Office Location: 402 Allen Building
Office Phone: (919) 684-5065
Email Address: aers@duke.edu

Education:

Doctor of Philosophy, University of York

Specialties:

Medieval Literature
Renaissance/Early Modern Literature

David Aers works especially on medieval theology, ecclesiology, literature, and culture in England but these interests extend into the Reformation. His publications in this area include Piers Plowman and Christian Allegory (Arnold 1975), Chaucer, Langland and the Creative Imagination (Routledge, 1980), Literature , Language and Society in England , 1580-1680 , written with bob hodge and gunther kress ( barnes and noble , 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). In 2004 he published SANCTIFYING SIGNS : Making Tradition in Late Medieval England (Notre Dame). He is the coeditor of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. He has recently published a book entitled SALVATION AND SIN : Augustine, Langland and the Fourteenth Century (Notre Dame University Press, 2009) . He is now working on studies of Langland's PIERS PLOWMAN and the writngs of JOHN MILTON in relation to Christian traditions , theology and political culture . David Aers is the James B. Duke Chair of English and Religious Studies and Historical Theology and also has an appointment in the Divinity School.

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. "The Beauty of the Infinite: A Question From the Margin." Theology Today 64 (2007): 139-149.
2.  Sanctifying Signs: Making Christian Tradition in Late Medieval England. Notre Dame University Press, 2004. 284 pp.
3. with S. Beckwith and J. Simpson. ReFormations. Series of books in trans-Reformation studies,  Notre Dame University Press, 2007-  (Books in series to date: Patricia Badir, "The Maudlin Impression: English Literary Images of Mary Magdalene, 1550–1700"; Robert W. Barrett, Jr., "Against All England: Regional Identity and Cheshire Writing, 1195–1656"; Alice Dailey, "The English Martyr: From Reformation to Revolution"; Clare Costley King'oo, "Miserere Mei: The Penitential Psalms in Late Medieval and Early Modern England"; Lynn Staley, "The Island Garden: England’s Language of Nation from Gildas to Marvell"; Nancy Bradley Warren, "The Embodied Word: Female Spiritualities, Contested Orthodoxies, and English Religious Cultures, 1350–1700")
4. ed. with S. Beckwith. Reform and Cultural Revolution: Writing English Literary History 1350-1547. JMEMS (special issue) 35.1 (2005).