Professor of English
PhD University of California Los Angeles
Medieval literature and culture, popular culture
Research/Writing interests
Thomas Hahn's teaching centers on the sponsorship, production, and interpretation of texts and images from the earlier Middle Ages through the early modern period. Recent papers, publications, and seminars have concentrated on those scattered or huddled at the edges of emerging European identities, including women, Indians, Jews, heretics, Robin Hood and other outlaws, virtuous pagans, popular chivalric heroes, and other monstrous types. This work has entailed engagement with recent theory and practice in feminist criticism, visual and cultural studies, and social history. During the last decade and more he has put much energy into collaborative projects such as the Chaucer Bibliographies and the TEAMS Middle English Texts Series. He continues to work with Latin, and Old and Middle English texts.
Selected publications
- "Exempt me, Sire, for I am afeard of women': Gendering Robin Hood," with Stephen Knight, in Bandit Territories: British Outlaws and Their Traditions, ed. Helen Phillips, University of Wales 2008, 24-43
- "Middle English Romance," with Dana Symons, in A Companion to Middle English Literature and Culture, ed. Peter Brown, Blackwell’s 2007, 341-57
- "Robin Hood and the Rise of Cultural Studies," in Medieval Cultural Studies, ed. Ruth Evans, Helen Fulton, and David Matthews, University of Wales 2006, 39-54
- "Christian Diaspora in Late Medieval, Early Modern Perspective: A Transcription of the Treatise Decem nationes christianorum," in Medieval Connections, ed. Theresa Tinkle et al., Peter Lang 2003, 369-87
Editor
- Peter Goodall and others, The Tales of the Monk and Nun's Priest, Chaucer Bibliographies, vol. 8, University of Toronto 2009 (general editor)
- Race and Ethnicity in the Middle Ages, spec. issue of The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31.1 (2001)
- Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression, and Justice, Boydell & Brewer 2000
- Retelling Stories: Structure, Context, and Innovation in Traditional Narratives, with Alan Lupack, Boydell & Brewer 1997
- Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, Medieval Institute/Middle English Texts Series
- Reconceiving Chaucer: Literary Theory and Historical Interpretation, spec. issue of Exemplaria 2.1 (1990)
Teaching
Courses in medieval English literature, classical and biblical traditions, Europe and its others, popular culture (including film)
Recent undergraduate courses
- Studies in a Literary Tradition: Loving Dido (spring 2013)
- Classical and Scriptural Backgrounds of Literature (fall 2012)
- Middle English Literature (fall 2012)
- Chaucer (spring 2012)
- Global and Local: Premodern Identities (spring 2012)
- Robin Hood: All-American Hero (fall 2009)
- Robin Hood: Media Culture (fall 2008)
Recent graduate courses
- Fictions in the Mother Tongue: Vernacular Style and Interpretive Communities in Late Medieval England (spring 2013)
- The Mediated Other (fall 2011)
- Premodern/Postcolonial (spring 2009)
- Chaucer (spring 2008)
Honors and activities
- Program grants, Kauffman and Ford Foundations, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1989-95
- American Council of Learned Societies and NEH fellowships
- Goergen, Curtis, and Student Association awards for teaching excellence
- Founding Member, North American Secretary, International Association for Robin Hood Studies
- General Editor, Chaucer Bibliographies, University of Toronto Press
