Michael Kightley

Associate Professor of English

M.A., Queen's University (Kingston), 2001
PhD., University of Western Ontario, 2009

Office: Griffin 227
Phone: 337-482-5507
E-mail: michael.kightley@louisiana.edu

Pronouns: they/them

Teaching and Research Areas

Old English language and literature, Victorian medievalism (especially romances and translations), Middle English language and literature, Old Norse/Icelandic literature, fantasy fiction, the history of the English language, translation and adaptation

Noteworthy

Michael Kightley joined the faculty in 2014, after five years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They hold a B.Sc. in Human Biology (the University of Toronto), as well as an M.A. in English (Queen's University, Kingston) and a Ph.D. in English (the University of Western Ontario). Dr. Kightley's research has two main focuses: medieval English literature and medievalism (the study of modern re-imaginings of the medieval period). They are particularly interested in representations of racial, ethnic, familial, and other communities within these various literatures. They have published articles on Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, Charles Kingsley, William Morris, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Publications

“The Brothers of Beowulf : Fraternal Tensions and the Reticent Style.” Forthcoming in ELH.

“Socialism and Translation: The Folks of William Morris's Beowulf .” Forthcoming in Studies in Medievalism 23 (2014): 167-88.

“Hereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism.” Studies in Medievalism 21 (2012): 89-118.

“Communal Interdependence in The Battle of Maldon .” Studia Neophilologica 82 (2010): 58-68.

“Reinterpreting Threats to Face: The Use of Politeness in Beowulf , ll. 407-472.” Neophilologus 93 (2009): 511-20.

“Heorot or Meduseld?: Tolkien's Use of Beowulf in ‘The King of the Golden Hall.'” Mythlore 24.3-4 (2006): 119-34.