Thomas Hahn

Thomas Hahn

  • Professor

PhD, University of California Los Angeles

Office Location
402A Morey Hall

Curriculum Vitae

Research Overview

Thomas Hahn's intellectual engagement has centered on the sponsorship, production, and interpretation of texts and images from the earlier Middle Ages through the early modern period.  His teaching and research have repeatedly taken up representations of those at the edges of emerging European identities, including women, outlaws, virtuous pagans, “Indians,” and other racialized groups.  He has also published on Chaucer, Robin Hood, medieval popular romance, Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory, Virgil’s Dido, and Alexander the Great.  He is the General Editor of the Chaucer Bibliographies, a member of the Advisory Board of the Middle English Texts Series, and has served as a trustee of the New Chaucer Society.

Graduate students with Professor Hahn in London

Caption: University of Rochester scholars at the 20th Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society (London, 2016):  front, Karen Patton-McShane (MA, Warner School, 2011);  second row, Emily Huber (PhD, 2008; Associate Professor and Chair, Franklin and Marshall College);  L. Kate Norako (PhD, 2012;  Assistant Professor, University of Washington Seattle);  Valerie Johnson (PhD, 2013; Assistant Professor, University of Montevallo); Pam Yee (ABD);  back row, Jennifer Albergini (MA, 2012; PhD, CUNY Grad Program); Sharon Rhodes (PhD, 2016); Thomas Hahn (English, UR); Leah Haught (PhD, 2011; Associate Professor, University of West Georgia); Kristi Castleberry (ABD, Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, Lyndon);  Kara McShane (PhD, 2014;  Assistant Professor, Ursinus College).  Absent from photo:  Jenny Boyar (PhD, 2016); Alison Harper (ABD); Kyle Huskin (ABD); Paul Megna (MA, 2007; PhD, UCSB 2014).

Research Interests

  • Medieval literature and culture
  • popular culture

Selected Publications

  • Sir Thomas Malory’s “Morte Darthur.” Oxford Bibliographies Online. Co-author, with Leah Haught, 2016.
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Oxford Bibliographies Online. Co-author, with Leah Haught, 2012
    http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/obo/page/medieval-studies#1. [Ranked first in all OBO titles for use and citation in 2012.]
  • “East and West, Cosmopolitan and Imperial in the Roman Alexander.”  Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages:  Transcultural Perspectives, ed. Markus Stock (University of Toronto Press, 2016, 13-29.
  • “Don’t Cry for Me, Augustinus:  Dido and the Dangers of Empathy.”  Truth and Tales: Essays for Richard Firth Green, ed. Fiona Somerset and Nicholas Watson.  Columbus:  Ohio State University Press, 2014, 41-59.
  • "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

  • Ye Original Operetta, in Five Acts, entitled Robin Hood.  Writ by Charles Robinson.  Facsimile of 1888 play, with Introduction. Rochester NY: University of Rochester, 2009.
  • 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 Exemplaria2.1 (1990)

Teaching

  • • Chaucer; Medieval Otherworlds; Europe and its Others; Robin Hood and Outlaw Justice; Power, Sex, Suicide – Dido and the Shaping of Feminine Identities; Medieval and Early Modern Travel; Text and Image, Manuscript to Print; Medieval Race, Now and Then

Honors

  • American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, Woodrow Wilson Foundation research fellowships
  • Kauffman and Ford Foundations, NEH (1989-1995, 2020-2023) program grants
  • Trustee (elected), New Chaucer Society, 2012-2016; Program Chair (Siena, Italy), 2010
  • Goergen Award for Artistry and Achievement in Undergraduate Teaching (College’s Highest Award and Prize), September 2001
  • Lifetime Achievement Award for Graduate Education, University of Rochester, 2017
  • Student Association Award, Professor of the Year in the Humanities, April 2001
  • Annual Edward Peck Curtis Award, Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher (University of Rochester’s Highest Prize), 1995-96
  • Founding Member, International Association for Robin Hood Studies; Advisory Board, IARHS
  • Convenor / Co-convenor of international conferences: Older Scots Literature and Culture (Rochester NY, 2016); Robin Hood, Media Creature (Rochester, 2009); Cultural Transformations of Robin Hood (Rochester, 1997); History-Text-Theory: Reconceiving Chaucer (Rochester, 1988)
  • General Editor, The Chaucer Bibliographies (University of Toronto Press)