Robert Sturges is a professor of English at ASU. He has taught at M.I.T., Wesleyan University, and the University of New Orleans. His doctorate in comparative literature is from Brown University.
Sturges' teaching and research interests include medieval literature (especially Chaucer), the Bible as literature, critical theory, gender studies, lesbian/gay/queer studies, and opera. He has published six books: "Medieval Interpretation: Models of Reading in Literary Narratve, 1100-1500" (1991), an investigation of how late medieval hermeneutics are manifested in literary texts; "Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse" (2000), which examines the Pardoner in light of contemporary theory; "Dialogue and Deviance: Male-Male Desire in the Dialogue Genre (Plato to Aelred, Plato to Sade, Plato to the Postmodern)" (2005), whose lengthy title is self-explanatory; "Law and Sovereignty in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" (2011), an edited collection of essays; "Aucassin and Nicolette" (2015), a facing-page edition and translation of the 13th-century French romance; and "The Circulation of Power in Medieval Biblical Drama: Theaters of Authority" (2015), an investigation of the ways in which resistance to various modes of power is depicted in medieval drama. Along with his collaborator in the UK, Elizabeth Urquhart, he is also working on an edition of a Middle English devotional work, the "Middle English Pseudo-Augustinian Soliloquies," a text he was the first to identify correctly.
Sturges' most recent essays are "Race, Sex, Slavery: reading Fanon with Aucassin et Nicolette," postmedieval 6.1 (2015), 12-22; "Medievalisms in Contemporary Opera," in Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture, ed. Gail Ashton (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 22-31; and "The Guise and the Two Jerusalems: Joinville's Vie de saint Louis and an Early Modern Family's Medievalism," in Aspiration, Representation, and Memory: The Guise in Europe, 1506-1688, ed. Jessica Munns, Penny Richards, and Jonathan Spangler (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2015), 25-46. He has essays forthcoming on Merlin and on Aucassin and Nicolette.
Medieval literature (especially Chaucer) and medievalism, the Bible as literature, critical theory, gender studies, lesbian/gay/queer studies, opera
Ambler, Ben, and Robert S. Sturges. “Aelred of Rievaulx’s Queer Time and Space.” In preparation.
Sturges, Robert S., and Elizabeth Urquhart, eds. The Middle English Pseudo-Augustinian Soliloquies and its Anti-Lollard Commentary. In preparation.
Sturges, Robert S. “‘Edele Herzen’ and Identity Categories in Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan.” In preparation.
Sturges, Robert S. “Toward a Queer Chaucer Edition.” In preparation.
Sturges, Robert S. “Oscar Wilde’s Last Gasp: Echo de Paris.” In preparation.
Sturges, Robert S. “Vision and Touch: Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Chaucer.” In Chaucer and the Italian Renaissance, ed. Helen Fulton. In preparation. Book proposal under review at Boydell and Brewer.
Sturges, Robert S. “Beaucaire, ‘Cartage,’ Torelore: The Imaginary Mediterranean’s Queer Carnival in Aucassin et Nicolette.” In Queering the Mediterranean, ed. Felipe Rojas and Peter Thompson. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. Essay completed and accepted. 5,528 words.
Sturges, Robert S. “Animal/Merlin/Demon.” In Beasts, Humans, and Transhumans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Eugene Clay. Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming. Essay completed and accepted. 8,704 words.
Spring 2021 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
ENG 400 | History of Literary Criticism |
Spring 2020 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 401 | Topics in Critical Theory |
ENG 632 | Adv Studies Med/Ren Lit/Cultur |
Fall 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
ENG 400 | History of Literary Criticism |
Spring 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
Fall 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
ENG 400 | History of Literary Criticism |
Spring 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 320 | Medievalism in Modern Culture |
ENG 400 | History of Literary Criticism |
Fall 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 401 | Topics in Critical Theory |
ENG 602 | Adv Studies Theory/Criticism |
Spring 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
Fall 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
Summer 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ENG 356 | The Bible as Literature |
Plenary sessions:
“Pieces of Gower: University Pedagogy and the Middle Ages.” International Gower Society conference. Queen Mary University, London, England. July, 2008.
“Sodomy and Sense: Bodily (In)Visibility in The Gast of Gy.” “Seeing Gender” conference. King’s College, London, England. January, 2002.
Invited lectures and seminars:
Robert S. Sturges. The Circulation of Power in Medieval Drama. Invited lecture and seminar. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. March, 2014.
Robert S. Sturges. Merlin: the Limits of the Human.” Simpson lecture. University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia. April, 2011.
Robert S. Sturges. The Guise and the Two Jerusalems. Symposium on The Guise Century (Nov 2010).
“Error, Queer Manuscripts, and Straight Editing: The Case of the Pardoner.” New Chaucer Society conference. London. July, 2016.
“Aelred of Rievaulx’s Queer Time and Space.” With Ben Ambler. “New Approaches to the Histories of Christianity and Same-Sex Desire” conference. Birkbeck College, University of London. September, 2015.
“Queer Time and Resistant Spirituality: From the Planctus Mariae to the NAMES Project.” “The Coming of Age of LGBTQ Studies: Past, Present, and Future Directions” conference. San Diego State University. April, 2015.
“Things Getting Things Done in Medieval Biblical Drama.” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference. Scottsdale, Arizona. February, 2015.
“Toward a Queer Chaucer Edition.” New Chaucer Society conference. Reykjavik, Iceland. July, 2014.
“Animal/Merlin/Demon.” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference. Phoenix, AZ. February, 2013.
“Vision and Touch in Plato, Aristotle, Dante, and Chaucer.” New Chaucer Society conference. Portland, OR. July, 2012.
“Le Roman de Silence: Merlin at the Limit of the Human.” Humain/Animal: La Société internationale des médiévistes conference. Paris. June, 2012.
“Ethnicity, Slavery, and the Erotic in Two Thirteenth-Century Romances.” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference. Tempe, AZ. February, 2012.
“Frozen River and The Second Shepherds’ Play: Landscape, Class, Miracle.” International Conference on Medievalism, University of New Mexico. October, 2011.
“Desire and Devotion, Vision and Touch in Dante’s Vita nuova.” Medieval Academy of America meeting. Tempe, AZ. April, 2011.
“Visual and Tactile Pleasures: The Idolatrous Gaze in Troilus and Criseyde.” New Chaucer Society conference. Siena, Italy. July, 2010.
“The Raw and the Cooked in the Roman de Silence.” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference. Tempe, AZ. February, 2010.