Suzanne Conklin Akbari

Biography

Suzanne Conklin Akbari is professor of English and Medieval Studies, and was educated at Johns Hopkins and Columbia. Her research focuses on the intersection of English and Comparative Literature with intellectual history and philosophy, ranging from neo-platonism and science in the twelfth century to national identity and religious conflict in the fifteenth century. Akbari's books are on optics and allegory (Seeing Through the Veil), European views of Islam and the Orient (Idols in the East), and travel literature (Marco Polo); she is currently at work on Small Change: Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Chaucer and Christine de Pizan. She is volume editor for the Norton Anthology of World Literature (Volume B: 100-1500), co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Western Literature, and editor of The Oxford Handbook to Chaucer. She has begun a new research project called The Shape of Time, contrasting the temporal breaks found in medieval chronicle traditions with poetic narrations of the historical past. Akbari is cross-appointed to the following units: Centre for Medieval Studies; Centre for Comparative Literature; Centre for Jewish Studies; Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations; Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Suzanne Conklin Akbari is professor of English and Medieval Studies, and was educated at Johns Hopkins and Columbia. Her research focuses on the intersection of English and Comparative Literature with intellectual history and philosophy, ranging from neo-platonism and science in the twelfth century to national identity and religious conflict in the fifteenth century. Akbari's books are on optics and allegory (Seeing Through the Veil), European views of Islam and the Orient (Idols in the East), and travel literature (Marco Polo); she is currently at work on Small Change: Metaphor and Metamorphosis in Chaucer and Christine de Pizan. She is volume editor for the Norton Anthology of World Literature (Volume B: 100-1500), co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Western Literature, and editor of The Oxford Handbook to Chaucer. She has begun a new research project called The Shape of Time, contrasting the temporal breaks found in medieval chronicle traditions with poetic narrations of the historical past. Akbari is cross-appointed to the following units: Centre for Medieval Studies; Centre for Comparative Literature; Centre for Jewish Studies; Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations; Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies.

Research Interest

English and Medieval Studies