Jay Paul Gates

Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English

I work primarily on Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian, and Anglo-Norman England with a particular focus on law and legal culture.

Education

Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007M.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002                                                       B.A. Oberlin College, 1999

Positions

Associate Professor (2015-), Department Chair (2017-), English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Assistant Professor (2008-2015), English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Postdoctoral Fellow (2007-2008), Purdue University, English, *Non-CUNY

Interviews

“When Punishment Was A New and Remarkable Thing: Medieval Anglo-Saxon Responses to Crime.” Jay Paul Gates speaks about the collection Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England and its relevance to modern criminal justice debates: http://www.crimcast.tv/crimcast/

“Crime and…Retributive Feud?” Jay Paul Gates and Nicole Marafioti discuss their collection Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England and future directions for scholarship on punishment: http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/content/docs/Medieval_Herald_XIX_9781843839187_u2.pdf

Teaching

Graduate

“Literature, Law, and the Penitential Body” (MSCP 80500, CUNY Graduate Center)

“Introduction to Old English Language and Literature” (Engl 70300, CUNY Graduate Center)

Graduate and Undergraduate

 “Writing the Nation: Ethnicity and Identity in Early Medieval England” (Engl GU4789, Columbia University)

Undergraduate 

“Legal Poetics: Early English Language, Law, and Literature” (Lit 405: Senior Seminar in Literature and Law, John Jay College)

“Mind and Emotion in Old English” (Lit 371: Medieval Historical Topics, John Jay College)

“Vikings! Invasion, Conquest, and Community in Anglo-Scandinavian England” (Lit 371: Medieval Historical Topics, John Jay College)

“Vikings, Settlers, and the Medieval North: The Sagas of Icelanders” (Lit 371: Medieval Historical Topics, John Jay College)

“Clash of Cultures and Wrath of the Gods: Late Antiquity” (Lit 370: Historical Topics in Antiquity, John Jay College) 

“Gods & Monsters: Nordic Myth & Heroic Narrative”(Lit 360: Mythology, John Jay College)

Beowulf: The Poem in Its Manuscript Context” (Lit 300: Text and Context, John Jay College)

The Name of the Rose: A Medieval Detective Story for a Postmodern Audience” (Lit 300: Text and Context, John Jay College)

“Introduction to Literary Study” (Lit 260, John Jay College) 

“Sex, Violence, and Religion” (Lit 231: Medieval and Early Modern Literature, John Jay College)

“Literary Foundations: Vergil and Augustine” (Lit 230: Classical Literature, John Jay College) 

“Disciplinary Investigations: Exploring Writing Across the Disciplines” (Eng 201: Composition II, John Jay College)

“Exploration and Authorship: An Inquiry-Based Writing Course” (Eng 101: Composition I, John Jay College)

Invasion and Revolt: Writing Nation and Power in the Middle Ages (Eng 331, Purdue University)

English Language I: History and Development (Eng 327, Purdue University)


Introduction to Poetry (Eng 237, Purdue University)

presentations

Invited Research Talks

“Reading for Audience Assumptions: The Old English Genesis and MS Junius 11.” Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium, Columbia University, November 2017.

“Bishop, King, and Legal Restriction: The Laws of Æthelred ‘the Unready’.” Friends of the Saints: The Hagiography Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center, September 2016. 

“Getting Medieval: Memories of Punishment.” Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. Sponsored by the Office for Advancement of Research at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium, November 2014.

“Persecution, Punishment and Purgatory: A Keynote Roundtable.” 10th Annual Medieval Studies Graduate Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, November 2014.

“The Norse-Language Verse of Cnut’s English Court.” Friends of the Saints: The Hagiography Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center, October 2013.

For Gode and For Worolde: Preaching, Politics, and Episcopal Reform in Wulfstan’s Early Writings.” Friends of the Saints: The Hagiography Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center, February 2013.

“The Politics of Building the Holy Society: Wulfstan’s Later Writings.” Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium, Columbia University, October 2012.

Ealles Englalandes Cyningc: The Grammatical Rhetoric of Cnut’s Kingship.” New Directions in Medieval Studies Roundtable. CUNY Graduate Center, November 2011.

Conference Papers

“Teaching Off Book.” 53rd International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University, May 2018.

“Teaching Saints Across the Disciplines: A Response.” Teaching the Saints: Hagiography in the Classroom. New York, NY, April, 2018. A colloquium organized by Friends of the Saints, Medieval Studies Program, and History Program of the CUNY Graduate Center.

“Æthelred’s Ræd Rule: Reading the Rhetoric of Ambition.” Conference of the Texas Medieval Association, Texas A&M University, September 2016.

“Bishop, King, and Legal Restriction: Wulfstan and the Laws of Aethelred.” Aethelred II and Cnut the Great: A Millennial Conference to Commemorate the Siege of London in 1016, University of London, July 2016.

“Wulfstan’s Werewolves: English Custom, Canon Law, and Continental Sources.” 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2016.

“Alienating a Traitor: ‘Eadric Streona’ in Aelred of Rievaulx’s Genealogia Regum Anglorum.” 21st International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2014.

“A Response to Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England.” Roundtable: Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2014.

“Response.” Anglo-Saxon Predecessors and Precedents: Early English Engagements with Old English Culture and Literature. 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2014.

“Doing God’s Work: Grammatical Interpretation and the Scribal Transmission of Cædmon’s Hymn.” Modern Language Association Convention, January 2014.

“The Bishop’s Authority: The Legal Rhetoric of Wulfstan’s So-Called Peace of Edward and Guthrum.” Haskins Society Conference, Boston College, October 2013. 

Overhirnessam meam: English Legal Discourse in the Latin-Language Anglo-Saxon Laws.” 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2013.

Felun and Traïtur: Authority and Legal Process in the Trial of Eadric Streona.” Northeast Modern Language Association, Tufts University, March 2013.

“Display or Dumping: The Visibility of Eadric Streona’s Execution.” International  Society of Anglo-Saxonists: Anglo-Saxon England and the Visual Imagination, University of Wisconsin-Madison, July 2011.   

“‘Shiny, Happy People Holding Hands’: Wulfstan’s Revisions to the Sermo Lupi.” 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2011.

“Mutilation and the Assembly of the Nation in Cnut’s Laws.” 17th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2010.

“(Failing) to Do God’s Work: Grammatical Interpretation and the Scribal Transmission of Cædmon’s Hymn.” 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University., May 2010.

“A Crowning Achievement: The Royal Execution and Damnation of Eadric Streona.” Second Biennial Conference on Literature and Law, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, April 2010.

“Chronicling, Cleansing, and Killing: Narrating Genocide in Anglo-Saxon England.” 16th International Medieval Congress at Leeds, England, July 2009.

“Manuscripts, Errata, Laundry Lists, and Editors.” 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2009.

“Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England.” Session organizer, 43rd  International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2008.

Hilmir to Emperor: The Skaldic Fashioning of Cnut and the Invention of a Northern Empire.” 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2008.

Ealles Englalandes Cyningc: Cnut’s Definition of His Territorial Rule Over England.” 23rd Annual Conference of the Medieval Association of the Midwest Indiana State University, October 2007.

“The King’s Mercy and the Condemned’s Body in Cnut’s Laws.” 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2007.

“Late Old English.” Discussant. Word, Text, and Print: A Conference in Honor of A.N. Doane, University of Wisconsin-Madison, May 2007.

“How to Get Out in a Timely Fashion: A Roundtable Discussion.” Graduate Student Association MadLit Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 2007.

“Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves: The Pronoun Throwdown in Cnut’s Letters to the English of 1020 and 1027.” Graduate Student Association MadLit Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 2007.

Rex and Sacerdos: Cnut and Wulfstan’s Rhetorical Wrestling in the Legitimation of Cnut’s  Rule.” 6th Annual Vagantes Conference, Loyola University Chicago, March 2007.

“Cleaving to God: Mutilation, Mercy, and Nation in Cnut’s Laws.” Midwest Law and Society Retreat, University of Wisconsin-Madison, September 2006.

We læreð þæt mæst ðearf is: Penitential Language in Alfred’s Laws.” 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2006.

“A Visit to the Annex: The Writing Center Workshop and Complexities of Form.” Panelist for Melissa Tedrowe’s Writing Center Colloquium, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 2005.

“Englayming the Grass and Mastering the Mount: Geography of Space, Time and Character in the Alliterative
Morte Arthure.” 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2005.

“The Codification and Consolidation of Authority in Alfred’s Laws.” 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2004.

“Crisis, Trauma, and Complicity: What Happens When a Feminist Pedagogical Agenda Enters the Classroom?” Feminism(s) & Rhetoric(s) Conference, Ohio State University, October 2003 (with Stephanie L. Kerschbaum).

Invited Classroom Lectures

“The Old Saxon Heliand, Anglo-Saxon Missions to the Continent, and Cultural Translation.” Columbia University, April 2018.

“Reading Old English Law.” Columbia University, March 2018.“‘We teach what is of greatest necessity’: Prison, Penance, and Personal Responsibility in Alfred’s Laws.” American University, October 2014.

“Swords and Sodomy: Arthurian Literature and the Medieval World.” Goshen College, May 2011.

“Law, Society, and Women in the Sagas.” Columbia University, April 2011.

Academic Interests

 Medieval literature and languages, including Old English, Middle English, Old Norse-Icelandic, Old French, Latin, Old Saxon, and Old IrishCommunity and nationHagiographyHistoriographyHistory of the English languageLiterature and lawManuscript studiesSex, gender, and sexuality in the Middle Ages and Antiquity

Publications

Edited Collections
Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England’s Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries. Ed. Jay Paul Gates and Brian O’Camb. Leiden: Brill, 2019.    

    
Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Jay Paul Gates and Nicole Marafioti. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2014.  


Refereed Articles and Chapters 


“Anglo-Saxon Predecessors and Precedents.” Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England’s Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries. Ed. Jay Paul 

Gates and Brian O’Camb. Leiden: Brill, 2019 (with Brian O’Camb), 1–20. (8,715 words) 

Quidam proditor partis Danicae: Aelred’s Re-Imagining of the Anglo-Saxon Past.” Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England’s Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries. Ed. Jay Paul Gates and Brian O’Camb. Leiden: Brill, 2019, 87–116. (12,444 words)

“English Legal Discourse in Quadripartitus.”
Languages of the Law: Essays in Honor of Lisi Oliver. (Mediaevalia Groningana New Series) Leuven: Peeters, 2019, 241–62. (9,557 words)

“Discursive Murders: The St Brice’s Day Massacre, Beowulf, and Morðor.” Medieval and Early Modern Murder. Ed. Larissa Tracy. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2018, 47–76. (14,216 words)

“Preaching, Politics, and Episcopal Reform in Wulfstan’s Early Writings.” Early Medieval Europe 23.1 (2015): 94–117. (11,094 words)

“Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England.” Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Jay Paul Gates and Nicole Marafioti. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2014 (with Nicole Marafioti), 1–16. (8,133 words)

“The ‘Worcester’ Historians and Eadric Streona‘s Execution.” Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Jay Paul Gates and Nicole Marafioti. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2014, 165–80. (8,324 words)

“Imagining Justice in the Anglo-Saxon Past: Eadric Streona, Kingship and the Search for Community.” The Haskins Society Journal 25 (2013): 125–46. (11,120 words)

“The Fulmannod Society: Social Valuing of the (Male) Legal Subject.” Castration and Culture in the Middle Ages. Ed. Larissa Tracy. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2013, 131–48. (9,235 words)

“A Crowning Achievement: The Royal Execution and Damnation of Eadric Streona.”
Heads Will Roll: Decapitation in the Medieval and Early Modern Imagination. Ed. Larissa Tracy and Jeff Massey. Leiden: Brill, 2012, 53–72. (8,626 words)

Ealles Englalandes Cyningc: Cnut’s Territorial Kingship and Wulfstan’s Paronomastic Play.” The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe 14 (2010). http://www.heroicage.org/issues/14/gates.php. (15,089 words)

Editions and Translations

“Prologue to the Laws of King Alfred: An Edition and Translation for Students.” The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe 18 (2018).
http://www.heroicage.org/issues/18/gates.php. (6,926 words)

Refereed Articles and Chapters on Pedagogy

“Old English and Anglo-Saxon Studies in the United States.” Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland Newsletter 35 (2018): 9–11 (with Brian T. O’Camb). http://www.toebi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/TOEBInews2018.pdf. (1,723 words)

“Reading Pronouns: An Entry to Medieval Textual Culture.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 22.2 (2015): 113–38. (8,712 words)

Edited

“Research in Progress.” Old English Newsletter 45.4 (2017).

Commissioned Book Reviews

Review of Visions and Ruins: Cultural Memory and the Untimely Middle Ages by Joshua Davies. Print: ix + 224 pages (English) Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2018. The Medieval Review (2019).

Review of Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England by Tom Lambert. Print: xvi + 390 pages (English) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017. H-LawH-Net Reviews (2018). https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=50054.Review of Cnut the Great by Timothy Bolton, Speculum 93.3 (2018): 799–801.

Review of Æthelred the Unready by Levi Roach, Journal of British Studies 56.4 (2017): 880–81.

Review of From Lawmen to Plowmen: Anglo-Saxon Legal Tradition and the School of Langland by Stephen M. Yeager, Speculum 91.2 (2016): 574–76.