Kisha Tracy

PROFESSOR
English Studies School of Arts and Sciences
Headshot Kisha Tracy Sp21
978.665.4827 Office: Miller Hall 204
Office Hours
Spring 2024

Monday & Wednesday 12:30-1:45

Website

Biography

If students learn one thing from my courses, I hope it is that the humans of the past are significant, that we can find universal humanness in the literature and culture of the Middle Ages.  She/her

Courses Taught

Writing I (ENGL 1100)
Writing II (ENGL 1200)
British Literature I: Beowulf to Milton (ENGL 2200)
World Literature I (ENGL 2400)
Bible as Literature (ENGL 2600)
The Middle Ages (ENGL 3030)
Major Author: Chaucer (ENGL 4000)

Background

Ph.D., University of Connecticut (Medieval Studies - English, French, and Latin)
M.A., University of Connecticut (Medieval Studies - English, French, and Latin)
B.A., University of Evansville (English, Summa cum Laude)
Certificate in College Teaching; May 2016; Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts

Medieval British Literature
Ancient Medieval World Literature
Chaucerian and Middle English Literature
Memory and Recollection
European (esp. French) Medieval Literature 400-1450
Medieval African Literature and Culture
Disability Studies (esp. Mental Health)
Cultural Heritage
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Book

Memory and Confession in Middle English Literature. New Middle Ages. Palgrave Pivot, 2017.

Collections Edited

  • The Ballad of the Lone Medievalist. Eds. John P. Sexton and Kisha Tracy. Punctum, 2018.
  • Teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance with New Techniques and Technologies. Ed. Kisha Tracy.
  • Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART) 24.1 (2017).

Articles

  • “Introduction: Bisclavret.” Medieval Disability Sourcebook. Ed. Cam McNabb (punctum: 2020). 233-241.
  •  “Speech: Medieval Representations of Speech Impairments.” Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages. Eds. Jonathan Hsy, Joshua Eyler, and Tory Pearman (Bloomsbury: 2020). 99-113.
  • “Trauma and New England Museums.” State of Museums: Voices from the Field. Eds. Rebekah Beaulieu, Dawn E Salerno, Mark S. Gold (MuseumsEtc, 2018). 43-64.
  • “From the Monk’s Cell to the Professor’s Office.” The Ballad of the Lone Medievalist. Eds. John P. Sexton and Kisha Tracy (punctum, 2018). 145-159.
  • “Navigating Strategies for Teaching Medieval Literature with Google Maps.” SMART 24.1 (2017): 45-60.
  • Tracy, Kisha, Jessica Blouin, Sarah Farrell, Rebecca Johnson, and Kathleen Morrissey. “Chaucer Pilgrimage Site: Pedagogical Benefits of Combining Physical and Digital Learning Spaces.” The Leaflet. New England Association of Teachers of English. 113.1 (2016): 11-18.
  • “Julian of Norwich and the Sin of Forgetting.” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 41.2 (2015): 148-62.
  • "Memory, Recollection, and Forgetting in the Middle Ages.” Medieval Culture: A Compendium of Critical Topics. Ed. Albrecht Classen. Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages (de Gruyter, 2015): 1020-38.

Public Scholarship

  • “Curating Medieval Mental Disability.” All of Us (22 Apr. 2020): 1284 words.
  • “The Making of a Disability Heritage Exhibit.” Activist History Review (28 Oct. 2019): 1692 words.
  • “Why You Don’t Need to Be French or Catholic to Mourn the Notre Dame Fire.” Washington Post (17 Apr. 2019): 1094 words.
  • “Werewolves as Metaphors for Domestic Abusers.” The Public Medievalist (2019): 2838 words.
  • “ A Community of Grieving Readers: The Book of the Duchess .” Reading Medieval, Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. 805 words.
  • Covino, Katharine, and Kisha Tracy. “Making the Invisible Visible.” Hybrid Pedagogy (27 Sept. 2017): 3128 words.
  • “Confessions of a Self-Taught College Instructor: Embracing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.” Hybrid Pedagogy (13 Sept. 2016): 2093 words.

Awards

  • Awardee, Course Enhancement Grant, Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies African Studies Center; Spring 2021
  • Awardee, Open Educational Resource Adoption Grant; Fitchburg State University; Spring 2020
  • Fitchburg State University Faculty Research and Scholarship Award; 2018
  • Awardee, 2016 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship; Project: “Sherwood Forest Archaeological Training Field School 2016”; Spring 2016
  • Awardee, Fitchburg Anti-Violence Education Faculty Grant; Fitchburg State University; Fall 2015
  • Harrod Lecturer, Fitchburg State University; Oct 2012

Current Projects

  • Students Are People Too: Theory and Practice of Student Investment in Learning. Book.
  • The Middle Ages and the Modern Curriculum: Accessing the Medieval Past. Book.
  • Cultural Heritage and the Significance of the Premodern. Book.
  • Research Companion to Medieval Disability Studies. Eds. Kisha Tracy and John P. Sexton.
  • Out of the Cloister: Lone Medievalists Making the Middle Ages Matter. Eds. John P. Sexton and Kisha Tracy.“The Medieval Black Mother.” Article.
  • “Abusing Saints and Temporary Insanity.” Article.
  • “Saint Dymphna of Geel and Communities of Mental Health.” Article.
  • “Maternal Lament and Misremembering in Dispute between Mary and the Cross .” Article.

 

Medieval Academy of America
Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages
The Lone Medievalist
International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning