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William Joseph Taylor
Professor of English
Co-editor, Exemplaria: Medieval and Early Modern Theory (Taylor and Francis)
Director, UAH Humanities Center
Address:
Department of English
University of Alabama in Huntsville
E-mail: wjt0003@uah.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/uah.edu/joseph-taylor/home
Education
PhD, Medieval and Renaissance Literature, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (2009)
M.A., English Literature, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA (2004)
B.A., English, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA (1999)
B.A., History, Virginia Tech (1999)
Research
Published Books
Writing the North of England in the Middle Ages: Regionalism and Nationalism in Medieval English Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 280 pages.
reviews (thus far) in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Arthuriana, Choice
As co-editor with Randy P. Schiff (SUNY-Buffalo), The Politics of Ecology: Land, Life and Law in Medieval Britain. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2016. 303 pages.
reviews in The Medieval Review ; Medieval Feminist Forum ; Exemplaria ; JEGP
Published Peer Reviewed Articles and Essays
“Medieval Ruin Consciousness: Saint Erkenwald and the Politics of Decay,” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 47 (2025): 135-165.
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land": Loving the Refugee as Neighbor in the Canterbury Tales and Refugee Tales." Exemplaria 32, no. 3 (2020): 248-68.
“Quiet Riot: A Politics of Noise in the Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer Review 53, no. 2 (2018): 178-93.
“Arthurian Biopolitics: Sovereignty and Ecology in Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 59, no. 2 (2017): 182-208. Winner of the Tony Hilfer Prize for best TSLL essay in 2017
"Sovereign Ecologies: Securing the Royal Flesh in Anglo-Norman Historiography" in The Politics of Ecology: Land, Life, and Law in Medieval Britain. Eds. Randy P. Schiff and Joseph Taylor, 179-209. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2016.
with Randy P. Schiff, "Introduction: The Politics of Ecology" in The Politics of Ecology: Land, Life, and Law in Medieval Britain. Eds. Randy P. Schiff and Joseph Taylor, 1-30. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2016.
"Sovereignty, Oath, and the Profane Life in the Avowing of Arthur," Exemplaria 25, no. 1 (2013): 36-58.
“‘Me longeth sore to Bernysdale’: Centralization, Resistance and the Bare Life of the Greenwood in A Gest of Robyn Hode," Modern Philology 110, no. 3 (2013): 313-339.
"Chaucer's Uncanny Regionalism: Rereading the North in the Reeve's Tale," Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 109, no. 4 (2010): 468-489.
Published Book Reviews
Emily Dolmans. Writing Regional Identities in Medieval England: From “Gesta Herwardi” to “Richard Coer de Lyon.” Woodbridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2020. Speculum 97.4 (2022): 1183-1185.
Shawn Normandin. Chaucerian Ecopoetics: Deconstructing Anthropocentrism in the Canterbury Tales. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Studies in the Age of Chaucer 41 (2019): 391-95.
Susan Nakley. Living in the Future: Sovereignty and Internationalism in the Canterbury Tales. University of Michigan Press, 2017. Arthuriana 28.3 (2018): 117-18.
Lynn Staley, The Island Garden: England's Language of Nation from Gildas to Marvell. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 113.3 (2014): 382-85.
Timothy S. Jones, Outlawry in Medieval Literature. New York: Palgrave, 2010. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 112.2 (2013): 221-224.
Neil Cartlidge, ed. Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2012. The Medieval Review (2012)
Reference Publications
editor, The Canterbury Tales on Gale Primary Resources Collections Online (2026)
Journal Editing
co-editor, Exemplaria: Medieval and Early Modern Theory (Taylor and Francis) 2023-present
As issue-lead editor:
Issue 37, no 1 (Spring 2025), special issue on Trauma Theory in Medieval Studies
Issue 38, no 1 (Spring 2026), special issue on Janet Abu-Lughod’s 1999 study Before European Hegemony (“After Abu-Lughod”)
Scholarship In Progress
(invited chapter) with Coral Lumbley, “The Place of Medieval Gender and Sexuality Now,” in the Oxford Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Late Medieval English Literature, Edited by Holly Crocker. Oxford University Press (under contract for publication in 2027) (submitted)
(invited chapter) The Tale of Gamelyn for the Cambridge Companion to the Outlaw in Medieval England. Edited by Stephen Rigby and Elliot Kendall. Cambridge University Press (under contract, Feb 2026)
(article) “‘Where the Unsaid Goes Unspoken’: Translation As a Matter of Life and Death in the Legend of Good Women and Refugee Tales” [in preparation for submission]
(article) "Work Like the Devil: Loving Thy Neighbor in the Friar's Tale" [under revision and resubmission, 15,003 words]
(article) “Communing with the Dead in the Middle English St. Erkenwald and Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor” [in development]
(monograph) Fluid Spaces: A Politics of Ruins in Medieval England [in development]
Presentations and Conference Papers
Presenter: "Pride and Procession: Medievalism at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine." Biennial New Chaucer Society Conference. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. July 2026.
Panel Organizer: “Dolorous Strokes and Other Ecological Disasters.” Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. July 2026.
Presenter: “Are You Not Entertained?: Undulating Ethics in the Canterbury Tales.” Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Los Angeles, CA. July 2024.
Panel Respondent. “Into the Wild.” Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. March. 2024
Panel Organizer: "Deep Medieval Ecologies." Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. March 2023.
Panel Organizer: "Medieval Ecological Flows." Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. March 2023.
Presenter: “‘Roynyshe were þe resones’: St. Erkenwald and the Politics of Ruins.” Northeastern Medieval Association Conference on Medieval Ecologies. Colby College, ME. October 2022.
Presenter: "'Where the Unsaid Goes Unspoken': Language IS Life in the Legend of Good Women and Refugee Tales." Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Durham, UK. July 2021.
Panel Organizer: “Medieval Ecomaterialistm: Reading Ruins in Medieval Literature.” Biennial Conference for the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Davis, CA. June 2019.
Presenter: "A Coming Community: The Anglo-Scottish March in the Late Middle Ages." Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Toronto, Canada. July 2018.
Presenter: “A Political Theology of the Refugee as Neighbor.” International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI. May 2018.
Session Organizer. Borders of Perception. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. March 2017.
Presenter: “Quiet Riot: Sound Studies and Chaucer’s Ear for the City.” Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. London, UK. July 2016.
Session organizer (2 sessions, Paper Panel and Roundtable). An Audible Medieval Past. Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. London, UK. July 2016.
Session Organizer (2 sessions). Medieval Domains: Forests and Waterways. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. April 2016.
Panel Chair. Allegorical War. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. April 2015.
Presenter: "In the pines, in the pines…: Ovid's Trees in the Metamorphoses." Invited Lecture, Society For Ancient Languages. Huntsville, AL, October 2014.
Panel Chair. Chaucerian Emotions. Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee, TN. April 2014
Presenter: "Arthur's Biopolitical Milieu: Waterways and Conquest in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia." MLA Convention, Chicago, IL. January 2014.
Presenter: "Through the Strait Gait of the Medieval Stage: Northern Messianism and the Towneley Cycle." Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America. Knoxville, TN. April 2013.
Session Organizer. Greenwood Ecologies: A Roundtable. Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Portland, OR. July 2012
Presenter: "Work Like the Devil: Redemptive Neighborhoods in Chaucer's Friar's Tale" (To Further a Political Theology of the Neighbor). Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Portland OR. July 2012
Panel Chair. Historicity. Surface, Symptom and the State of Critique. Symposium held by Exemplaria, Austin, TX. February. 2012.
Presenter: "'Kyll or sley, or laye adoune': Sovereign Misrule and Border Biopolitics in the Northern Gawain Romances." International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI. May 2011.
Presenter: "Speaking of Chaucer." Invited Lecture for the English Author Tea Event, Huntsville Literary Association. Huntsville, AL. February 2011.
Presenter: "Macbeth Among the Animals." Pre-Show Lecture for American Shakespeare performance of Macbeth. Huntsville, AL. January 2011.
Presenter: "Revulsion, Resistance, and Refiguring "The North" in the Medieval Literature of the Scottish Border." MLA Convention. Los Angeles, CA. January 2011
Presenter: "Smashing the North's Face: William of Malmesbury and the Ethics of Nationhood." MLA Convention. San Francisco, CA. December 2008
Presenter: "Collapsing Spaces and the Uncanny North in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale." Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. Swansea, Wales, UK. July 2008
Presenter: "'A myle brood of twenty foot of space': Physical and Social Space in Fragment I of the Canterbury Tales." Biennial New Chaucer Society Congress. New York, NY. July 2006
Presenter: "The Rhetoric of the Troilus: Chaucer's Truths About Language and Their Applications in Modern Pedagogy." SAMLA Convention. Atlanta, GA. November 2003
Presenter: "Chaucer and Pandarus: The Introverted Author's Self-Embodiment." Southeastern Medieval Association Annual Conference. Fayetteville, AR. October 2003
Presenter: "The Filtration of the Trojan Narrative in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde." International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI. May 2003
Professional Service
Member Sewanee Medieval Colloquium Advisory Committee 2016-present
Member of Editorial Board, Bulletin of the International Association of Robin Hood Studies
Peer-reviewer for PMLA, Chaucer Review, Exemplaria, English Studies, Notes and Queries, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Bulletin of the International Association of Robin Hood Studies, and CLIO
Teaching
University of Alabama in Huntsville
English 101 and 102: Freshman Composition
English 105: Honors Freshman Composition
English 205: British Literature I
English 207: Literatures and Cultures I
English 207 (Online): Literature and Cultures I
English 207: Literature and Cultures I at College Academy (Jemison High School)
English 209: Honors Literature and Cultures I
English 242: Mythology (Online)
English 244: Monsters and Heroes (Online)
English 244: Honors Monsters and Heroes
English 250: Honors World Literature I
English 305: Introduction to Literary Studies
English 335: British Literature Survey for English Majors and Minors
English 403 and 503 (Graduate): Literary Theory and Criticism
English 403 and 503 (Graduate): Literary Theory and Criticism (Online)
English 408 and 508 (Graduate): History of the English Language
English 450: Chaucer (undergraduate)
English 451 and 551 (Graduate): Middle English Literature Survey
English 451 and 551 (Graduate): Arthurian Romance
English 649 Special Topics: Medieval Monsters
English 650: Chaucer (Graduate)
English 655: Seminar in Medieval Literature
English 698: Independent Study (Valerie Lotz 2012; Farid Alkhafaji 2013; Derrick Neal 2025; Cooper Smitherman 2025)
Departmental and Related Positions
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Associate Professor, Aug. 2016-present
Assistant Professor, Jan 2010-2016
Department, College, and University Service
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Director, UAH Humanities Center (Fall 2025-present)
Director of Freshman Composition, English (2015-2016)
Interim-Director of Graduate Studies, English (2020)
Faculty Senate Past-President (2023-24)
Faculty Senate President (2022-23)
Faculty Senate President-Elect (2021-22)
Faculty Senator (2013-2017, 2019-2023)
Committees
Chair, Faculty Senate ad-hoc committee on Deans Evaluations (AY 2024-25)
Campus Tree and Sustainability Committee (2025-present)
Faculty Handbook Committee (2023-present)
University Budget Committee (2022-23)
University Convocation Committee (2022-23)
Faculty Appeals Committee (2019-2022)
University Individual Investigator Distinguished Research Awards Committee (Spring 2018)
Committee for Reviewing Research Infrastructure Proposals (2018)
Humanities Center Steering Committee (2016-2021; 2024-present)
Humanities Center Hiring Committee (Eminent Scholar 2025-2026)
Faculty Senate Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2018-19)
Faculty Senate Finance and Resources Committee (2013-2017; 2019-2021)
Chair, Faculty Senate Finance and Resources Committee (2015-2017; co-chair 2019-2021)
Faculty Senate Executive Committee (2015-2017, 2021-2024)
University Online Task Force (Spring 2017)
Search Committee, UAH VP for Finance and Administration (Summer 2017)
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Promotions and Tenure Advisory Committee (2016; 2024)
Committee Chair (Amalia Osuga tenure case, 2024)
Committee Chair (Pavica Sheldon tenure case, 2016)
University Graduate Council (2014-2015)
University Graduate Council Thesis/Dissertations Committee (2014-2015)
Faculty Sponsor, Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society (2011-2016)
Department Assessment Committee (2015-16)
Department Standing Curriculum Committee (2016-2020; 2023-present)
Committee Chair (2018-2019)
Department Recruitment and Retention Committee (2019-2021, 2023-present)
Department Advising Committee (2021-2023)
Department Writing Program Administration Committee (2016-2019)
Composition Assessment Chair for SACSCOC Accreditation (2015-16)
Department EH 105 Common Text (2014-2017)
Department Special Committee on Graduate Capstone Project (Summer 2013)
Co-organizer, Department of English Graduate Student Conference (2013, 2019, 2020).
Department Committee for Curriculum Overhaul (2011-2012)
Department Composition Committee (2010-2011)
Department Hiring Committee
One full time Lecturer in Composition, 2022
Two full time Lecturers in Composition, 2019
Assistant Professor in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, 2016
Two full time Lecturers in Composition, 2015
Lecturer in Composition and Creative Writing, 2012
Assistant Professor in Dramatic Literature, 2010
Department Tenure Committee Chair
Anna Foy (2018)
Chad Thomas (2017)
Department Tenure-Earning Reappointment Committee
Samantha Moe (2025) [chair]
Samantha Moe (2023)
Joy Robinson (2019)
Gaines Hubbell (2021 [chair], 2022)
Department Lecturer and Clinical Faculty Promotion Committee Chair
Joseph Robertshaw (2024)
Department Lecturer and Clinical Faculty Reappointment Committee Chair
Eric Pitman (2024)
Melissa Morphew (2023)
Daniela Cornelius (2023)
Daniela Cornelius (2022)
Colleen Noletto (2022)
Sinceree Gunn (2021)
Rebecca Hazlewood (2020, 2022)
Anna Weber (2018)
Michael McGinnis (2017)
Susan Friedman (2016)
Heather Cross (2015)
Department Lecturer Reappointment Committee
Anna Weber (2025)
Anna Weber (2022)
Sinceree Gunn (2022)
Rebecca Hazlewood (2021)
Elizabeth Hardin (2021)
Susan Friedman (2020)
Heather Cross (2019)
Seth Lee (2019)
Julie Naviaux (2018)
Susan Friedman (2014)
Out of Department Reviewer for Reappointment
Art, Art History, and Design (2025)
History (2025)
Curriculum and Instruction (2023)
History (2021)
Psychology (2020)
Art, Art History, and Design (2018)
Philosophy (2017)
History (2018)
Out of Department Reviewer for Tenure and Promotion
Philosophy (2019)
Education (2020)
MA(Masters) Thesis Committees
Forrest Johnson 2021
Hannah Thomas 2019
Tyler Womble 2018-19
Sarah Moore 2015-16 (chair)
Kat Padilla (2015-16)
Melissa Black 2015
John Bjorne 2013-14 (chair)
Krista Reeves 2014
Barry Rich 2012-13 (chair)
Ryan Brown 2012
Raluca Markow 2011
MA Capstone Projects
Derrick Neal 2025 (Chair)
Emily Frith 2024
Dominic Procopoio 2023
Laura Martin 2022
James Rogers 2022
Stephen Sheffield 2021 (Chair)
Angela Hieronymi 2021 (Chair)
Whitney Taylor 2021
Andrew Arnold 2019
Melissa Guerrero 2019 (Chair)
Kerri Satterfield 2017 (Chair)
Alexander Perry 2014 (Chair)
Ashley Macemon 2014 (Chair)
MA Exam Committees
Farid Alkhafaji 2013 (Chair)
Victoria Miller 2013
Natalie Graham 2013
Jason Gabriel 2013
Ashley Clark-Brazelton 2013
Nathaniel Lindsey 2013
Bonnie Winstel 2013
Kristi Caudill 2012 (Chair)
Erin Riddle 2012 (Chair)
Jake Cornelius 2012
Tamara White 2011
Elizabeth Lack 2011
Susana Viscara 2011
Honors Capstone or contract
Drew Chandler (2026)
Shannon Kruse 2019 (Chair)
Fellowships, Grants and Awards
Faculty Travel Grant $2800 for travel to New Chaucer Society Congress (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany 2026)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office
Research Grant $2200 for research at New York Public Library Archives (Schwarzman Building and Schomburg Center) and Cathedral of St. John the Divine- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, April 2025
Faculty Travel Grant $2400 for travel to New Chaucer Society Congress (Los Angeles, CA 2024)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office
Faculty Travel Grant $3400 for travel to New Chaucer Society Congress (Durham UK 2020)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office, and Provost
Faculty Travel Grant $2000 for travel to Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (UC-Davis 2019)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office, and Provost
Faculty Travel Grant $2000 for travel to New Chaucer Society Congress (Toronto 2018)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office, and Provost
Faculty Travel Grant $1200 for travel to International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, CAHSS Dean’s Office
Research Grant $1600 for research at Lancashire Archives, Manchester City Archives, and British Library, UK- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, Dec. 2014
Faculty Travel Grant $2400 for travel to New Chaucer Society Congress (London 2016)- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center
Distinguished Speakers Series $2000 for visit of Dr. Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA)- University of
Alabama in Huntsville. April 2015.
Library Enhancement Grant for Sound Studies $2946- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, Dec. 2014
Research Grant for The Politics of Ecology $400- University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, Dec. 2014
Faculty Travel Grant $900 for travel to MLA Convention (Chicago 2014)- University of
Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center
Library Enhancement Grant for Medieval Literature and Criticism $3, 360- University of
Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, Dec. 2011.
Library Enhancement Grant for Medieval Literature and Criticism $1,257- University of
Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center, Dec. 2010.
Faculty Travel Grant $900 for travel to MLA Convention (January 2011) and to the International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 2011) – University of Alabama in Huntsville Humanities Center
Doctoral Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Texas at Austin, 2008-2009
Maxine Hairston Prize for Teaching Excellence, Department of Rhetoric and Writing,
University of Texas at Austin, 2006-2007
Martin Crow Fellowship Award for Chaucer Studies, Department of English, University of
Texas at Austin, 2005-2006
Carolyn Pace Chermside Award for Best Master's Thesis, Department of English, Virginia
Tech, May 2004
Professional Development Award, Office of Graduate Studies, University of Texas at Austin,
Spring 2009
Professional Development Award, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin,
Summer 2008
Professional Development Award- Department of English, University of Texas at Austin,
Fall 2006
Travel Award, Department of English, Virginia Tech, Spring 2003
Travel Award, Department of English, Virginia Tech, Fall 2003
Travel Fund Award, Graduate Student Assembly, Virginia Tech, Spring 2003
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