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David Aers, James B. Duke Professor of English and Religious Studies

Contact Info:

Office Location:	402 Allen Building
Office Phone:	(919) 684-2741
Email Address:

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• ENGLISH 338S.01, MILTON Synopsis

  Allen 318, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as MEDREN 337S.01)

• XTIANTHE 890.01, THEOLOGICAL TOPICS Synopsis

  Langford 060, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• ENGLISH 890S.04, SPECIAL TOPICS SEMINAR Synopsis

  Divinity TBA, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• HISTTHEO 890.01, TOPICS HISTORICAL THEOL Synopsis

  Divinity TBA, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

Office Hours:

By appointment

Education:

Ph.D.	University of York (United Kingdom)	1971
Doctor of Philosophy	University of York	1971
BA (included MA)	Cambridge University	1968
B.A.	University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)	1968

Specialties:

Medieval Literature
Renaissance/Early Modern Literature

Research Interests: Medieval Literature

David Aers works especially on late medieval and early modern literature, religion and culture in England. His publications in this area include Piers Plowman and Christian Allegory (Arnold 1975), Chaucer, Langland and the Creative Imagination (Routledge, 1980), Chaucer (Harvester, 1983), Community, Gender and Individual Identity, 1360-1430 (Routledge, 1988), Powers of the Holy, written with Lynn Staley (Penn State, 1996), and two edited volumes, Medieval Literature: Criticism, Ideology, History (Harvester, 1986) and Culture and History, 1350-1600 (Wayne State, 1992). In 2000 he published Faith, Ethics, and Church: Writing in England 1360-1410 (Brewer) and a collection of essays entitled Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall (Brewer). He has also published on seventeenth-century and late-eighteenth to early nineteenth century writing and been coeditor of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. He is James B. Duke Chair of English.

Areas of Interest:

British Literature
Literature
Culture/Medieval/Early Modern Literature

Keywords:

Europe • England • Medieval Literature • Religion

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• William Revere  
• Hannah VanderHart  
• Grace Hamman  
• Matthew Whelan  
• Jessica N. Hines  
• Jack Bell  
• William Revere  
• William Revere  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Aers, D, Langland on the church and the end of the cardinal virtues, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 42 no. 1 (December, 2012), pp. 59-81, Duke University Press, ISSN 1082-9636 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]  [abs]
2. Aers, D, Salvation and Sin: Augustine, Langland, and Fourteenth-Century Theology (April, 2009), pp. 1-284, Notre Dame University Press
3. Aers, D, Sanctifying Signs: Making Christian Tradition in Late Medieval England (2004), pp. 284 pages, Notre Dame University Press