Assistant Professor
For a CV please click here.
Micah Goodrich [he/they] is assistant professor of English at Boston University. Their book manuscript, “Chronic Bodies: Transforming Nature in Medieval Literature,” details a literary history of body transformation within medieval discourses of nature. He is interested in how medieval authors invoke the cultural power of Nature and “the natural” to highlight the possibilities and presumed limits of the body’s transformative potential and capacity to self-create. Micah’s other interests include trans studies, queer theory, alchemy, Chaucer, Langland, Lollards, leprosy, and mysticism. 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, as well as a special issue on “Medieval Trans Natures” in Medieval Ecocriticisms. Currently, Micah is co-editing with J.D. Sargan A Cultural History of Trans Lives, 300-1450.
Micah teaches courses on a variety of medieval genres – including poetry, 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. As a trans literary scholar, Micah is fascinated by and indebted to this underground textual moment.
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
“The Yeoman’s Canon: Disclosure, Complaint, and the Labor of Consent,” in the “Historicizing Consent” Colloquium, eds. Carissa Harris and Fiona Somerset, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer (2022), Invited Contribution. Forthcoming
“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, Nov 2021), Invited Contribution
“Ycrammed ful of cloutes and of bones: Chaucer’s Queer Cavities,” in Medieval Futurity: Essays for the Future of a Queer Medieval Studies, eds. Will Rogers and Christopher Michael Roman. New Queer Medievalisms Series (De Gruyter, Medieval Institute Publications, Nov 2020)
“The Flyting of The Owl and the Nightingale, Animacy, and Species Division,” Early Middle English 2.1 (2020): 1-31.
“Lolling and the Suspension of Salvation in Piers Plowman,” Yearbook of Langland Studies 33 (2019): 13-42.
Special Issue
“Medieval Studies: The Stakes of the Field,” Introduction to “Race, Revulsion, and Revolution in Medieval Studies,” postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 11.4 (2020). Co-Edited with Mary Rambaran-Olm and M. Breann Leake
Work in Progress
Chronic Bodies: Trans Natures and Premodern Temporalities (Monograph)
“Intersex (“Hermaphrodite”),” in The Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West, eds. Jenny Bledsoe and Michelle Sauer. Invited Contribution (Book Chapter)
“Trans Animacies and Premodern Alchemies,” in Troubling Mobilities, eds. Jane Bonsall, Meagan Khoury, and Basil Arnould Price. The New Middle Ages Series. Invited Contribution. Under Review with Palgrave (Book Chapter)