INTRODUCTION
Office Hours: TW 9:30-11:00 a.m.
David Raybin teaches a variety of subjects in early British and world literature. His honors at Eastern include being named Distinguished Faculty Member in 2011, Professor Laureate in 2002, and Distinguished Honors Faculty Member in 1993. He has written extensively on Chaucer and other medieval subjects. His current projects are Chaucer: Visual Approaches (edited with Susanna Fein for Penn State UP); and translations of the Anglo-French for a three-volume edition, Codex Harley 2253 (Susanna Fein, ed., with David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski, for Medieval Institute Publications, forthcoming 2014). His earlier books are Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in the Canterbury Tales (1991; with Susanna Fein and Peter Braeger), and Closure in the Canterbury Tales: The Role of the Parson's Tale (2000; with Linda Tarte Holley), and Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. He is coeditor of The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism.
In the summers of 2008, 2010, and 2012, he traveled to London and Canterbury to direct NEH Seminars for School Teachers on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He will return to London to direct another NEH Seminar on the Canterbury Tales in the summer of 2014.
David Raybin teaches a variety of subjects in early British and world literature. His honors at Eastern include being named Distinguished Faculty Member in 2011, Professor Laureate in 2002, and Distinguished Honors Faculty Member in 1993. He has written extensively on Chaucer and other medieval subjects. His current projects are Chaucer: Visual Approaches (edited with Susanna Fein for Penn State UP); and translations of the Anglo-French for a three-volume edition, Codex Harley 2253 (Susanna Fein, ed., with David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski, for Medieval Institute Publications, forthcoming 2014). His earlier books are Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in the Canterbury Tales (1991; with Susanna Fein and Peter Braeger), and Closure in the Canterbury Tales: The Role of the Parson's Tale (2000; with Linda Tarte Holley), and Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. He is coeditor of The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism.
In the summers of 2008, 2010, and 2012, he traveled to London and Canterbury to direct NEH Seminars for School Teachers on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He will return to London to direct another NEH Seminar on the Canterbury Tales in the summer of 2014.
My EIU Story
Honors and Awards
Illinois Professor of the Year, 2011
EIU Distinguished Faculty Award, 2011
Graduate Dean's Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity, 2009
Dean's Award for Service, 2007
EIU Professor Laureate, 2002-2003
Distinguished Honors Faculty Award, 1993
Education & Training
B.A. Columbia College (English, 1972)
M.A. Columbia University (English and Comparative Literature, 1974)
Ph.D. Columbia University (Comparative Medieval Literature, 1981)
Conference Presentations
Select Conference Papers"The Work of Scribe A of MS Harley 2253." Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies. St. Louis MO, 2013.
"Chaucer, Thomas, and Canterbury." Medieval Association of the Midwest. Terre Haute IN, 2013.
“Chaucer and London.” Illinois Medieval Association (IMA). Chicago IL, 2013.
“Griselda’s Swoon.” International Congress of the New Chaucer Society (NCS). Portland OR, 2012.
“The French Fabliaux in MS Harley 2253.” International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS). Kalamazoo MI, May 2011.
“Chaucer on Dickens’s Hearth.” Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society (NCS). Siena, Italy, July 2010.
“Torture in the Canterbury Tales.” ICMS. Kalamazoo MI, May 2010.
“Canterbury in the Cornfield.” NCS. Swansea, Wales, July 2008.
“Some Reflections on Chaucer as a London Writer.” IMA. Charleston IL, February 2007.
“Chaucer, Pramoedya, Religion, Race.” Robert W. Hanning: Past, Present, Future Conference. ColumbiaUniversity. October 2003.
“‘Goddes Instrumentz’: Demons and Devils in the Canterbury Tales.” Revisiting Chaucer and Christianity Conference. Canterbury, England, July 2003.
“The Girl from the Coast: A Muslim Griselda from Modern Indonesia.” ICMS. Kalamazoo MI, May 2003.
“Genre, Gender, and Sexualities.” NCS. London, England, July 2000.
Community
Professional PositionEditor, The Chaucer Review. A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism (with Susanna Fein). A quarterly journal editorially based at Kent State University and Eastern Illinois University. Published by the Penn State University Press. 2001-present
Publications
BooksCodex Harley 2253. 3 vols. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, forthcoming 2014-2016. (Susanna Fein, with David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski)
Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches. University Park PA: Penn State University Press, 2010. (Volume of eleven essays, edited with Susanna Fein.)
Closure in The Canterbury Tales: The Role of the Parson’s Tale. Kalamazoo MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000. (Volume of ten essays and an annotated bibliography, edited with Linda Tarte Holley.)
Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Kalamazoo MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991. (Volume of ten essays, edited with Susanna G. Fein and Peter C. Braeger.)
Recent Book Chapters
“Teaching Teachers: Chaucer, Ethics, and Romance.” In Chaucer and Religion. Ed. Helen Phillips. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 2010. Pp. 189-95.
“Critical Approaches.” In A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture c.1350 - c.1500. Ed. Peter Brown. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing., 2006. Pp. 9-24.
“Poetry and Play in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale and the Pardoner’s Tale.” In Drama, Narrative and Poetry in the Canterbury Tales. Ed. Wendy Harding. Toulouse, France: University Press of Toulouse, 2003. Pp. 213-26.
“‘Manye been the weyes’: The Flower, Its Roots, and the Ending of The Canterbury Tales.” In Closure in The Canterbury Tales (2000). Pp. 11-43.
“Annotated Bibliography of Scholarship on the Parson’s Tale.” In Closure in The Canterbury Tales (200). Pp. 209-52.
Recent Journal Articles
“‘Goddes Instrumentz’: Devils and Free Will in the Friar’s and Summoner’s Tales.” The Chaucer Review 46 (2011): 93-110.
“Muslim Griselda: The Politics of Gender and Religion in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast.” Exemplaria 21 (2009): 180-201.
“Chaucer as a London Poet: A Review Essay.” Essays in Medieval Studies 24 (2007): 21-29.
“Chaucer and Aesthetics” (with Susanna Fein). The Chaucer Review 39 (2005): 225-33.
Funding & Grants
National Endowment for the Humanities“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Summer Seminar director, 2013 (with Susanna Fein). London, UK.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Summer Seminar director, 2011 (with Susanna Fein). London, UK.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Summer Seminar director, 2009 (with Susanna Fein). London, UK.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Summer Seminar director, 2007 (with Susanna Fein). London, UK.
“Reading and Study of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.” Study Grant, 1995.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Summer Institute participant, 1987. University of Connecticut.
“Medieval Feudalism.” Summer Seminar participant, 1986. University of California, Berkeley.
“Symbolic Anthropology: A Humanistic Critique.” Summer Seminar participant, 1983. University of Virginia.
Illinois Humanities Council
“Re-encountering Shakespeare,” Major conference grant, 2009.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Major conference grant, 2008.
EIU Literature Conference. Multi-year grant in support of four annual conferences, 2004-2007.
“Songs and Sonnets: The Love Poetry of John Donne.” Conference grant, 2003.
“Achebe, Conrad, and the Literatures of Africa.” Conference grant, 2002.
“Homer’s Epic World.” Conference grant, 2001.
“Charles Dickens and His World.” Conference grant, 1999.
“Jane Austen and Her World.” Conference grant, 1998.
“Dante in the 1990s.” Conference grant, 1996, with additional funding from Penguin Books.
“Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Conference grant, 1992.
“Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Conference grant, 1988, with additional funding from Houghton Mifflin.
Frequently Taught Courses
ChaucerShakespeare
Backgrounds of Western Literature
Research & Creative Interests
Chaucer, Middle English, Medieval FrenchProfessional Affiliations
Early Book SocietyIllinois Medieval Association
Medieval Association of the Midwest
New Chaucer Society