Office: 105 Martin Hall

Phone: (919) 760-8335

Email: pittsb@meredith.edu

Home Address: 2818 Mayview Road

                        Raleigh, NC 27607-4143

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Current projects

 

A critical edition of Clement of Llanthony’s Gospel harmony in Anglo-Norman (Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, Liber niger, 34A-63A [Dean 483]); a critical edition of Geography of Asia and Africa {Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 69 (1670), ff. 196a-201a  [Dean 331]}; and a translation into modern English of several Miracles de Nostre Dame by Gautier de Coincy.

 

Book forthcoming

 

A critical edition of Revelacion, a 13th-century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse poem, as annual publication of Anglo-Norman Text Society (ANTS), London. Date of publication : 2009.

 

Articles forthcoming

 

 “Jump-starting a Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at a Small Comprehensive College,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (Spring 2007).

 

For Studies in Iconography, a review of David McKitterick, ed., The Trinity Apocalypse (Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.16.2) by David McKitterick, Nigel Morgan, Ian Short, and Teresa Webber, The British Library Studies in Medieval Culture (London and Toronto: The British Library and U of Toronto Press, 2005).

 

Articles submitted for consideration for publication

Entries albeston, blanc urs, camaleon, deshonesté, [devoider], escraventer, escravantee,  forpris mult poi, galieur, gelee, germeneis, gluiuse, lumissel, mote, reflairer, satir, sein,  sitacs, siticus, surgelee, suroree, [surtraveillee], treit, tuzdis puis, unduse and others submitted to Anglo-Norman Dictionary (Aug 2006), a project of the U of Wales Aberystwyth and the U of Wales Swansea and forthcoming at http://www.anglo-norman.net/.

 

Presentations and conference papers

 

“Foreign Language Assessment: Competency Testing, Program Review, and Other Efforts to Evaluate Outcomes and Effectiveness” (in collaboration), Assessment Conference of North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, Elon U, Elon, NC (May 2006);

“Using technology for foreign language competency testing at a comprehensive college” (in collaboration), 2006 Lilly South Conference on College and University Teaching, 17-19 Feb 2006, University of North Carolina-Greensboro;

 

“Jump-starting MedRen: Establishing a program at a small comprehensive college” (in collaboration), CARA  (Medieval Academy's Committee on Centers and Regional Associations) (2):

I. Teaching the Middle Ages in the Small Liberal Arts College, 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan U, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2005);

 “Early results of a new program of FL competency testing at a comprehensive college,” Conference of the International Society for Language Studies, Montreal (April 2005);

 

 “Divergence and definition in the lexicon of Revelacion,” Meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association  (SEMA), Charleston, SC (Oct 2004);

 

“Experiments in contextualized assessment in foreign language instruction” (in collaboration), Conference of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina (FLANC), Winston-Salem, NC (Oct 2003);

 

“La composition française en contexte : Phosphore-Cinéfil-Diabolo menthe,” paper invited by  North Carolina Chapter, American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), FLANC Conference, Winston-Salem, NC (Oct 2003);

 

“Word and Image in the Yorkshire Apocalypse,” 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan U, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2003);

 

“The fascination of the Anglo-Norman Revelacion,” faculty symposium (Apr 2003);

 

 “Developing on-line placement tests” (in collaboration), Tri-Tech 2003: Triangle Area Foreign Language Technology Conference, Duke U, Durham, NC (Feb 2003);

 

 “Revelacion in its medieval context,” presentation to the members of Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures (Oct 2002);

 

 “Internet français,” opening session of outreach workshop on Resources for the French Classroom, Duke/UNC Center for European Studies, Raleigh (Aug 1996);

 

 “Le français par la vidéo,” closing session of outreach workshop on Resources for the French Classroom, Duke/UNC Center for European Studies, Raleigh (Aug 1996);

 

 “Merchants and Merchantry in the Old French Fabliaux,” Meeting of the Philological Association of the Carolinas (PAC), College of Charleston, Charleston, SC (Mar 1994);

 

 “Fabliau Merchantry and Medieval Notions of Exchange,” Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference (MIFLC), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State U, Blacksburg, WV (Oct 1992);

 

“Banned in Amsterdam: The Old French Fabliaux in Context,” SEMA Meeting, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (Sept 1992);

 

“Le français en vedette: Using Feature Films in the French Classroom” (in collaboration), FLANC/SCOLT/AATF Joint Conference, Research Triangle Park (Oct 1991);

 

“Using Industry Profiles in Commercial French: A Survey of the Seventh Art,” MIFLC, East Carolina U, Greenville, NC (Oct 1991);

 

 “The Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Poem Reconsidered,” Plymouth Medieval Forum, Plymouth State U, Plymouth, NH  (Apr 1991);

 “Commerce, Memory, and Composition in the French Poems of Tristan,” SEMA Meeting, Rice U, Houston, TX (Oct 1989);

 

“Memory's Topography:  Journeys and Processions in the French Poems of Tristan,” MIFLC, Clemson U, Clemson, SC (Sept 1989);

 

“Toward a Poetics of Memory in the French Tristan Cycle,” PAC Meeting, Raleigh (Feb 1989);

 

 “Absence, Memory, and the Ritual of Love in Thomas's Roman de Tristan,” SEMA Meeting, U of Richmond, Richmond, VA (Oct 1988);

 

 “Rememoration and Reminiscence in Béroul's Roman de Tristan,” 23rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan U, Kalamazoo, MI (May 1988);

 

“The Role of the Hermit in Béroul's Roman de Tristan,” Fifteenth Annual Sewanee Mediaeval Colloquium, U of the South, Sewanee, TN (Apr 1988);

 

“The Path of Memory:  Narrative Imagination in Béroul's Roman de Tristan,” SEMA Meeting, Appalachian U, Boone, NC (Sept 1987);

 

“Business French:  Objectives and a Method,” MIFLC, Wake Forest U, Winston-Salem, NC (Oct 1986):

 

“Mock Merveilleux in the Old French Fabliaux,” 21st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan U, Kalamazoo, MI (May 1986);

 “Flaubert's Fabliaux,” SEMA Meeting, U of Georgia, Athens, GA (Oct 1986);

 

 “Truth-Seeking Discourse in the Old French Fabliaux,” PAC Meeting, U of NC at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (Mar 1984);

 

“Oath and Judgment:  Scènes de tribunal in the Old French Fabliaux,” SEMA Meeting, U of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (Oct 1983);

 

“Fish, Feast, and Famine in the Quinze joyes de mariage,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Convention, Atlanta, GA (Oct 1983);

“Imitation and Invention in Macé's Rhymed Gospels,” 18th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan U, Kalamazoo, MI (May 1983); and

 

“And Now a Word from Your Students: Rationales of Foreign Language Election,” SAMLA Convention, Atlanta (Nov 1982).

 

Publications

 

A critical edition of Le Livre des Régions, an early Anglo-Norman translation of Book XV of Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ 13th-c. encyclopedia, De proprietatibus rerum, Plain Texts Series 15 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 2006);

 ‘Towards Communicative Competency: Matching Teaching and Testing’ (in collaboration) Education Resources Information Center (ED493183, Sept 2006), available at http://www.eric.ed.gov; 

 

“The Middle English Apocalypse gloss in London, British Library MS Additional 18633” (in collaboration), Notes & Queries 53.3 (Sept 2006): 293-295 (also available at http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/53/3/293);

 

 “La composition française en contexte : Phosphore-Cinéfil-Diabolo menthe,” “Best Practices,” Center for European Studies, U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/ pedagogy/bestpractices/, Mar 2004;

 

 “Meredith College on-line Italian competency exit exam” (Dec 2004); “Meredith College on-line Latin competency exit exam” (Apr 2003; revised Nov 2004); “Meredith College on-line German competency exit exam” (Mar 2003); “Meredith College on-line Spanish competency exit exam” (Mar 2003); and “Meredith College on-line French competency exit exam” (Feb 2003); all in collaboration and available at http://courses.meredith.edu/;

 

“Meredith College on-line French placement test” and “Meredith College on-line Spanish placement test” (Jan 2002), both in collaboration and available at http://courses.meredith.edu/;

 

“Using Feature Film in the French Classroom” (http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/ outreach/msie.html), including ‘Introductory materials’ and case studies based on French feature-length films, Center for European Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Aug 1996;

 

“Petit lexique d’Internet” (http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/outreach/msie.html), CES/UNC- CH, Aug 1996;

 

Review of  Pascale Blum-Cluny, ed., Blaise de Vigenère, Le Psaultier de David torné en prose mesuree ou vers libres, t. I: Introduction et réédition intégrale de l'ouvrage de 1588 (Paris: Le Miroir Volant, 1991), French Review 69.3 (Feb 1996): 476-477 ;

 

Review of Memory and Re-Creation in Troubadour Lyric, by Amelia E. Van Vleck (Berkeley: U of California P, 1991), French Review 67.6 (May 1994): 1061-1062;

 

 “«La vie est belle», un film de Ngangura Mweze et Bernard Lamy, Zaïre/Belgique, 1987,” AATF National Bulletin 19.3 (Jan 1994): 15;

 

“Using Industry Profiles in Business French: A Survey of the Seventh Art,” MIFLC Review 2 (Oct 1992): 84-93;

 

“In Praise of Tristan: Oral Composition and Epic Technique in Béroul's Roman de Tristan,” Romance Philology 46.1 (1992): 1-12;

 

Review of Love's Masks: Identity, Intertextuality and Meaning in the Old French Tristan Poems, by Merritt R. Blakeslee (Cambridge, UK:  D.S. Brewer, 1989), JSTOR; French Review 65.4 (Mar 1992): 639-40;

 

 “Marie de Champagne,” An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers, ed. Katharina M.Wilson, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 698 (New York and London: Garland, 1991), 1:236;

 

Review of Poetics of Love in the Middle Ages: Texts and Contexts, ed. Moshe Lazar and Norris, J. Lacy (Fairfax, VA: George Mason UP, 1989), French Review 64.1 (Oct 1990): 149-50;

 

 “Toward a Poetics of Memory in the French Tristan Poems,” Postscript (Publication of the Philological Association of the Carolinas) 7 (1990): 69-78;

 

 “Absence, Memory, and the Ritual of Love in Thomas's Roman de Tristan,” French Review 63.5 (Apr 1990): 790-99; JSTOR access pending;

 

 “The Path of Memory: Imagination and Repetition in Béroul's Roman de Tristan,” Romance Quarterly 37.1 (February 1990): 3-17;

 

“Writing and Remembering in Béroul's Roman de Tristan: The Role of Ogrin,” Tristania 13.1-2 (Autumn 1987-Spring 1988): 1-18;

 

“Commerce, Memory, and Composition in the French Poems of Tristan,” Medieval Perspectives 4-5 (1989-90): 150-60;

 

“Merveilleux, Mirage, and Comic Ambiguity in the Old French Fabliaux,” Assays 4 (1987): 39-50;

 

Review of La Vengeance de Nostre-Seigneur, ed. Alvin E. Ford (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984), French Review 60.3 (Feb 1987): 389-90;

 

 “Truth-Seeking Discourse in the Old French Fabliaux,” Medievalia et Humanistica, New Series 15 (1987): 95-117;

 

 “Unfinished Business: Character Conflict, Judgment Scenes, and Narrator-Audience Dialogue in the Old French Fabliaux,” Medioevo Romanzo 11.3 (1986): 379-400;

 

“Le Rock rétro dans la classe de français,” AATF National Bulletin 10.4 (Apr 1985): 13;

 

Trans., The Fifteen Joys of Marriage [Les Quinze Joyes de mariage], American U Studies, 2nd ser., vol. 26 (New York: Peter Lang, 1985);

 

 “Imitation and Invention in Macé's Rhymed Gospels,” Recherches de Théologie ancienne  et médiévale 52 (1985): 216-23;

 

 “Feast and Famine in the Quinze Joyes de mariage,” Romance Notes 26.1 (Fall 1985): 69-73;

 

 “Versions of the Apocalypse in Medieval French Verse,” Speculum 58.1 (Jan 1983): 31-59;

“Macé's Rhymed Apocalisse and the Voie de paradis,” Manuscripta 26.2 (July 1982): 108-113.

 

 

 

 

Revised Jan 2007