Dr. Morris received his PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, with a specialization in the medieval literature of the British Isles. He reads and teaches literature written in Old Engish (such as Beowful), Middle English (such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales), Old and Middle Irish (such as Táin Bó Cuailnge “The Cattle Raid of Cooley”), and Latin (such as Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica). If it’s old, Dr. Morris probably teaches it! Dr. Morris also researches and teaches the folk traditions of Ireland and, more recently, the Pennsylvania Dutch. His popular Synthesis course, “Pennsylvania Dutch Culture and History,” explores the cultural riches of Berks County and the surrounding area, and teaches students the basics of the Pennsylvania German language. In his “Traditional Arts in Ireland” course, students spend two weeks doing fieldwork in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, and in Carna, a rural Irish-Gaelic-speaking village on the west coast. Dr. Morris loves providing students with these in-person opportunities to study local cultures.

• Medieval English and Irish literature

• History of the English language

• Irish folklore and folk traditions

• Pennsylvania Dutch culture

• Versecraft in traditional English literature

Books

Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents: Vol. 2 The Middle Ages and Renaissance (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008).

General Editor, Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents, 3 vols. (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008). Received a Booklist Starred Review.

Editor, Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life through History, Vol. 3: 15th and 16th Centuries (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004). Won multiple awards, including Choice Outstanding Academic Title, Library Journal Best Reference Source, New York Public Library Best Reference, and several others.

Articles

“‘Aristocracies of thought’: social class in the early folklore of Yeats and Hyde,” Irish Studies Review 18.3 (2010): 299-313.

“How Can an Interdisciplinary Research Program Be Managed Effectively?”, with David Osgood, and Kennon Rice, CURQuarterly 30.2 (2009): 16-20.

“Models and Assessment of Collaborative Research in the Arts and Humanities,” with Teresa Gilliams, Kristen Woodward, Kennon Rice, and David Osgood, CUR Focus on the Web 29.1 (2008): 34-7.

“Race, Language, and Social Class in Seventeenth-Century Ireland,” Études Irlandaises 32.1 (2007): 61-76.

“Saints in Society: Recent Trends in Hagiography,” Peer English 1 (2006): 64-7.

“Did Columba’s Tunic Bring Rain? Early Medieval Typological Action and Modern Historical Method,” Quaestio: Selected Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic 1 (2000): 45-65.