Dr. Brandon Hawk

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Department, Office, or School
Department of English
  • Professor

With a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Connecticut (2014), I joined the RIC English Department in 2015. My fields of expertise are Old and Middle English, Old Norse, history of the English language, digital humanities, the Bible as/in literature, translation, and the history of the book. Most of my interests in research and teaching encompass what might be called transmission studies: the afterlives of texts, including circulation, translations, adaptations, and representations in various cultures and media.

My first book, , was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2018, and my second book, , was published by Cascade Books in 2019. In 2021, I published with Rockridge Press.

I also work on pop culture uses of the Middle Ages and religion. I’ve written a variety of pieces for my website, , Forces of Geek, the , and . I’ve especially focused some of this work on . I’ve recently collaborated with Dot Porter at the University of Pennsylvania on a –all about the connections between Star Wars and medieval manuscripts. You can see , and you can find .

You can learn more about me on my website and blog about teaching and research at .

Education

  • B.A., Houghton College
  • M.A., University of Connecticut
  • Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Selected Publications

  • “Biblical Apocrypha as Medieval World Literature,” The Medieval Globe 6.2 (2020): 49-83.
  • “Versions of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew in Early England,” Philological Quarterly 99 (2020): 245-67.
  • “Apocrypha and Fictionality,” invited contribution to a ,” New Literary History 51 (2020): 253-57.
  • “A History of the Study of Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England,” forthcoming in Bulletin for the Study of Religion.
  • “Modelling Medieval Hands: Practical OCR for Caroline Minuscule,” co-authored with Antonia Karaisl and Nick White, forthcoming in .
  • “Prosthesis: From Grammar to Medicine in the Earliest History of the Word,”&Բ;Disability Studies Quarterly 38.4 (2018)
  • “T&Բ;Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the Rule of the Master, and the Rule of Benedict,”&Բ;Revue Bénédictine 128.2 (2018): 281-93.
  • “T&Բ;Fifteen Signs before Judgment in Anglo-Saxon England: A Reassessment,”&Բ;JEGP 117 (2018): 443-57.
  • “The Literary Contexts and Early Transmission of the Latin Life of Judas,”&Բ;Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 44 (2018): 60-76.
  • “Ælfric’s Genesis and Bede’s Commentarius in Genesim,”&Բ;Medium Ævum 85 (2016): 208-16.
  • “Psalm 151 in Anglo-Saxon England,”&Բ;Review of English Studies n.s. 66 (2015): 805-21. 

Books

  • The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary, Early Christian Apocrypha Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, forthcoming).
  • Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England, Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 30 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018).​
  • Apocrypha for Beginners: A Guide to Understanding and Exploring Scriptures Beyond the Bible (Emeryville, CA: Rockridge Press, 2021).

Courses

  • ENGL 120 Studies in Literature and Identity
  • ENGL 121 Studies in Literature and Nation
  • ENGL 122 Studies in Literature and the Canon
  • ENGL 123 Studies in Literature and Genre
  • ENGL 200 Reading Literature and Culture
  • ENGL 205 British Literature to 1700
  • ENGL 347 Literatures of Medieval Britain
  • ENGL 345 Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies
  • ENGL 346 Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances
  • ENGL 432 Studies in the English Language
  • ENGL 460 Seminar in Major Authors & Themes: Medieval Multimedia
  • ENGL 501 Introduction to Graduate Study
  • ENGL 530 Topics in British Literature before 1660: Medieval Multimedia