Kara McShane was first drawn to medieval literature as an undergraduate because it seemed foreign and unfamiliar, but she quickly discovered that medieval writers cared about the same questions we do.  Her courses often focus on how medieval authors understood difference – race, class, gender, ability, religion, language – and challenge students to consider how medieval notions of the world have shaped our own.  By reading some of the best-known authors of the Middle Ages, such as Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, alongside medieval travel narratives, performance texts, and anonymous poetry, students in her courses examine (and re-examine) why medieval literature fascinates us and how it is still with us.

McShane’s teaching and research on the popular culture of medieval England has led to an interest in contemporary imaginings of the Middle Ages in literature and film.  She has also contributed to the Robbins Library Digital Projects, notably through the development of Visualizing Chaucer.