Susanna Fein

Susanna Fein, Professor Emerita of English, is a scholar of medieval literature with special interest in the history and range of Middle English texts and manuscripts, including Chaucer. In her teaching career at Kent State, 1985–2020, Prof. Fein served terms in the English Department as Chair, as Ph.D. in Literature Chair, and as Undergraduate Studies Coordinator. She also founded the A&S Minor in Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies (AMRS) in 2001 and served as its coordinator until 2021. In addition to her extensive record of publication, Prof. Fein has edited, since 2001, a quarterly academic journal, The Chaucer Review. http://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_chaucer.html.

In 2017, Prof. Fein received two of Kent State’s highest awards: the President’s Faculty Excellence Award and the Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award. In addition, her body of scholarship has been recognized by a festschrift of essays: Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein, edited by Michael Johnston, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, and Derek Pearsall (Berlin and Kalamzoo: De Gruyter and Medieval Institute Publications, 2023). Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England (degruyter.com).

Expertise

• Chaucer Studies
• Early Middle English (1100-1350)
• Late Middle English (1350-1500)
• Medieval English Manuscripts
• Medieval Lyric

Scholarly Editions

• The Owl and the Nightingale and the English Poems of Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2022. (Edition and translation) The Owl and the Nightingale and the English Poems of Jesus College MS 29 (II) edited and translated by Susanna Fein (isdistribution.com)
• The Roland and Otuel Romances and the Anglo-Norman Otinel. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019. (Edited with Elizabeth Melick and David Raybin) The Roland and Otuel Romances and the Anglo-Norman 'Otinel' edited by Elizabeth Melick, David Raybin and Susanna Fein (isdistribution.com)
• The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript in Three Volumes. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2014-15. (Edition and translation, with translational collaboration of David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski) Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, Volume 1, The | Robbins Library Digital Projects (rochester.edu)
• Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, Volume 2, The | Robbins Library Digital Projects (rochester.edu)
• Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, Volume 3, The | Robbins Library Digital Projects (rochester.edu)
• John the Blind Audelay, Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302). Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2009. Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302) by John the Blind Audelay, edited by Susanna Fein (isdistribution.com)
• Moral Love Songs and Laments. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1998. Moral Love Songs and Laments | Robbins Library Digital Projects (rochester.edu)

Essay Collections on Chaucer

• Chaucer: Visual Approaches. University Park: Penn State UP, 2016. (Edited with David Raybin) Chaucer: Visual Approaches Edited by Susanna Fein and David Raybin (psupress.org)
• Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. University Park: Penn State UP, 2009. (Edited with David Raybin) Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches Edited by Susanna Fein and David Raybin (psupress.org)
• Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991. (Edited with David Raybin and Peter C. Braeger)

Essay Collections on Manuscripts and Texts

• Interpreting Manuscript Digby 86: A Trilingual Book from Thirteenth-Century Worcestershire. MS Culture of the British Isles 9, York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2019. Book Details - Boydell and Brewer
• The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. MS Culture of the British Isles 7. York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2016. Book Details - Boydell and Brewer
• Robert Thornton and His Books: Essays on the Lincoln and London Manuscripts. MS Culture of the British Isles 5. York Medieval Press. Woodbridge UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2014. (Edited with Michael Johnston) Book Details - Boydell and Brewer
• My Wyl and My Wrytyng: Essays on John the Blind Audelay. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2009.
• Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, and Social Contexts of British Library MS Harley 2253. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000.

Select Articles and Chapters

• “Proportion, Perspective, and Number in The Parlement of the Thre Ages.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123 (2024): 185-214.
• “Secular Poetry.” In The Oxford History of English Poetry in English, Vol. 2: Medieval Poetry 1100-1400. Ed. Helen Cooper and Robert R. Edwards. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 274-93.
• “Satire, Performance, and English Rustic Comedy in Harley 2253.” Chaucer Review 58 (2023): 361-74.
• “The Royal Associations of Thomas of Hales’s Love Rune and Oxford, Jesus College MS 29 (II).” Early Middle English 5 (2022): 1-29.
• “When Holy Church Is Under Foot: A Precursor to The Simonie in Oxford Jesus College MS 29.” Medium Ævum 91(2022): 10-27.
• “Reading Dreams, Casting the Future, and Other Learned Mirths: The Harley Scribe as Proto-

Chaucerian Clerk.” In Writers, Editors, and Exemplars in Medieval English Texts. Ed. Sharon Rowley. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. Pp. 15-41.

• “Early Middle English in Trilingual Manuscripts: Eruptions, Collisions, Colloquies.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser. 14 (2017): 33-68.
• “Standing Under the Cross in the Pardoner’s and Shipman’s Tales.” In Chaucer: Visual Approaches. Ed. Susanna Fein and David Raybin. University Park: Penn State UP, 2016. Pp. 115-38.
• “The ‘Thyng Wommen Loven Moost’: The Wife of Bath’s Fabliau Answer.” In Medieval Women and Their Objects. Ed. Jenny Adams and Nancy Mason Bradbury. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 2016. Pp. 15-38.
• “The Harley Scribe’s Early Career: New Evidence of a Scribal Partnership in MS Harley 273.” Journal of the Early Book Society 19 (2016): 1-30.
• “Literary Scribes: The Harley Scribe and Robert Thornton as Case Studies.” In Insular Books: Vernacular Manuscript Miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain. Ed. Margaret Connolly and Raluca Radulescu. Proceedings of the British Academy 201. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015. Pp. 61-79.
• “Of Judges and Jewelers: Pearl and the Life of Saint John.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 36 (2014): 41-76.
• “The Four Scribes of MS Harley 2253.” Journal of the Early Book Society 16 (2013): 27-53.
• “Mary to Veronica: John Audelay’s Sequence of Salutations to God-Bearing Women.” Speculum 86 (2011): 964-1009.
• “The Epistemology of Titles in Editing Whole-Manuscript Anthologies: The Lyric Sequence, in Particular.” Poetica 71 (2008): 49-74.
• “The Lyrics of MS Harley 2253.” In A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500. Vol. ii. Ed. Peter G. Beidler. New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005. Pp. 4168-4206, 4311-4361.
• “Life and Death, Reader and Page: Mirrors of Mortality in English Manuscripts.” Mosaic 35 (2002): 69-94.
• “Twelve-Line Stanza Forms in Middle English and the Date of Pearl.” Speculum 72 (1997): 367-98.

Affiliations

              Early Book Society

              International Piers Plowman Society

              John Gower Society

              Medieval Academy of America

              New Chaucer Society

Editorial Positions

              Editor, The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism

              Associate Editor, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series

Editorial Boards

              Early Middle English (term completed)

             Journal of the Early Book Society (ongoing)

              Mediaevistik: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Medieval Research (ongoing)

              Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies (term completed)

              Kent State University Press (term completed)

Advisory Boards

               Archive of Early Middle English (term completed)

               KSU Foundation, Board of Trustees (term completed)

               New Chaucer Society, Trustee (term completed)

               Teaching Association for Medieval Studies (TEAMS) (term completed)