Ben Obernolte

Research Interests:

I’m a PhD candidate specializing in medieval literature. I’m mainly interested in how texts represent different types of characters, especially in regard to gender and class. My dissertation work centers on how characters interact across gender and class in the Old French fabliaux and pastourelles, the pastorelas in Old Occitan, and the serranillas in Old Castilian. I have presented at national and international conferences on these topics, including work on authorial voice in a chanson de geste called Raoul de Cambrai as well as on notions of masculinity, femininity, and humanity in the Old Castilian Libro de buen amor. I enjoy bringing my research interests into the classroom where I have taught the first four semesters of lower division French, as well as oral expression and pronunciation courses in English at Université Paris VII-Diderot. I also co-led a workshop called “Representations of the Premodern in Film” sponsored by the Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World and participated in a Latin reading group.