Dana Oswald, Ph.D.

Teaching Interests

Old and Middle English literature, Literary Theory, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History of the English Language

Research Interests

Dr. Oswald'a first book focused on monsters and monstrous bodies as a locus for anxieties about human bodies and identities. She is currently working on her second book, Old English Maternal Bodies, which locates the bodies of ordinary early medieval women in England in medical and penitential texts. This project thinks about the ways in which such texts represent women's bodies in the patriarchal paradigm, but also the ways in which such women give voice to their own maladies and place their bodies into the textual record.

Future research will consider women's speech practices and transvestite saints.

Consulting Interests

Dr. Oswald has served as an outside reviewer for books and articles, as well as serving as an external reviewer for departmental program reviews.

Selected Publications

: Alterior Bodies: Disability, Hyperability, and the Medieval Monster, Oxford University Press

: Teaching History of the English Language in a Global Digital Community,

: "Put the Prayer on her Girdle": Bald's Missing Remedies,

: Old English Maternal Bodies,

: Pregnancy and Knowledge in the Old English Medical Tradition, Brepols/ Generations series

: "Monaðgecynd and flewsan: Wanted and Unwanted Monthly Courses in Old English Medical Texts.”, Amsterdam University Press

2012: "Monstrous Gender: Geographies of Ambiguity.", Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous: A multi-disciplinary research companion. (30 pp.)

2010: Monsters, Gender, and Sexuality in Medieval England. , Boydell and Brewer Gender and Medieval Studies Series (250 pp.)

2010: Unnatural Women, Invisible Mothers: Monstrous Female Bodies in the Wonders of the East., Special Monstrosity edition: Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art. (30 pp.)

2010: “The lyf so short, the crafts so long to lerne”: Reading Chaucer in Translation in the British Literature Survey Class, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (28 pp.)

2010: "Seduced by the Monster.", Medieval Herald: Boydell and Brewer Blog (2 pp.)

2009: “Wig under Wætere: Beowulf’s Revision of the Fight with Grendel’s Mother.” , Exemplaria (19 pp.)

Teaching Awards

2013: The students of Sigma Tau Delta award one professor each year with this teaching award. I was selected via a vote., Sigma Tau Delta Excellence in Teaching, Sigma Tau Delta, Tau Psi Chapter

Research/Creative Awards

2016: UW System Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities

Departmental Service

2019: - Writers Conference Organizer

University Service

: Committee Chair - Performance Review Committee

: Committee Member - IPED Executive Committee

: Committee Member - Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Steering Committee

2023: Special Institutional Assignment - PARC Writing Tutor Liaison

2022: Committee Member - Committee on Research and Creative Activity

2014: Committee Member - IPED Executive Committee

Professional Service

2011: - High school and college students; the College Board