- “The F and G Prologues Again: Is the Balade a Clue?” Philological Review 38.1 (Spring 2012): 27-41.
- “’A Great Flash of Understanding’: Teaching Dante and Mysticism.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 18.2 (Fall 2011): 101-16.
- “Chaucer, the Prioress, and the Resurrection of the Body.” Medieval Perspectives 24 (2009[2011]): 59-70.
- “The Voice of Saruman: Wizards and Rhetoric in The Two Towers.” Mythlore 28.3/4 (Spring/Summer 2010): 141-153.
- “The Practice of PR and the Canterbury Pilgrims.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 11.2 (June 2009): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol11/iss2/11 [with Stacey Jones]
- “Julian of Norwich and Piers Plowman: The Allegory of the Incarnation and Universal Salvation.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 13.1 (2006): 63-84.
- “The Jews in the Chester Play of Antichrist.” In Geardagum 26 (2006): 53-72.
- “Female Personae and Women Writers: Chaucer and the Findern Manuscript.” Medieval Perspectives 20 (2005): 112-32.
- “Blinded by the Light: Troilus’ Dawn Song and Christian Tradition.” Proceedings of the 11th Annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. Minot State University: Minot, ND, 2003. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2003.pdf?ver=1681693301282
- “Realism, Nominalism, and the Inconclusive Ending of The Parliament of Fowles.” In Geardagum 23 (2002): 1-28.
- “Declaiming Chaucer to a Field of Cows: Three Twentieth-Century Views of the Poet.” Proceedings of the Tenth Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Barbara Olive and David Sprunger. Moorhead, MN: Concordia College, 2002. 8-21. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2002.pdf?ver=1681693301282
- “Aslan’s Sacrifice and the Doctrine of Atonement in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Mythlore 23 (2001): 15-23.
- “What Chaucer Really Did to Petrarch’s Sonnet 132.” Proceedings of the Ninth Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Nicholas Wallerstein and Roger Ochse. Spearfish, SD: Black Hills State University, 2001. 74-84. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2001.pdf?ver=1681693301282
- “The Gifts of Fortune, Nature, and Grace and the Structure of Piers Plowman B.XI.” Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest. Ed. Mel Storm. 7 (2000): 37-62.
- “Medieval Woman Writing Medieval Woman: Christine de Pizan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc.” Proceedings of the Eighth Northern Plains Conference on Early English Literature. Ed. Robert J. De Smith. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College, 2000. 73-88. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL2000.pdf?ver=1681693301281
- “‘I wolde for thi loue dye’: Julian, Romance Discourse, and the Masculine.” Julian of Norwich: A Book of Essays. Ed. Sandra J. McEntire. New York: Garland Press, 1998: 183-206.
- “The Restorative Function of Teacher Institutes; or, ‘When You Call Me That, Smile.’” Silver Anniversary Anthology: Twenty-Five Years of the South Dakota Humanities Council, 1972-1997. Ed. Thomas J. Gasque. Brookings, SD: South Dakota Humanities Council, 1997.
- “Plowing through the Fair Field: Teaching Piers Plowman.” Proceedings of the Fifth Dakotas/Nebraska Conference on Earlier British Literature. Ed. Phillip J. Hanse. Jamestown, ND: Jamestown College, 1997. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL1997.pdf?ver=1681693301349
- “The Literary Lineage of Lady Dalila.” Proceedings of the Fourth Dakotas-Nebraska Conference on Early British Literature. Ed. Bill Clemente and Mary Mokris. Peru, NE: Peru State College, 1996. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL1996.pdf?ver=1681693301349
- “Images of the Self and Self Image in Julian of Norwich.” Studia Mystica 16 [n.s. 1] (1995): 82-105.
- “Julian of Norwich and the Nominalist Questions.” Literary Nominalism and the Theory of Rereading Late Medieval Texts. Ed. Richard Utz. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1995. 31-50.
- “The Pardoner’s Tale and the Parody of the Resurrection.” Proceedings of the Third Dakotas Conference on Earlier British Literature. Ed. Bruce E. Brandt. Brookings, SD: SDSU English Department, 1995. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL1995.pdf?ver=1681693301349
- “Language of the Self in Julian of Norwich.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 9 (1994): 231-45.
- “A Mystic in Brit Lit I.” Proceedings of the Second Dakotas Conference on Early British Literature. E. John H. Laflin. Aberdeen, SD: NSU Press, 1994. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1c805541-8841-4d61-8e2c-a3a1452196af/downloads/NPCEBL1994.pdf?ver=1681693301349
- “Nature and Grace in Julian of Norwich.” Mystics Quarterly 19 (1993): 71-81.
- “Milton’s Sonnet 18 and the Psalms.” Milton Quarterly 26 (October 1992): 80-81.
- “Teaching the ‘Hoole’ Tradition through Parallel Passages.” Approaches to Teaching Arthurian Tradition. Ed. Maureen Fries and Jeanie Watson. New York: MLA, 1992. 73-76.
- “‘My Spirit Hath His Fostryng in the Bible’: The Summoner’s Tale and the Holy Spirit.” Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in the Canterbury Tales. Ed. Susanna Greer Fein, David Raybin, and Peter Braeger. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991. 125-48.
- “‘Womanly Noblesse’ and the Psychology of Love.” In Geardagum 12 (1991): 15-34.
- “Back to the Future as Quintessential Comedy.” Literature/Film Quarterly 19 (1991): 127-33.
- “‘In Meetre in Many a Sundry Wyse’: Fortune’s Wheel and The Monk’s Tale.” English Language Notes 26 (1989): 6-11.
- “Natural Law and Chaucer’s ‘Physician’s Tale’.” Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 9 (1988): 29-45.
- “Chaucer and Nominalism: The ‘Envoy to Bukton’.” Mediaevalia 10 (1984 [pub. 1988]): 199-212.
- “The Writer’s Audience: An Exploration of ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.’” Wisconsin English Journal 9 (1987): 1-9.
- “Chaucer’s Envoy to Scogan: ‘Tullius’ Kyndenesse’ and the Law of Kynde.” Chaucer Review 19 (1986): 323-30.
- “A Note on Chaucer’s ‘Fortune’.” Explicator 43 (1984): 8-9.
- “Thomas Berger’s Arthur Rex: Galahad and Earthly Power.” Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 25 (1984): 92-100.
- “Chaucer’s ‘Complaint to His Purse’.” Explicator 41 (1983): 5-6.
- “Against Women Unconstant: The Case for Chaucer’s Authorship.” Modern Philology 80 (1982): 161-64.
- “Teaching the ‘Medieval World’ in the Modern Industrial Society.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 9 (Spring 1982): 6.
- “Herbert’s Sinnes Round’.” Explicator 34 (1976): no. 35.
- “Gardner’s Grendel and Beowulf: Humanizing the Monster.” Thoth 14 (1974): 3-17.
Reference Articles
- Entries on “Envoy to Bukton,” “Envoy to Scogan,” “Lenten is come with love to toun,” “Mum and the Sothsegger,” “The Owl and the Nightingale,” “Pierce the Plowman’s Creed,” In The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry before 1600. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. New York: Facts on File, 2008. 164-65; 246-47; 282-83; 302-03; 319-20;
- “John Gower.” Critical Survey of Poetry. 8 vols. Washington, D.C.: Salem Press, 1982. III, 1112-23.
- “William Langland.” Critical Survey of Poetry. 8 vols. Washington, D.C.: Salem Press, 1982. IV, 1646-55.
- “Siegfried Sassoon.” Critical Survey of Poetry. 8 vols. Washington, D.C.: Salem Press, 1982. VI, 2466-75.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
- “Hildegard’s Synagoga: The Kinder, Gentler Eschatological Jew.” 46th Southeastern Medieval Association Annual Conference, Birmingham, AL, November 2022. https://www.academia.edu/118924101/The_Body_of_Hildegards_Synagoga_The_Kinder_Gentler_Eschatological_Jew_1
- “Hans Memling’s Saint Ursula Shrine.” 44th Southeastern Medieval Association Annual Conference, Greensboro, NC, November 16, 2019. https://www.academia.edu/122673444/_Hans_Memlings_Saint_Ursula_Shrine_
- “How to Read a Synagogue: The Altneushul of Prague.” 43rd Southeastern Medieval Association Annual Conference, Nassau, Bahamas, November 8, 2018.
- “The Green Knight and the Beheading Game.” Reading from a Novel in Progress. 15th International Conference on the Short Story in English. Lisbon, Portugal, July 2018.
- “The Knight of the Cart.” Reading from a Novel in Progress. 44th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Philological Association, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 2017.
- “The Grail, or Something Like It.” Reading from a Novel in Progress. 43rd Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Philological Association, Heber Springs, Arkansas, October 2016.
- “Short Story as Fairy-Story: Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major.” 14th International Conference on the Short Story in English. Shanghai, China, July 13, 2016.
- “Troilus’ Hymn in Book III: Before the Wheel Turns Down.” 24th Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, Brookings, SD, April 15, 2016.
- “Paradiso 25-26: The Meaning of Dante’s Blindness.” 40th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference. North Little Rock, Arkansas, October 22-24, 2015.
- “‘I’m a Popularizer’: Rescuing Gardner’s Life and Times of Chaucer.” 39th Southeast Medieval Association convention. Atlanta, Georgia, October 2014.
- “‘Never Built at All, and Therefore Built Forever’: Camelot and the World of P.G. Wodehouse.” 13th International Conference on the Short Story in English. Vienna, Austria, July 16-19, 2014.
- “Bleak and Empty is the Sea.” Reading from a Novel in Progress. 40th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Philological Association, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 18, 2013.
- “‘Praying for the End of Time’: Lancelot as Meat Loaf in Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur.” 38th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference. Boone, North Carolina, October 3-5, 2013.
- “Terry Pratchett’s The Last Continent and the Nominalist Questions.” 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2013.
- “The N-Town Joachim and Anne and the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.” 37th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference. Gulfport, Mississippi, October 20, 2012.
- “Tim O’Brien as Grail Knight: ‘On the Rainy River’.” 12th International Conference on the Short Story in English. Little Rock, Arkansas, June 27-30, 2012.
- “Anne of Bohemia and the Making of Europe.” Plenary Address at the 20th Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Aberdeen, South Dakota, April 14, 2012.
- “The F and G Prologues Again: Is the Balade a Clue?” 36th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference. Decatur, Georgia, October 13, 2011.
- “The Quest.” Reading from a Novel in Progress. 38th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Philological Association, Conway, Arkansas, October 6-7, 2011.
- “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (2009): What Tolkien Did to the Legend, and What the Legend Did to Him.” 35th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference. Roanoke, Virginia, November 18-20, 2010.
- “‘Leaf by Niggle’: Tolkien, Dante, and Christian Purgatory.” 34th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, October 15-17, 2009.
- “The Voice of Saruman: Wizards and Rhetoric in The Two Towers.” 36th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Philological Association, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, October 8-10, 2009.
- “Chaucer, Dante, and the Resurrection of the Body.” 33rd Southeast Medieval Association Annual Convention, St. Louis, Missouri, October 2008.
- “Dante and the Jews.” Eighth Conference on Teaching the Middle Ages, Vogogna, Italy, May 13-15, 2008.
- “‘A Great Flash of Understanding’: The End of Dante’s Quest.” South Central Modern Language Association Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, November 1-3, 2007.
- “Trajan, Ripheus, Cato, Virgil? Strangers in Paradise.” 32nd Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference, Oxford, Mississippi, October 12-14, 2006.
- “Spinning Tales: The Practice of PR and the Canterbury Pilgrims.” 31st Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference, Daytona Beach, Florida, September 29-October 1, 2005. [with Stacey Jones]
- “The Jews in the Chester Play of Antichrist.” Fifth Conference on Teaching the Middle Ages, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2005.
- “Female Personae and Women Writers: Chaucer and the Findern Manuscript.” 30th Southeast Medieval Association Annual Conference, College of Charleston, South Carolina, October 2004.
- “Julian of Norwich and Piers Plowman: The Allegory of the Incarnation and Universal Salvation.” Fourth Conference on Teaching the Middle Ages, Kennesaw State University, Georgia, April 2004.
- “Blinded by the Light: Troilus’ Dawn Song and Christian Tradition.” 11th Annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, Minot State University, Minot, ND, April 2003.
- “Declaiming Chaucer to a Field of Cows: Three Twentieth-Century Views of the Poet.” Tenth Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, April 2002.
- “What Chaucer Really Did to Petrarch’s Sonnet 132.” Ninth Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD, April 2001.
- “Medieval Woman Writing Medieval Woman: Christine de Pizan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc.” Eighth Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, April 2000.
- “The Structure of Piers Plowman B.XI.” Thirty-Third International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1998.
- “Plowing through the Fair Field: Teaching Piers Plowman.” Fifth Dakotas/Nebraska Conference on Earlier British Literature. Jamestown College, Jamestown ND, April 1997.
- “Negotiated Connections: Teaching Langland with Chaucer.” Part of panel presentation at New Chaucer Society Convention, Los Angeles, California, August 1996.
- “‘I Wolde for Thy Love Die’: Julian, Romance Discourse, and the Masculine.” Thirty-First International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1996.
- “The Literary Lineage of Lady Dalila.” Fourth Dakotas-Nebraska Conference on Early British Literature, Peru State College, Peru, NE, April 1996.
- “The Pardoner’s Tale and the Parody of the Resurrection.” Third Dakotas Conference on Earlier British Literature, Brookings, SD, April 1995.
- “Teaching and Technology.” Part of panel presentation at ADE Convention in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, July 1994.
- “A Mystic in Brit Lit I.” Second Dakotas Conference on Early British Literature. Dakota State University, Madison, SD, April 1994.
- “Chaucer on the Prairie.” Part of panel presentation at New Chaucer Society Convention, Seattle, Washington, August 1992.
- “Representation of the Self in Julian of Norwich.” Eighth Biennial New College Conference on Medieval-Renaissance Studies, Sarasota, Florida, March 1992.
- “Nature and Grace in Julian of Norwich.” Midwest MLA Convention, Chicago, Illinois, November 1991.
- “‘The Summoner’s Tale’ and Abraham’s Children.” Eleventh Medieval Forum, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, New Hampshire, April 1990.
- “Chaucer’s Virginia and Natural Law.” Twenty-Third International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1988.
- “Teaching Arthurian Tradition through Parallel Passages.” Conference on Teaching the Middle Ages, Emporia State College, Emporia, Kansas, March 1986.
- “The Birds’ Song as Key to the Parliament of Fowles.” Sixth International Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference, Villanova University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 1981.
- “Chaucer’s Envoy to Scogan: ‘Tullius Kyndenesse’ and the Law of Kynde.” Sixteenth International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1981.
- “Reading, Perceiving, and Anelida and Arcite.” Thirteenth International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1978.
GRANTS
- UCA Foundation Grant to help fund plenary speakers for Southeast Medieval Association conference sponsored by UCA in North Little Rock, October 2015. ($3000 funded).
- Confucius Institute grant to fund Stephen Owen to speak at UCA and at SEMA conference in October 2015. ($2000 funded).
- UCA University Research Council grant to fund Graduate Assistant for editing of Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, summer and fall semesters 2004 ($4480 funded)
- Small grant from South Dakota Humanities Council to direct Seventh Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, April 1999 (ca. $2000 funded)
- South Dakota Humanities Council grant to co-direct summer institute on “Women’s Literary Legacy: Early Women Writers,” for secondary school teachers, summer 1998. ($12,600 funded)
- National Endowment for the Humanities grant to direct a four-week institute for secondary school teachers on “Literature of the Plains Indians,” June 6-July 1, 1994. ($85,000 funded)
- South Dakota Humanities Council grant to direct Annual Humanities Conference, entitled “Cultural Diversity: A Humanities Perspective,” in Aberdeen in October, 1993. ($19,000 funded)
- South Dakota Humanities Council grant to direct summer institute on “The Columbian Legacy: A Meeting of Cultures,” for secondary school teachers, summer 1992. ($12,600 funded)
- Small grant from South Dakota Humanities Council to direct First Dakotas Conference on Early British Literature, April 1992.
- South Dakota Humanities Council grant to direct summer institute on “King Arthur: The Enduring Legend,” for secondary school teachers, summer 1990. ($13,000 funded)
- National Endowment for the Humanities grant to direct Canterbury Tales institute for secondary school teachers, summer 1989. ($62,000 funded)
- Induction into Washington Park High School Hall of Fame, June 2018.
- Selected as “Outstanding Alumnus” for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, May 2016.
- Selected as participant in NEH institute on “Jews in Medieval Christendom,” Oxford University, summer 2003.
- Selected as participant in NEH institute on “Chaucer and Langland,” University of Colorado, summer 1995.
- Outstanding Faculty Member Award, Northern State University, 1989.
- Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award, Northern State University, 1989.
- Selected as participant in six-week NEH Institute on “John Milton,” University of Arizona, summer 1988.
- Selected as participant in six-week NEH Institute on “The Canterbury Tales,” University of Connecticut, summer 1987.