Seeta Chaganti is a medievalist and professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on Old and Middle English poetry and contemporary material culture.

Seeta Chaganti
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University (A.B.); Georgetown University (MA); Yale University (PhD).
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish studies
Sub-disciplineMedieval poetry
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Davis

Education

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Chaganti completed her A.B. at Harvard University in 1989, followed by an M.A. at Georgetown University in 1995.[1] Her MA dissertation was entitled Crossing the boundaries of substance and accident: rhetoric, ecclesiastical hypocrisy, and eucharistic language in The Pardoner's Tale.[2] She then completed a PhD at Yale University in 2001, with a thesis entitled Memorial and metamorphosis: the image of the reliquary in the poetry of medieval England and France.[3]

Career

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After completing her PhD, Chaganti joined the English department at UC Davis, where she continues to work. Her first book, entitled The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance, The New Middle Ages, was published in 2008 and built upon her PhD thesis for a study on the relationship between reliquaries and poetic form.[4]

In 2018, Chaganti published her second monograph on dance and medieval poetics. This won the Modern Language Association's 2018 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.[5][6]

Chaganti was appointed a Trustee of the New Chaucer Society for the period 2018–2022.[7] She has also been elected as a Councillor of the Medieval Academy of America for 2020–23.[8] In 2019, she served as a member of Medievalists of Color's steering committee,[9] and as of 2021 is an Executive Board Member of RaceB4Race.[10] She also served as an interim director for the Davis Humanities Institute in 2013.[11]

Throughout her academic career, Chaganti has been awarded various fellowships and awards. These include an Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Davis in 2014,[12] and an Outstanding Mentor Award from UC Davis' Consortium for Women and Research in 2012.[11] She was awarded a Davis Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship in 2015,[13] and a Society for the Humanities Fellowship at Cornell University in 2009.[14]

Chaganti's current research interests include a project on early English law's role in violence in the American South,[1] and a collaboration with Gabrielle Nevitt on poetic form and animal studies.[15]

Selected bibliography

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Monographs

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  • (2008) The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance, The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-60466-7.
  • (2018) Strange Footing: Poetic Form and Dance in the Late Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-54799-2.

Edited volumes

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  • (2012) Medieval poetics and social practice: responding to the work of Penn R. Szittya. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-823-24324-2

References

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  1. ^ a b "Seeta Chaganti | Department of English". Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  2. ^ Chaganti, Seeta (1995). Crossing the boundaries of substance and accident: rhetoric, ecclesiastical hypocrisy, and eucharistic language in The pardoner's tale (Thesis). OCLC 32163940.
  3. ^ Chaganti, Seeta (2001). Memorial and metamorphosis the image of the reliquary in the poetry of medieval England and France (Thesis). New Haven. OCLC 1068832240.
  4. ^ "09.11.15, Chaganti, The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary | The Medieval Review". scholarworks.iu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  5. ^ "Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies..." Modern Language Association. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  6. ^ Reporter, India-West Staff. "UC Davis Professor Seeta Chaganti Honored by Modern Language Association of America for Her Book". India West. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  7. ^ "The New Chaucer Society › About the Society". newchaucersociety.org. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  8. ^ "Governance Officers and Councillors - The Medieval Academy of America". Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  9. ^ "Statement of Support for Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm – Medievalists of Color". Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  10. ^ "RaceB4Race® | Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies". acmrs.asu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  11. ^ a b WebDev, I. E. T. (2013-01-10). "Chaganti leads Davis Humanities Institute during search for new director". UC Davis. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  12. ^ WebDev, I. E. T. (2014-04-29). "Senate, federation awards: And the winners are …". UC Davis. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  13. ^ epo (2020-09-03). "Past Faculty Research Fellowships". UC Davis Humanities Institute. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  14. ^ "2009-10: Networks/Mobilities | Society for the Humanities Cornell Arts & Sciences". societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  15. ^ "Seeta Chaganti: MRGSA Symposium Keynote Lecture - Bodies in Motion". cmrs.osu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.