College of Arts and Humanities
Melissa Elmes
Melissa Ridley Elmes
Professor, English
McCluer Hall 118
(636) 627-2506
[email protected]
Biographical Information
Dr. Melissa Ridley Elmes (B.A., French, The College of William and Mary; ; M.A., English, Longwood University; MFA, Creative Writing, Lindenwood University; Ph.D., English, University of North Carolina Greensboro) is an interdisciplinary literary historian of the medieval period, with particular emphasis on the 10-15th-century Northern European and British Isles literatures and cultures, including Old/Middle English, Welsh, Irish, Anglo-Norman, and Old Norse/Icelandic. She is an award-winning instructor as well as a high-profile scholar, with recent articles in糖心vlog视频疉rthuriana, Year糖心vlog视频檚 Work in Medievalism, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium,糖心vlog视频疢odern Philology and Medieval Feminist Forum, an edited collection of essays on the fairy Melusine (Brill, 2017) a volume of essays on糖心vlog视频疐ood and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales糖心vlog视频�(Routledge, 2021) and an edited collection on Ethics in the Arthurian Legend (D.S. Brewer, 2023). Dr. Elmes is also a writer of poetry and fiction, and the author of糖心vlog视频痶wo books of poetry: Arthurian Things: A Collection of Poems糖心vlog视频�(Dark Myth Publications, 2020) and Dreamscapes and Dark Corners (Alien Buddha Press 2023); her creative work has garnered nominations for the Pushcart Prize and the Science Fiction Poetry Association糖心vlog视频檚 Elgin, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star awards for speculative poetry. She serves on the advisory boards of several scholarly presses and organizations including Medieval Institute Publications糖心vlog视频� Monsters, Prodigies, and Demons series, the International Arthurian Society North American Branch, and the Southeastern Medieval Association.
Academic & Research Interests
- Literatures and cultures of the Medieval British Isles and Scandinavia
- Medievalism in popular culture
- Women糖心vlog视频檚 and gender studies
- The Arthurian legend
- Robin Hood/ outlawry
- Intersections of gender, violence, and the law
- Monsters and monstrosity
- Alchemy, magic, and esoterica
- Mythology and folklore
- Poetry and poetics
- Fantasy and science fiction
- Critical/creative hybrid writing
- Pedagogy
Courses Taught
Dr. Elmes has taught the following courses:
- Senior Capstone in English Studies
- English Studies Internship
- History of the English Language
- Medieval Afterlives: Modern Receptions of the Medieval
- Medieval Afterlives糖心vlog视频擬edieval Women
- Early Modern Literature
- Medieval Literature: 糖心vlog视频淰iolence and Trauma, Beowulf to Malory糖心vlog视频�
- Medieval Literature: poetry and poetics
- Chaucer
- Mythology and Folklore
- The Arthurian Legend
- Viking Literature
- Celtic Literature (taught face-to-face and online)
- British Literature: Fact, Fiction and Everything In-Between
- The Medieval World
- World Literature to 1500: Faith, War, Traveling, Memory and Commemoration
- Writing for Game Design
- Research and Argumentation/ Composition II
- Global Introduction to Gender Studies
- Applied Interdisciplinary Studies Tutorial/ Internship
- Freshman Seminar: The Global Arthurian Legend
Publications
Publications
Select Publications
- Edited Collections
- 2023 Ethics in the Arthurian Legend. Eds. Melissa Ridley Elmes and Evelyn Meyer. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer.
- 2021 Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales. Eds. Melissa Ridley Elmes and Kristin Bovaird – Abbo. New York: Routledge Press. Reviewed in: Robin Hood Scholars: IARHS on the Web
- 2017 Melusine糖心vlog视频檚 Footprint: Tracing the Legacy of a Medieval Myth. Eds. Misty Urban, Deva Kemmis, and Melissa Ridley Elmes. Leiden: Brill. Reviewed in: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Preternature, Mediaevistik, Medieval Feminist Forum.
- Poetry collections
- 2023 Dreamscapes and Dark Corners. Alien Buddha Press.
- 2020 Arthurian Things: A Collection of Poems. Apple Valley: Dark Myth Publications.
- Peer-reviewed journal articles
- 2025 糖心vlog视频淪ociety for Medieval Feminist Scholarship and Medieval Studies: Our Institutions, Our Selves; Our Past, and Our Future.糖心vlog视频� With Nicole Lopez Jantzen. Speculum 100/1 (January 2025): 79-118.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淲omen Reading and Women Writing and Men Writing Women Who Read and Write: (Re-) Considering Women’s Literate Practices and the Ethics of Women’s Literacy in Malory’s Morte Darthur.糖心vlog视频� Arthuriana 33.2: 84糖心vlog视频�103.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淲hen the Digital Generation Isn糖心vlog视频檛: Pivoting Online with Traditional Campus Students.糖心vlog视频� Year糖心vlog视频檚 Work in Medievalism 35.36 (2020/21): 11糖心vlog视频�26.
- Refereed book chapters
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淭eaching Beowulf as a Cultural Reliquary,糖心vlog视频� in Practical Approaches to Teaching Beowulf, eds. Larry Swain and Ophelia Erynn Hostetter. De Gruyter, 207-219.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淎rthurian Ethics Before the Pentecostal Oath: In Search of Ethical Origins in the Welsh Culhwch and Olwen.糖心vlog视频� Ethics in the Arthurian Legend. Eds. Melissa Ridley Elmes and Evelyn Meyer. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 8糖心vlog视频�34.
- 2022 糖心vlog视频淔emale Friendship in Late-Medieval English Literature: Cultural Translation in Chaucer, Gower, and Malory.糖心vlog视频� Women糖心vlog视频檚 Friendship in Medieval Literature. Eds. Karma Lochrie and Usha Vishnuvajjala. Ohio State University Press, 135糖心vlog视频�54.
- Introductions
- 2020 糖心vlog视频淚ntroduction to Special Issue: MEARCSTAPA: Ten Years of Teratology.糖心vlog视频� With Asa Simon Mittman and Thea Tomaini. Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 9.1: 1糖心vlog视频�10.
- 2019 糖心vlog视频淓ditor糖心vlog视频檚 Note: New Feminist Voices in the Heroic Age.糖心vlog视频� With Carla Mar铆a Thomas. The Heroic Age 19.
- Anthologized Poems
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淒ream Visions.糖心vlog视频� 2024 Rhysling Anthology, 68糖心vlog视频�70.
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淎dventures in the Dark of the Mind.糖心vlog视频� Best of Penumbric, vol. vii.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淣ever Was a Princess Girl.糖心vlog视频� Dwarf Stars 2023 Anthology, 18.
- Poetry Editing
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淥utlaws糖心vlog视频� issue of Eye to the Telescope. October.
- Poetry
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淚ntergalactic Renthead.糖心vlog视频� Star*Line 47.1: 15.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淢usings from the Wet Season.糖心vlog视频� Belmont Story Review 8: 87.
- 2022 糖心vlog视频淒ragons and Drams.糖心vlog视频� Liquid Imagination, June. Reprinted in Dreamscapes and Dark Corners
- Anthologized Stories
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淎 Mnemosurgeon糖心vlog视频檚 Tale.糖心vlog视频� Hexagon Year Four Anthology, 167-176.
- 2022 糖心vlog视频淭he Haunted and The Possessed.糖心vlog视频� Unwelcomed: Stories of Hauntings and Possessions, ed. Stephanie J. Bardy (Zombie Works Publications), 45-54.
- 2020 糖心vlog视频淒r. Watson and the Werewolf.糖心vlog视频� Full Moon and Howlin糖心vlog视频�: A Werewolf Anthology, ed. Stephanie J. Bardy (Zombieworks Press), 101糖心vlog视频�142.
- Fiction
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淭hread of Indignity.糖心vlog视频� DarkWinter Literary Magazine. June 15.
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淐ome Hell or Highwater.糖心vlog视频� Oxford Magazine 52.
- 2024 糖心vlog视频淎 Mnemosurgeon糖心vlog视频檚 Tale.糖心vlog视频� Hexagon 16 (March), 5糖心vlog视频�14.
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淎 Sunbathing Frog My Heart糖心vlog视频檚 Gravestone.糖心vlog视频� Black Fork Review 9.
- Creative Nonfiction and Craft Essays
- 2023 糖心vlog视频淒ark and Twisty with a Side of Optimism.糖心vlog视频� Miracle Monocle 20.
- 2022 糖心vlog视频淵ard Sale.糖心vlog视频� Sheepshead Review 45.1: 113糖心vlog视频�114.
- 2022 糖心vlog视频淢ay 22, 2012.糖心vlog视频� Past Ten.
- 2021 糖心vlog视频淭he Art (and Heart) of Arthurian Things: A Craft Essay.糖心vlog视频� The Year糖心vlog视频檚 Work in Medievalism 34 (2019; published 2021): 77糖心vlog视频�89.