Carolyn P. Collette

Professor of English Language and Literature on the Alumnae Foundation
Chair of Medieval Studies

Specialization
Old and Middle English literature; Chaucer; women writers of the Renaissance; nineteenth-century fiction; medievalism; Christine de Pizan; England

Carolyn Collette's current research interests center on late medieval and early modern women. In addition to first-year courses in medieval studies and an advanced course on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Collette regularly teaches courses on women, language, and power in the late medieval and early modern period. Currently she is offering a seminar on versions of the stories of King Arthur and Joan of Arc.

Past president of the North American Branch of the International Courtly Literature Society, Collette is also a member of the Medieval Academy of America and of the New Chaucer Society. With Dick Johnson she is coauthor of Finding Common Ground (Addison Wesley Longman, 1997), a text devoted to personal expression and public voice. Her most recent book is Species, Phantasms, and Images: Vision and Medieval Psychology in the Canterbury Tales (University of Michigan Press, 2001), and she is working on a new book about women's voices and power in late medieval and early modern England for a book series on medieval women. Collette is the author of numerous articles on Chaucer and late medieval English literature.