Geraldine Heng is Mildred Hajek Vacek and John Roman Vacek Chair in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Comparative Literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

(formerly Perceval Professor) at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where, as of November 2022, she was also affiliated with Middle Eastern studies, Women’s studies, Jewish Studies, and the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Social Justice. Heng's work focuses on literary, social and cultural encounters between societies in the period 500–1500 CE. She is noted as a key figure in the development of

postcolonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

approaches to the European

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, premodern critical race studies, and critical early global studies.

Education and career

Heng took her doctoral degree at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, completing her PhD thesis, ''Gender Magic: Desire, Romance, and the Feminine in

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of f ...

'', in 1990. Heng coedits the Cambridge University Press Elements series in the Global Middle Ages, and the University of Pennsylvania Press series, RaceB4Race: Critical Studies of the Premodern. She is also noted for the article 'State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race in Singapore', co-written with her husband Janadas Devan, critiquing social eugenics in Singapore. Among her various keynotes and plenaries, Heng was the keynote speaker at the 46th Annual New England Medieval Conference, 3 December 2020. Her talk was entitled 'The Politics of Race in the European Middle Ages'.

Books

* (ed.)
Teaching the Global Middle Ages
' New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2022. *
The Global Middle Ages: An Introduction
'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. *
England and the Jews: How Religion and Violence Created the First Racial State in the West
'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. *
The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages
'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. *
Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy
' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 2004, 2012),

Awards

Her book ''The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages'' (2018) won four awards, including the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profes ...

award for excellence in historical studies, the Otto Gründler book prize, the

Robert W. Hamilton Book Award The Professor Robert W. Hamilton Book Author Award is presented annually to the best book-length publication by a staff or faculty member of the University of Texas at Austin. It is chosen by a committee of various disciplines, who in turn were chos ...

grand prize, and the

Association of American Publishers The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal, and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercia ...

PROSE award for world history.

References

External links

* https://utexas.academia.edu/GeraldineHeng * http://www.globalmiddleages.org/ (a project founded by Heng) *Listen to the opening lecture at the 'Race and Periodization' Symposium, September 2019: https://www.folger.edu/institute/scholarly-programs/race-periodization/geraldine-heng {{DEFAULTSORT:Heng, Geraldine Living people Cornell University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing University of Texas at Austin faculty National University of Singapore alumni American academics of English literature Middle Eastern studies scholars Women's studies academics American women historians American medievalists 21st-century American historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people)