Kristen Mills

Academic interests
I research the history of emotions (focusing on grief and mourning), the cultural history of death and dying, and constructions of gender in the literatures of medieval Ireland, Britain, and Iceland.
My current project is a comparative study of how medieval authors/redactors use depictions of burial, death, and the dead to articulate and emphasize connections between place and identity, in order to advance claims of cultural, ancestral primacy over contested or colonized landscapes. The main focus of the project will be on vernacular and Latin texts composed in Ireland and Britain (primarily Wales and the Welsh Marches) during and after the period of Norman colonization, but I will also be looking at texts from medieval Iceland and Anglo-Saxon England.
Background
Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 2012
Dissertation Title: “Grief, Gender, and Mourning in Medieval North Atlantic Literature”
M.A. in Medieval Studies, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 2006
B.A. in English (magna cum laude), Cornell University, 2005
Positions held
- Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Haverford College (2015-17)
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Lecturer, Program in Celtic Studies, University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto (2014-2015)
- Lecturer, Department of English, Trent University (2014-2015)
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Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Celtic Studies, St. Francis Xavier University (2013-14)
Courses taught
- Cross-Cultural Lament Traditions, Haverford College
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Living with the Dead: Attitudes towards Death in Medieval Britain, Haverford College
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Legends of Arthur, Haverford College
- Vikings, Haverford College
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The Celtic Book, University of Toronto
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Celtic Folklore, University of Toronto
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Celtic Literature and Society, 400-1500, University of Toronto
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Foundations in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Trent University
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Celtic Civilization I, St. Francis Xavier University
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Celtic Civilization II, St. Francis Xavier University
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Celtic Christianity, St. Francis Xavier University
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Celtic Paganism, St. Francis Xavier University
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Celtsploitation: Celts in Pop Culture, St. Francis Xavier University
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Arthurian Tradition in Britain, St. Francis Xavier University
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Ecclesiastical Latin I, Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Toronto
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Ecclesiastical Latin II, Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Toronto
Publications
- Mills, Kristen (2020). 'Murnan on Mode': Grief in Early Medieval England, In Maren Clegg Hyer & Gale R. Owen-Crocker (ed.), Sense and Feeling in Daily Living in the Early Medieval English World. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781789621440. Chapter 9. s 158 - 176
- Mills, Kristen (2019). Death, women, and power: theme and structure in Reicne Fothaid Canainne. Ériu. ISSN 0332-0758. 68, s 65- 98 . doi: 10.3318/eriu.2018.68.7 Full text in Research Archive.
- Mills, Kristen (2019). Glossing the Glosses: The Right Marginal Notes on Glaidomuin and Gudomhuin in TCD MS 1337. Studia Celtica Fennica. ISSN 1795-097X. 15, s 65- 82 Full text in Research Archive.
- Mills, Kristen (2019). The Corpse and the Conqueror: The Curious Afterlife of Ívarr inn beinlausi. Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP). ISSN 0363-6941. 118(4), s 544- 570 . doi: 10.5406/jenglgermphil.118.4.0544 Full text in Research Archive.
- Mills, Kristen (2018). Fet, gol, and éigem. Studia Celtica. ISSN 0081-6353. 52(1), s 53- 65 . doi: 10.16922/SC.52.3 Full text in Research Archive.
- Mills, Kristen & Hill, Thomas (2018). The (Pregnant) Mouse Freed from the Gallows: A Ballad Parallel for the Conclusion of Manawydan fab Llŷr. Folklore. ISSN 0015-587X. 129(3), s 302- 315 . doi: 10.1080/0015587X.2018.1473108 Full text in Research Archive.
- Mills, Kristen (2017). “Celts, Theorists and Other ‘Others’”. Medieval Feminist Forum (MFF). ISSN 1536-8742. s 73- 88 . doi: 10.17077/1536-8742.2088
- Mills, Kristen (2017). “Does _Heilagt Tafn_ in _Húsdrápa_ mean ‘Holy Sacrifice’? Reassessing the Evidence”. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. ISSN 1782-7183. 13, s 145- 164 . doi: 10.1484/j.vms.5.114354
- Mills, Kristen (2015). “An Irish Motif in Guta saga”. Folklore. ISSN 0015-587X. 126, s 1- 17 . doi: 10.1080/0015587x.2015.1047208
- Mills, Kristen (2015). "Emotion and Gesture in Hroðgar’s Farewell to Beowulf", In Alice Jorgensen (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Emotions: Reading the Heart in Old English Language, Literature and Culture. Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4724-2169-2. Chapter 10. s 163 - 175
- Mills, Kristen (2014). “Grief, Gender, and Genre: Male Weeping in Snorri’s Account of Baldr’s Death, Kings’ Sagas, and _Gesta Danorum_”. Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP). ISSN 0363-6941. 113, s 472- 496
- Mills, Kristen (2013). "Sorrow and Conversion in _Acallam na Senórach_". Éigse: A Journal of Irish Studies. ISSN 0013-2608. 38, s 1- 19