Rita Copeland

Rita Copeland’s research interests span many fields and periods and include medieval literature; intellectuals, learning, and literacy in medieval Europe; the reception of classical traditions in medieval and early modern Europe; literary theory from ancient to early modern; and the history of rhetoric.

Copeland is a member of the Department of Classical Studies; she has a secondary appointment in the Department of English and is a member of the graduate group in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, of which she is a former chair. Copeland recently co-authored Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory AD 300-1475 with Ineke Sluiter and co-edited The Cambridge Companion to Allegory with Peter Struck, Professor of Classical Studies. Her previous books include Pedagogy, Intellectuals, and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages: Lollardy and Ideas of Learning and Criticism and Dissent in the Middle Ages. Additionally, she is the co-founder and co-editor of the Medieval Cultures Series from the University of Minnesota Press.

In fall 2010, Copeland was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem and worked in the research group Encountering Scripture. She is a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies this spring.