Dr. Rhonda L. McDaniel

Professor

Dr. Rhonda L. McDaniel
615-898-5285
Room 368, Peck Hall (PH)
MTSU Box 70, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

Departments / Programs

Degree Information

  • PHD, Western Michigan University (2003)
  • MA, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1998)
  • BMT, Shenandoah University (1986)
  • AA, Miami Dade College (1983)

Areas of Expertise

Old English Language and Literature
Middle English Language and Literature
History of the English Language
Research Methods and Bibliography

Biography

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Rhonda L. McDaniel holds the position of Professor in the Department of English. She earned her Ph.D. from Western Michigan University in 2003 with a specialization in Old and Middle English Languages and Literature. While teaching courses in medieval English literature at both undergraduate and graduate levels, McDaniel pursues research in the representation of gender in Old English translations of Latin saints’ lives and also in the function of memory in the shaping of virtuous character in Old and Middle English works. When not involved in teaching or research, McDaniel enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, and canoeing.    

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Publications

Publications: Books The Third Gender andÆlfric’s Lives of Saints. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press-ARC, 2018. 

PublicationsArticles/Book Chapters  “Eunuchs: The Third Gender,” in Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West, eds. Michelle Sauer and Jenny Bledsoe (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press/ARC Humanities Press, 2024). Forthcoming.

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Publications: Books The Third Gender andÆlfric’s Lives of Saints. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press-ARC, 2018. 

PublicationsArticles/Book Chapters  “Eunuchs: The Third Gender,” in Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West, eds. Michelle Sauer and Jenny Bledsoe (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press/ARC Humanities Press, 2024). Forthcoming.

“Agency and Obedience: The Afterlife of St. Swithun in Anglo-Saxon England,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History Vol.18 (January 2024), eds. Virginia Blanton and Joel Rosenthal.

“Manuscripts in the College Classroom: Material and Virtual Pedagogies,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 25.2 (Fall 2018): 17–27.

“Agnes Among the Anglo-Saxons: Patristic Influences in Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Saxon Versions of the Passio of St. Agnes, Virgin,” in Writing Women Saints in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2013), 217-48.  (Peer reviewed)

“‘Maysterful mod and hyghe pryde . . . arn heterly hated here’: Losing Pride and Finding Oneself in Pearl.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Humanities, 30:1 (Spring 2013): 72–87.

“‘None too Sincere’: Andreas Capellanus, the Bible, and De Amore.” Medieval Perspectives, 18 (2011, for Year 2002): 224–44.

“Interpreting the Translator:  Ælfric, His Sources, and His Critics.” In Translatio, or the Transmission of Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Modes and Messages, ed. Laura H. Hollengreen, ASMAR 13. Turnholt: Brepols for ACMRS, 2008.  55–68. (Peer reviewed)

Hnescnys:  Weakness of the Mind in the Works of Ælfric.” In (Inter)Texts: Studies in Early Insular Culture Presented to Paul E. Szarmach, ed. Virginia Blanton and Helene Scheck.  Tempe, AZ: MRTS, 2008.  79–90. (Peer reviewed)

“Pride Goes Before a Fall: Aldhelm’s Practical Application of Gregorian and Cassianic Conceptions of Superbia and the Eight Principal Vices.” In The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities to Individuals, ed. Richard Newhauser.  Leiden: Brill, 2007. 95–115.  (Peer reviewed)

“Fredegunde.” Great Lives from History: The Middle Ages and Pre-Renaissance.  Ed. Leslie Ellen Jones.  2 vols.  Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press, 2005, 381–84.

“Saint Boniface.”  Holy People of the World: An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Phyllis G. Jestice.  3 vols. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2004.

“An Unidentified Passage from Jerome in Bede,” Notes and Queries, n.s. 50:4 (December 2003): 375.

“Would You Hire Plato to Teach Physical Education at Your School?” with Allison McFarland, PhD.  The Physical Educator,  59: 1 (Late Winter 2002): 18–25.

“Hunter and Prey in ‘All in Green Went My Love Riding.’”  Abstract. Tennessee Philological Bulletin,  35 (1998): 81–82.

“Taylor’s Knot: Tying His World Together in ‘Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children.’”  Tennessee Philological Bulletin,  34 (1997): 34–42.

PublicationsReviews Review of Ranulf Higden, Speculum Curatorum A Mirror for Curates, Book II: The Capital Sins. Edited and translated by Eugene Crook and Margaret Jennings. Sixteenth-Century Journal 51.4 (Winter 2020), 1222–24.

Review of Church, Society and Change, by Tomáš Petráček. Sixteenth-Century Journal48.3 (2017).

Review of Man, Values and the Dynamics of Medieval Society: Anthropological Concepts of the Middle Ages in a Transcultural Perspective, by Tomáš Petráček. Sixteenth-Century Journal48.1 (2017), 226–28.

“National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, ‘The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts: Interpretation Through Production.’” Old English Newsletter46.3 (2016). Available online at http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/issue/46-3_NEH_report.php

Review of Faithful Narratives: Historians, Religion, and the Challenge of Objectivity, eds. Andrea Sterk and Nina Caputo.  Sixteenth-Century Journal.  46.3 (Fall 2015), 740–42.

Review of John Calvin as Sixteenth-Century Prophet, by Jon Balserak.  Sixteenth-Century Journal. 46.2 (Summer 2015), 508–10.

Review of Hagiography in Anglo-Saxon England: Adopting and Adapting Saints’ Lives into Old English Prose (c. 950–1150), eds. Loredana Lazzari, Patrizia Lendinara, and Claudia Di Sciacca.  Peritia26 (2015), 267–69.

Review of Two Ælfric Texts: The Twelve Abuses and The Vices and Virtues, ed. and trans. Mary Clayton.  Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures41.1 (2015), 85–88.

Review of Ræd and Frofer: Christian Poetics in the Old English FroferbocMeters, by Karmen Lenz.  Carmina Philosophiae22 (2013), 136–38.

Review of Women’s Names in Old English, by Elisabeth Okasha.  Speculum88.03 (July 2013), 837–38. Available online at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&pdftype=1&fid=9018296&jid=SPC&volumeId=88&issueId=03&aid=9018293

Review of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches: A Global History, by James Edward McGoldrick, with Richard Clark Reed and Thomas Hugh Spence Jr.  Sixteenth Century Journal44.2 (Summer 2013), 568–69.

Review of Boethiana Mediaevalia:A Collection of Studies on the Early Medieval Fortune of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, by Adrian Papahagi.  Carmina Philosophiae21 (2012), 136–37.

Review of Ælfric’s Life of Saint Basil the Great:Background and Context, by Gabriella Corona.  The Heroic Age12 (May 2009). Available online at http://www.heroicage.org/issues/12/reviews.php#corona

“Paleography and Codicology: A Seminar on Medieval Manuscript Studies, University of New Mexico, Institute for Medieval Studies June 9 – July 3, 2008,” Old English Newsletter41.3 (Spring 2008).  Available online at http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/archive.php/reports/mcdaniel41_3/

Publications: Other  “National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, ‘The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts: Interpretation Through Production.’” Old English Newsletter 46.3 (2016). Available online at: http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/issue/46-3_NEH_report.php

“Paleography and Codicology: A Seminar on Medieval Manuscript Studies, University of New Mexico, Institute for Medieval Studies June 9 – July 3, 2008,” Old English Newsletter 41.3 (Spring 2008).  Available online at http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/archive.php/reports/mcdaniel41_3/

“Fredegunde.”  Great Lives from History: The Middle Ages and Pre-Renaissance.  Ed. Leslie Ellen Jones.  2 vols.  Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press, 2005, 381–84.

“Saint Boniface.”  Holy People of the World: An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Phyllis G. Jestice.  3 vols.  Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2004.

“Hunter and Prey in ‘All in Green Went My Love Riding.’”  Abstract.  Tennessee Philological Bulletin,  35 (1998): 81–82.

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Presentations

2022  57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, “Defining Imagination in the Old English Version of Augustine’s Soliloquies and Ælfric’s ‘Natiuitas Domini Nostri Iesu Christi’ (LS 1).” May 2022 (Replaced “Ælfric’s Angels” in program.)

2019 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Panel member for “The Dragons in the Room: Addressing the Modern Problems of Medieval Studies,&rdq...

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2022  57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, “Defining Imagination in the Old English Version of Augustine’s Soliloquies and Ælfric’s ‘Natiuitas Domini Nostri Iesu Christi’ (LS 1).” May 2022 (Replaced “Ælfric’s Angels” in program.)

2019 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Panel member for “The Dragons in the Room: Addressing the Modern Problems of Medieval Studies,” presentation topic, “Students’ Understanding of Publishing—Now and in the Middle Ages.”

2019 Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, “Agency and Obedience: The Afterlife of St. Swithun in Anglo-Saxon England.”

2016  51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, “The Muddled Hand of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 579 (The Leofric Missal).”

2016  Respondent and Organizer, Natural Ingredients: Teaching the Nature of the Medieval Book Session, Sewanee Medieval Colloquium.

2016  MARCO Manuscript Workshop, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, “A Puzzling Performance: The Paschal Hand of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 579, 49r.”

2013  48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, “Gemyndig: Memory at Work in Ælfric’sVita sancti Eadmundi.”

2013  Organizer, Memory at Work in Anglo-Saxon England Session, 48thInternational Congress on Medieval Studies.

2012  Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, “Confrontations Between Secular and Sacred ‘Masculinities’ in Early Latin Hagiography and Ælfric’s Lives of Saints.”

2011  South Atlantic Modern Language Association, “Gemynd: The Faculty of Memory in the Works of Ælfric.”

2011  Organizer, Memory and Memorial in Old English Literature Session, South Atlantic Modern Language Association.

2010  Respondent, Promotion and Competition of Pilgrimage Cults Session, Sewanee Medieval Colloquium

2009  Southeastern Medieval Association, “More of Ælfric’s Other Women: Melantia.”

2008  43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, “The Wickedness of Men and Women in Ælfric’s Lives of Saints.”

2007  42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, “Ælfric’s Other Women: Reading Beyond the ‘Big Six.’”

2007  MTSU Interdisciplinary Conference in Women’s Studies, “The Third Gender: Rejecting the Feminine and the Masculine in Late Antique and Early Medieval Hagiography.”

2006  MTSU English Graduate Student Organization Revisioning Conference, “Interpreting the Translator:  Ælfric, His Sources, and His Critics.”  (Revised)

2005  South Atlantic Modern Language Association, “Movie and Matter: Teaching the Arthurian Tradition in the Wake of Hollywood’s King Arthur.”

2005  40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, “Pride Goes Before a Fall: Aldhelm’s Practical Application of Gregorian and Cassianic Conceptions of Superbiaand the Eight Principal Vices.”

2004  39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, “In Her Right Mind: Ælfric’s Life of St. Agnes.”

2004 Organizer, Ælfric: All About Women Session, 39thInternational Congress on Medieval Studies.

2004  Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, “Interpreting the Translator:  Ælfric, His Sources, and His Critics.”

2002 Southeastern Medieval Association, “A So-so Knowledge of Scripture: Andreas Capellanus and the Bible.”

2002  Michigan Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 2002 Convention, “Would You Hire Plato to Teach Physical Education at Your School?” with Allison McFarland.

2000  35th International Congress on Medieval Studies,  “Pearl’s ‘Gentyl Jueler.’”

1998  Tennessee Philological Association,  “Hunter and Prey in ‘All in Green Went My Love Riding.’”

1997  Tennessee Philological Association,  “Taylor’s Knot: Tying His World Together in ‘Upon Wedlock and Death of Children.’”

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Awards

2020    Nominated for MTSU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award

2019    MTSU College of Liberal Arts Celebration of Excellence Honoree

2015    National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar: “The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts: Interpretation Through Production,” held at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, directed by Dr. Jonathan Wilcox.

2014    Voted One of Middle Tennessee State U...

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2020    Nominated for MTSU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award

2019    MTSU College of Liberal Arts Celebration of Excellence Honoree

2015    National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar: “The Materiality of Medieval Manuscripts: Interpretation Through Production,” held at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, directed by Dr. Jonathan Wilcox.

2014    Voted One of Middle Tennessee State University’s Most Non-Traditional-Student-Friendly Faculty by the MTSU Non-Traditional Student Organization

2013    Visiting Scholar at the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research at the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

2013    Faculty Research and Creative Activity Grant (The College of Graduate Studies, Middle Tennessee State University)

2008    Faculty Development Grant (Office of the Provost, Middle Tennessee State University) to attend “Paleography and Codicology: A Seminar on Medieval Manuscript Studies” at the University of New Mexico, Institute for Medieval Studies.

2007    Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages Grant for development of “Early Medieval Literatures of the Middle East” for the Minor in Middle East Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.

2004    National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar: “The Seven Deadly Sins as a Cultural Construction in the Middle Ages,” held at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, directed by Dr. Richard Newhauser.

2004    Faculty Research and Creative Activity Grant (The College of Graduate Studies, Middle Tennessee State University)2002    Graduate Student Research and Travel Fund Award (The Graduate College, Western Michigan University)

2002    CARA-Leyerle Award (Medieval Academy of America and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto)

2002    Erasmus Institute Summer Seminar in Medieval Studies, held at St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, directed by Dr. Marcia Colish

2002    Mathilde Steckelberg Scholarship in Latin (Western Michigan University)

2001    Mellon Issues in Interpretation Seminar: “Tradition, Revision, and Continuity in Renaissance and Medieval Literary Studies,” held at The Pennsylvanian State University, directed by Drs. Robert Edwards and Patrick Cheney.

1998    Outstanding Graduate Student in English: Literary Studies (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga)

1983    Outstanding Contributions to Music (Miami-Dade Community College)

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In the Media

https://uiowa.edu/manuscript-materiality/article/participant-report-rhonda-l-mcdaniel

Courses

ENGL 2020: Themes in Literature: Heroism and Villainy in the Middle Ages (Standard and Honors)

ENGL 2020 Honors Buchanan Seminar: Greek Origins of Western Culture

ENGL 2030: The Experience of Literature (Standard and Honors)

ENGL 3010: British Literature I

ENGL 3110: English Literature: The Medieval Period

ENGL 3720: Special Topics in Women’s Literature: Early Women Writers

ENGL 4110: Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

ENGL 4/5...

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ENGL 2020: Themes in Literature: Heroism and Villainy in the Middle Ages (Standard and Honors)

ENGL 2020 Honors Buchanan Seminar: Greek Origins of Western Culture

ENGL 2030: The Experience of Literature (Standard and Honors)

ENGL 3010: British Literature I

ENGL 3110: English Literature: The Medieval Period

ENGL 3720: Special Topics in Women’s Literature: Early Women Writers

ENGL 4110: Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

ENGL 4/5530: History of the English Language

ENGL 6/7001: Introduction to Graduate Study: Bibliography and Research

ENGL 6/7011: Old English Language and Literature

ENGL 6/7015: Beowulf Seminar

ENGL 6/7021: Chaucer Seminar

ENGL 6/7025: Middle English Language and Literature

ENGL 6/7415: Special Topics in Women’s Literature: Literary Women of the Middle Ages

ENGL 6/7611: Special Topics in Language and Literature: Medieval Legends of King Arthur

ENGL 6/7525: Special Topics in History of the English Language: Orthography, or Migration, Memory, and Measure

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