Kristin Bovaird-Abbo

Ph.D., University of Kansas, Dissertation: Geoffrey Chaucer’s use of the Arthurian legend

Full Professor, English, University of Northern Colorado

Prof. Bovaird-Abbo’s areas of special interest include medieval language and literature, particularly Middle English and Arthurian studies, and she regularly teaches classes on Medieval Literature, History of the English Language, Linguistics, the Arthurian Legend (medieval to modern), Speculative Fiction, The History of the Book, Young Adult Literature, Medievalism, and J. R. R. Tolkien. 

Her current research project explores the effects of gender and class on depictions of the Arthurian character of Gawain in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English romances, particularly in terms of Gawain’s interactions with women and younger knights, as a reflection of changing values among the English gentry. 

• “The Great River and the Great War: Entering the Trenches of World War I in the Fellowship of the Ring.” Critical Insights: J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Joseph Michael Sommers. Grey House Publishing. (Forthcoming) 

• “‘We beoð under uote’: Ecofeminism in Layamon’s Brut and the Women of Scotland.” Medieval Ecocriticisms. Ed. Heide Estes. Amsterdam University Press. (Forthcoming) 

• “Harts, Hounds, Humans: Hunting in A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode.” The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies 5.1 (2024): 26-47.  

• “Safe Behind Doors? Sleep Deprivation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Arthuriana 32.3 (2022): 3-19. 

• “Switching Shields in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”.” Becoming the Pearl-Poet: Perceptions, Connections, Receptions. Ed. Jane Beal. Rowman & Littlefield, Lexington Books, 2022. 169-181. 

• Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Texts. Eds. Melissa Ridley Elmes, Kristin Bovaird-Abbo. Routledge, 2021. 

• “Why an Issue on “The Medieval in Children’s Literature”?” Special Issue: “The Medieval in Children’s Literature,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 4 (2020): 301-307. 

• “Redeeming Wastelands, Building Communities in the Old English Guthlac A.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 24, no. 2, 2017: 196–223. 

• “In the Shadow of Balder: Breaking the Cycle of Ragnarok in American Gods.” Critical Insights: Neil Gaiman. Ed. Joseph Michael Sommers. Grey House Publishing, 2016: 31-46. 

• “Is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Thopas a Rape Narrative? Reading Thopas in light of the 1382 Statute of Rapes.” Quidditas 35 (2014): 7-28. 

• “Neglected yet Noble: Nyneve and Female Heroism in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur.” A Quest of Her Own: Essays on the Female Hero in Modern Fantasy. Ed. Lori M. Campbell. McFarland, 2014. 35-54. 

• “Tough Talk or Tough Love: Lynet and the Construction of Feminine Identity in Thomas Malory’s Tale of Sir Gareth.” Arthuriana, vol. 24, no. 2 (2014): 126-157. 

• “‘Reirdit on ane riche roche beside ane riveir’: Martial Landscape and James IV of Scotland in The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane.” Neophilogus, vol. 98, no. 4 (2014): 675-688. 

• “Sire Nonnes Preest’—Reading Lancelot in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” CEA Critic, vol. 76, no. 1 (2014): 84-97. 

• “Alison’s Antithesis in The Marriage of Sir Gawain.” Medieval Feminist Forum, vol. 49, no. 2 (2013): 29–69. 

• “‘he is com of full noble bloode’: The Brotherly Love of Gareth and Gawain in Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur.” Enarratio, vol. 17 (2010): 91-105.