Assistant Professor
For a CV please click here.
Micah Goodrich [he/they] is assistant professor of English with affiliations in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Global Medieval Studies at Boston University. He received his PhD at the University of Connecticut in 2020. Their book manuscript “Mercurial Natures: Trans Hermeneutics and Chaucerian Bodytexts” details a literary history of bodily and textual mutability in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer. Their approach to Chaucer’s archive is informed by recent work in medieval gender and sexuality studies and the history of the body, which they bring into conversation with the methodologies of transgender studies.
Micah’s areas of interest include medieval and early modern literature, trans studies, history of the body, queer theory, hermeneutics and interpretation, nature, alchemy, Chaucer, and Langland. His work is forthcoming in Diacritics (co-authored with Danielle Allor), A Cultural History of Gender, 500-1400 CE, and The Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West. Currently, he is co-editing with J.D. Sargan A Cultural History of Trans Lives, 300-1450. Micah serves on the Editorial Board of postmedieval.
Micah teaches courses on a variety of medieval genres – including poetry, hagiography, scientific and medical texts, and histories – literary theory and criticism, and classes on trans and queer studies. In the classroom, Micah is inspired by alternative medias (self-published zines, informational pamphlets, and independent presses) and DIY histories to center creation and communication. As they tell their students, “DIY” in this mode does not mean “Do It Yourself” in the sense of isolated work; rather, it is a process of equipping the self with the tools needed to enact a creative vision. It is the practice of creating without the aid of professionals and with limited or differently sourced resources.
Teaching and Research Interests
Medieval and early modern literature
Literary theory
Literary history of the body
Gender, sexuality, embodiment
Dream visions, personification, allegory
Medieval natural philosophy and science
Premodern transgender studies
Premodern critical race studies
Selected Publications
Forthcoming – “An Herbal Triptych: Queer Intimacies and the Vegetal Middle Ages,” in “Queer Environs” Special Issue in Diacritics, ed. Austin Lillywhite and Nicole Seymour. Co-Authored with Danielle Allor.
Forthcoming – “Philosophy and Science,” in A Cultural History of Gender, 500-1400CE, eds. Susan Broomhall and Clare Davidson. (Bloomsbury Series, 2025)
Forthcoming – “Medieval Intersex: Discourses and Discontents”,” in The Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West, eds. Jenny Bledsoe and Michelle Sauer. (Arc Humanities Press, 2025)
“Trans Antagonisms and Affirmations in Henry Medwall’s Nature,” in Special Issue “Medieval Trans Natures” for Medieval Ecocriticisms 4.1 (2024): 117-138.
“Trans Animacies and Premodern Alchemies,” in Medieval Mobilities: Gendered Bodies, Spaces, and Movements, eds. Jane Bonsall, Meagan Khoury, and Basil Arnould Price. The New Middle Ages Series. (Palgrave, 2023): 199-223.
“The Yeoman’s Canon: On Toxic Mentors,” in the “Historicizing Consent” Colloquium, eds. Carissa Harris and Fiona Somerset, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44 (2022): 297-306.
“Maimed Limbs and Biosalvation: Rehabilitation Politics in Piers Plowman,” in Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before the Modern, eds. Anna Kłosowska, Greta LaFleur, and Masha Raskolnikov (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021): 353-395.
Work in Progress
“Mercurial Natures: Trans Hermeneutics and Chaucerian Bodytexts” (Monograph)
“Trans Studies and Critical Disability Studies,” in The Oxford Handbook of Disability and Literatures in English, c. 700–1500, ed. Richard H. Godden, Tory Pearman, Leah Pope-Parker. (Expected 2026)
“Poetic Making and the Trans- Middle Ages,” in The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Late Medieval English Literature, ed. Holly Crocker. (Expected 2026). Co-Authored with Gabrielle M.W. Bychowski.
“Introduction: What is Gender?” in A Cultural History of Trans Lives, 300-1450 with J.D. Sargan. (Bloomsbury, projected 2027)