Em Kightley

Em Kightley
  • Faculty
  • Associate Professor of English

Biography

Em Kightley joined the faculty in 2014, after five years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds a B.Sc. in Human Biology (the University of Toronto), as well as an M.A. in English (Queen's University, Kingston) and a Ph.D. in English (the University of Western Ontario). Dr. Kightley's research has two main focuses: medieval English literature and medievalism (the study of modern re-imaginings of the medieval period). She is particularly interested in representations of racial, ethnic, familial, and other communities within these various literatures. She has published articles on Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, Charles Kingsley, William Morris, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Education

M.A., Queen's University (Kingston), 2001
PhD., University of Western Ontario, 2009

Student Research/Collaboration

  • Old English language and literature
  • Victorian medievalism (especially romances and translations)
  • Middle English language and literature
  • Old Norse/Icelandic literature
  • Fantasy fiction, 
  • The history of the English language, translation and adaptation
  • Queer theory.

Publications

  • 鈥淩epetition, Class, and the Unnamed Speakers in Beowulf.鈥 Literary Speech Acts of the Medieval North: Essays Inspired by the Works of Thomas A. Shippey. Eds. Eric Shane Bryan and Alexander Vaughan Ames. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2020. 141-56.
  • 鈥淭he Brothers of Beowulf : Fraternal Tensions and the Reticent Style.鈥 ELH 83 (2016): 407鈥29.
  • 鈥淪ocialism and Translation: The Folks of William Morris's Beowulf .鈥 Studies in Medievalism 23 (2014): 167-88.
  • 鈥淗ereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism.鈥 Studies in Medievalism 21 (2012): 89-118.
  • 鈥淐ommunal Interdependence in The Battle of Maldon .鈥 Studia Neophilologica 82 (2010): 58-68.
  • 鈥淩einterpreting Threats to Face: The Use of Politeness in Beowulf , ll. 407-472.鈥 Neophilologus 93 (2009): 511-20.
  • 鈥淗eorot or Meduseld?: Tolkien's Use of Beowulf in 鈥楾he King of the Golden Hall.'鈥 Mythlore 24.3-4 (2006): 119-34.