Visiting Assistant Professor - Medieval Literature

Contact
Department of English
Office: Strode 306
Email: kslayto@clemson.edu

Education
Ph.D., English, University of Tennessee (2019); M.A., English, University of Tennessee (2013); B.A., English and Japanese double major, Michigan State University (2008)

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests
Chaucer; Gender; Medieval theology & philosophy

Courses
ENGL 8050 (Chaucer & Medieval Intertextuality); ENGL 3960 (British Literature I); ENGL 2130 (British Literature, General Education); ENGL 4070 (The Medieval Period); ENGL 4630 (Special Topics: Chaucer, Gender, and Free Will); ENGL 6370 (Directed Studies)

Kendra Slayton is a scholar of Late Medieval literature with specializations in Middle English, Chaucer, and gender. Her scholarship analyzes the literary and self-representation of medieval women and the social construction of gender and power.

Her current book project argues that an examination of Chaucer’s theological interests necessitates simultaneous analysis of his sociological impulses, particularly his exploration of gender and power. Examined through such a lens, Slayton argues, Chaucer’s works dramatize the warping of human natural inclination away from Boethian ideals and instead toward hegemonic, hypermasculine ideologies that enact systemic social determinism, particularly circumscribing female characters; an early version of this work has been published in The Chaucer Review. Slayton is also interested in medievalism and the work of modern and postmodern women writers, as seen in her archival research project on Angela Carter’s medievalisms in The Magic Toyshop, published in Critique. In her teaching, Slayton is further invested in introducing students to the Global Middle Ages, including medieval travel narratives and non-European premodern texts, in order to counter Eurocentric and nationalistic narratives of the premodern world.

Slayton received her Ph.D. (2019) and MA (2013) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her BA (2008) from Michigan State University (English and Japanese double major). Previously, Slayton taught as a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology and was also Assistant Director of the Communication Center.

Selected Professional Works

Journal Articles & Book Chapters (Published)

“‘We Are Sharers’: Finding Community in Isolation.” Co-Authored with Jeff Howard and Rocio Soto. The Peer Review, International Writing Centers Association, Summer 2021.

“Tied in ‘lusty leese’: Gender and Determinism in Troilus and Criseyde.” The Chaucer Review 54.1, Jan. 2019.

“Sex and Sovereignty: Angela Carter’s Medieval Toyshop.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 60.3, May 2019.

Journalism

“Perusall: Building Community and Confidence in an Online Classroom through Annotation.” TECHStyle, June 2021.

Reviews & Interviews

A discussion of “The Green Knight” (Dir. David Lowery, 2021). Technically Pop: A pop culture podcast from the Brittain Fellows at the Georgia Institute of Technology. August 2021.

Conference Presentations (Delivered)

“‘Mapping the Middle Ages’: Teaching the Global Middle Ages through Multimodal Composition and Digital Mapping.” Teaching the Middle Ages Using Digital Mapping: Spatial Humanities in the Medieval Classroom. Sponsored by the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies. International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, May 2022.

“Bodies in the Taas: The Violence of Forms in the Knight’s Tale.” Southeastern Medieval Association. Samford University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Birmingham-Southern College, November 2022.

“Bodies in the Taas: The Violence of Forms in the Knight’s Tale.” Southeastern Medieval Association. Samford University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Birmingham-Southern College, November 2022.

“‘By heigh ymaginacioun forncast’: Circumscribing Forces of Habit in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Southeastern Medieval Association. Wofford College, November 2021.

“Beowulf in the Composition Classroom.” Teaching Medieval and Early Modern Literature in the Composition Classroom , presenter and panel organizer. Duke University Symposium for Pedagogy and the Premodern, March 2020.

Conference Proposals (Accepted or Submitted)

“‘In her kendly cuntre’: Margery Kempe as Transnational Network Builder." Sponsored by the Mysticism and Lived Experience Network. International Congress on Medieval Studies. Leeds, UK, July 2023. Upcoming.