Dr. James Robert Knowles

Lecturer

• Vita: download vita

• Email: jrknowle@ncsu.edu

Projects

 

OFFICE: TOMPKINS 257

Jim Knowles works on late medieval and early modern English literature, history, and theology. His book-in-progress examines the language of service in several Middle English texts, notably Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Langland's Piers Plowman, and the Revelation of Love by Julian of Norwich. He plans to expand this project chronologically through the end of the sixteenth century and perhaps beyond, asking what happens to the vocabulary of service and its metaphorical projections when we move across the Reformation divide.

Professor Knowles also has an interest in historical visualization and the use of technological resources to bring the medieval past to life in new and innovative ways, both as a teacher and as a scholar. In 2010, he worked with Michal Koszycki at Duke University to produce a short animated film about the architectural history of two lost mendicant foundations in medieval Oxford (Greyfriars and Blackfriars). The work is available for viewing online at http://www.vimeo.com/26658584.

 

 

 

Publications

"Can You Serve?: The Theology of Service from Langland to Luther." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 40.3 (Fall 2010).

"Piers Plowman." The New Catholic Encyclopedia 2011 Supplement: Arts and Literature (Gale Publishing, 2011).

"Great Houses Make Not Men Holy: Mendicant Architecture in Medieval Oxford."  Animated film. Co-authored with Michal Koszycki. 2010. Available for viewing at http://www.vimeo.com/26658584.

Education

• PhD in English from Duke University
• BA in English from Davidson College