Thomas O'Donnell

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Associate Professor of English and Medieval Studies

BA, University of Pittsburgh; MA, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Research and Teaching Interests: Literature in Britain, France and the Low Countries, 950-1350; medieval Latin; religious and community writing; formalism; and history of the book

 

  • Thomas O'Donnell has taught medieval studies in Europe and America. From 2009 until 2011 he was Lecturer in Medieval Literature at the University of York, UK. He has held fellowships from the Stanford Humanities Center, the ACLS, and the Fulbright Program to France, and he works frequently with the Centre for Medieval Literature in Odense and York.

    Dr. O’Donnell’s published work embraces topics ranging from 9th- and 10-century poetry to 21st-century music. His current book project, The Theoretical Life, explores the connections between writing, community life, memory, and prayer in English monasteries between 1000 and 1250, and he publishes frequently on the related topics of multilingualism and geographic networks in the Middle Ages. While Dr. O’Donnell’s research focuses on writing in Old and Middle English, Latin, and Old French, his courses cover works from medieval Wales, Ireland, and Occitania, as well.