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Lara Farina

Associate Professor

Curriculum Vitae

Lara Farina specializes in British and continental medieval literature, sensory studies, and histories of gender and sexuality. She is the author of Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing (Palgrave 2006) and has published articles about eroticized reading practices, medieval women’s devotional literature, and queer approaches to the history of sexuality. She is also an editor of the award-winning journal, postmedieval (https://link.springer.com/journal/41280 ). Her current research focuses on medieval ideas about sensation, particularly the sense of touch and imaginations of non-human forms of perception. She teaches undergraduate courses on British Literature (ENGL 261), Chaucer (ENGL 361), and The Literature of the Middle Ages (ENGL 360). At the graduate level, she has offered courses in medieval topics such as “Visions and Wonders,” “Blasphemy,” and “Textual Communities.”

Specializations:

  • Medieval Literature
  • Sensory Studies
  • History of Sexuality
  • History of Reading

Selected Publications:

Book:
  • Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing. NY: Palgrave, 2006.
Edited Collection:
  • The Intimate Senses: Taste, Touch, and Smell. postmedieval 3.4, 2012.
  • The Middle Shore. (an online space for affective collecting/collections, forthcoming from Electric Press, 2017).
Recent Articles:
  • (with Katherine Richards) “Working and Playing on the Middle Shore.” In Digital Medieval Cultures, ed. Jen Boyle and Helen J. Burgess. Routledge, forthcoming.
  • "Get a Grip?: The Tactile Object of Handlyng Synne.” In Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions Through History. Ed. Stephanie Downes and Sarah Randles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2018.
  • "The Ocean Air / Breathing Together.” In The Middle Shore, ed. Lara Farina and Katherine Richards. Online: Electric Press, 2017.
  • "Curl." In Veer Ecology, ed. Jeffrey J. Cohen and Lowell Duckert. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
  • "Missing Something? Queer Desire.” in Clinical Encounters: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory, ed. Noreen Giffney and Eve Watson. Brooklyn: Punctum, 2016.
  • "Sticking Together.” in Burn After Reading/The Future We Want. Ed. Jeffrey J. Cohen, Eileen A. Joy, and Myra Seaman. Brooklyn: Punctum, 2014.
  • "Wondrous Skins and Tactile Affection: The Blemmyae’s Touch.” in Reading Skin in Medieval Literature and Culture, ed. Katie Walter. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.
  • "Intimate Senses/Sensing Intimacy.” postmedieval 3.4 (2012).
  • "Once More with Feeling: Tactility and Cognitive Alterity, Medieval and Modern.” postmedieval 3.3 (2012).
  • "Women and Reading.” in History of British Women’s Writing, Vol. 1 (1350-1500), ed. Liz Herbert McAvoy and Diane Watt. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
  • "Queer History and Erotic Reading.” in The Lesbian Premodern, ed. Noreen Giffney, Michelle Sauer, and Dianne Watt. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011.
  • "Money, Books, and Prayers: Anchoresses and Exchange in Thirteenth-Century England.” in Women, Wealth, and Power in Medieval Europe, ed. Theresa Earenfight. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010.
Work In Progress:
  • "Sensing Species and Foliate Language.” For “Premodern Plants” (postmedieval 9.4, winter 2018), ed. Robert Barrett and Vin Nardizzi.
  • Tactile Readings, a book on medieval and modern touch.