Faculty/Staff Directory
Dr. Kathleen Burt
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| Office Hours: | Fall 2025 Open hours in person (SOAL 217) or via TEAMS: MW 11:30-1pm, TTh 11-2pm, and by appointment |
| Biography: | My research and teaching are rooted in a deep engagement with the literary traditions of the classical, medieval, and early modern worlds, with particular focus on Latin poetry—both classical and medieval—disputation and rhetoric, Middle English literature, and the evolving intersections of philosophy, fantasy, and speculative thought. My scholarly work also encompasses the history of science fiction and the development of the English language, tracing how forms, genres, and ideas move across time, cultures, and media. In my teaching, I emphasize literature’s continuity and transformation—from Homeric epic to Miltonic verse, from Boethian consolation to speculative fiction. My courses, which include World Literature to 1650, Mythology and Folklore, early and Early Modern British Literature, and the History of the English Language, introduce students to literary and rhetorical traditions while fostering critical and creative inquiry. I regularly teach composition and Introduction to Literature, where I aim to help students develop transferable skills in analytical writing and close reading. Pedagogically, I rely on scaffolded, experiential, and collaborative learning to meet the needs of students across a wide range of backgrounds and abilities. Through staged research assignments, group discussions, creative projects, and debates, I invite students to engage deeply with texts and with each other. I incorporate digital humanities methods and encourage intertextual exploration—whether examining Chaucer through the lens of classical rhetoric or reading speculative fiction as a modern continuation of ancient philosophical narratives. My current research examines the rhetorical structures of medieval frame tales, and have published on how Latin and Middle English texts anticipate and shape later philosophical fantasy. I am particularly interested in the ways that language—its history, its poetics, its logics—structures not only literary meaning but also modes of inquiry across disciplines. My scholarship is interdisciplinary by nature, drawing on classics, medieval studies, history of science, and speculative fiction studies. Ultimately, my aim as both a scholar and teacher is to foster curiosity about the past as a living dialogue, equipping students with the tools to explore complex texts and articulate their own insights. I view the classroom as a collaborative intellectual space, where historical inquiry and imaginative engagement go hand in hand. |
| Courses: | Fall 2025 ENGL 2111 online (2 sections) ENGL 1101 MW Macon 2pm ENGL 1101 Honors WR TTh 8am ENGL 1102 online |
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| Education: | BA English and Classics St Olaf College MA Latin University of Florida Teaching Certification NC State MA English Marquette University PhD English Marquette University |
| CV: | See boxes above and below |
| Professional Experience: | * Instructor, Classics Department, University of Florida *Teacher, English/Latin, Southern Lee High School *Instructor, English Department, Concordia University-Wisconsin * Instructor, English Department, Marquette University |
| Organizations: | • South Eastern Medieval Association (SEMA) • Georgia Philological Association (GPA) • Midwest Modern Language Association(M/MLA) • Medieval Academy of America (MAA) • Modern Language Association (MLA) • New Chaucer Society (NCS) • John Gower Association • Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS): |
| Publications: | • Review of Milton, Longinus, and the Sublime in the Seventeenth Century. By Thomas Matthew Bozar. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Classical Journal Online. 12/2/2024. Web. • Review of Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome. By Tom Geue. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 2019. Classical Journal Online. 06/02/2023. Web. • The Emergence of the Lyric Canon. By Theodora A. Hadjimichael. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019. Classical Journal Online. 01/01/2022. Web. • Review of The Irish Classical Self: Poets and Poor Scholars in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. By LAURIE O’HIGGINS. Oxford and Ney York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Classical Journal Online. 3/14/2018. Web. • Review of The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature: Volume 1: 800-1558. Classical Journal Online. 3/5/2017. Web. • Review of Dialoguing in Late Antiquity. By AVERIL CAMERON. Washington DC and Cambridge MA: Center for Hellenistic Studies and Harvard University Press, 2014. Classical Journal Online. 01/21/2015. Web. • • Ethics and Choice in the Works of Terry Pratchett: “Self-Discovery, Free Will, and Change: The Ethics of Growing Up in the Fantasy Novels of Terry Pratchett” • Journal of the Georgia Philological Association: “The Medieval Beginnings of Science Fiction” • “The Alchemy of Failure: Combining Facts and Fictions in Chaucer’s “The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale” South Atlantic Review 86.1 |
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