Contact
| Dept: | English |
| Email: | syager@iastate.edu |
| Office: | 329 Ross 527 Farm House Ln. Ames IA 50011-1054 |
| Phone: | 515-294-2180 |
| Office Hours: | MW 1-3 |
Bio
Courses I’ll Teach in 2019-20
Engl 393: History of Children’s Literature
Engl 531: Allegory
Engl 373: Studies in Medieval Literature
Courses I sometimes teach—Engl 250H, Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition: Honors; Engl 260, Introduction to Literary Study; Engl 420 History of English; Engl 523 Introduction to Old English Language and Literature, as well as graduate and undergraduate Chaucer.
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
B.A., M.A., Catholic University
Research Areas
Chaucer
Medievalism
Pedagogy
About my teaching
Chaucer was a required course at my undergraduate institution. I fell in love with medieval literature and never looked back. My interest in pedagogy increased during the nine years I served as Associate Director of Iowa State’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and continued to grow as I worked as Faculty Director of the ISU Honors Program. I strive to keep scholarly teaching at the core of all I do, and hope to continue learning about teaching – especially about computers as an aid to literary study and pedagogy – throughout my career.
Current Research
Although I’m a medievalist, I’m interested in children’s literature and topics in higher education as well as in Chaucer’s language and poetry, medieval studies pedagogy, and medievalism. Other interests include humor in literature, the rewriting or remaking of earlier works, and publications from the Second World War.
Recent Publications
I recently wrote two chapters for Critical Insights: Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. James M. Dean (Salem/Grey House, 2017), and a personal memoir, “A Teacher’s Teacher,” for “A Wilderness of Dragons”: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger (The Gabbro Head, 2018).
As faculty director of Iowa State’s Honors Program, I published on effective ways to teach high-ability students on the autism spectrum and on teaching the Harry Potter series to Honors students. I also recently published on the editorial and pedagogical complexities of a Middle English lyric, “My lefe is faren in londe.” My current projects include a study of Chaucer’s presence and influence in the twentieth century and another essay on Harry Potter.
I co-edited Interpretation and Performance: Essays for Alan Gaylord (Chaucer Studio Press, 2013) and contributed to the second edition of MLA Approaches to Teaching Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, ed. Peter Travis and Frank Grady (MLA, 2014) as well as to Critical Insights: Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. James M. Dean (Salem/Grey House, 2017).