Alastair Minnis, Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English, Yale University
Minnis is a scholar of Chaucer and his intellectual milieu, late-medieval literature, medieval literary theory, the medieval study of the Bible and classical literature (including Boethius), and scholasticism and its vernacular intersections. His research combines literary criticism and the history of ideas, as well as medieval philosophy and theology.
Minnis has been the general editor of Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature since its inception in 1986. He has also served as co-general editor of Publications of the John Gower Society. In 1994, he was awarded the John H. Fisher Award for significant contribution to the field of John Gower studies. His most recent monograph, Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
A short reception will follow the lecture.
Every year, the graduate students of the Medieval Institute host a lecture, and Professor Minnis is this year’s invitee.