Kisha Tracy

Hello! I am indeed Kisha Tracy, an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University, specializing in early British and world literature, Co-Coordinator of the FSU Center for Teaching and Learning, and co-founder of this blog. I received my Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Connecticut in 2010. My dissertation, entitled Writing Memory: Reinvention and the Tradition of Confession in Middle English Literature, explores how the traditional medieval relationship between memory and confession provides a valuable framework for understanding the employment of recollection in various Middle English literary texts. Even after all the time spent with my dissertation, the topic is still fascinating to me and I am continuing my work in this field. My interests, both teaching and research, are wide-ranging, from classical literature and Anglo-Saxon to Chaucer and film studies with the American Civil War thrown in for variety. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for any reason!

University profile

Research interests: memory and recollection, confession, penitential literature, disability studies, scholarship of teaching and learning

Current project: book proposal for book on memory and confession; “Why Do I Have to Take This Course?” – book on teaching and learning strategies; article on “The College Guide to Wikis”

Publications:

• Tracy, Kisha, Ian Wilkins, and Jennifer Spain. “Leveraging ‘Quick’ Technologies to Enliven the Page.” The Leaflet. New England Association of Teachers of English. 112.2 (2014): 27-32.
• Tracy, Kisha, and Jennifer Fielding. “Information Literacy: From Today’s Critical Challenges to Tomorrow’s Critical Thinking Opportunities.” The Exchange. New England Faculty Development Consortium (2014).
• Fielding, Jennifer, Julia Hans, Frank Mabee, Kisha Tracy, Anna Consalvo, and Layne Craig. “Integrated Information Literacy and Student Outcomes in Foundational First-Year Writing.” Journal of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness 3.2 (2013): 106-39.
• “Teaching the Crusades in a World Literature Survey Course Using Interactive Media: An Overview.” This Rough Magic: Peer-Reviewed, Academic, Online Journal Dedicated to the Teaching of Medieval and Renaissance Literature (2013): n. pag. Web. MS 16 pp.
• “Disability in the Medieval Literary Tradition of the Fisher King.” A World of Difference: Essays on
  Disability in the Middle Ages. Ed. Joshua R. Eyler (London: Ashgate, 2010). 105-18.
• “Defining the Medieval City through Death: A Case Study.” Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the
  Early Modern Age. Ed. Albrecht Classen.Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern
  Culture 4(New York and Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009). 183-204.
• “Character Memory and Reinvention of the Past in Béroul’s Roman de Tristan.” Tristania 24 (2006): 1-15.
• “Un Héritage vertueux: présence, capacités, et caractère de la mère de Merlin.” L’Esplumeoir  n^o 3 (2004): 45-54.

Book Reviews:

• “The Beginner’s Mindset.” What the Best College Teachers Do. Ken Bain. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004. Currents in Teaching and Learning 1/2 (2012-13): 103-5.
• Believe Not Every Spirit: Possession, Mysticism, & Discernment in Early Modern Catholicism. Moshe Sluhovsky. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2007. Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures2 (2010): 262-4.
• Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures: New Essays. Ed. Lawrence Besserman. New York: Palgrave, 2006. Mystics Quarterly 33 (2007): 49-52.

Creative Publication:

• “Reaching Out.” Connecticut Writing Project Summer Institute Fellows (2012).
• “Young River,” “Nightmare.” Connecticut Writing Project Summer Institute Fellows (2010).

Conference Presentations:

• “Glossing Depression through Hagiography”; Session: “Disability and Saints’ Lives,” Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages; 50^th International Congress on Medieval Studies; Kalamazoo, MI; May 2015
• “Redesigning Course Learning Outcomes to Improve Teaching and Learning”; College Reading and Learning Association Northeast Chapter 2015 Annual Spring Conference; Fitchburg State University; March 2015
• “Leveraging ‘Quick’ Technologies to Enliven the Page”; 2014 New England Association of Teachers of English; Mansfield, MA; October 2014 (Co-presentation with two students)
• “Rethinking Information Literacy from the Student Perspective”; 44^th Annual Conference of the International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning; Denver, CO; October 2014
• “A College Guide to Wikis”; The Teaching Professor Technology Conference; Denver, CO; October 2014
• “Lost in the Online Wonderland”; Massachusetts Colleges Online 10^th Annual Conference on eLearning Best Practices; Bridgewater State University; June 2014
• “From the Monk’s Cell to the Professor’s Office”; Session: “Relevance of the Middle Ages Today”; 49^th International Congress on Medieval Studies; Kalamazoo, MI; May 2014
• “Once Written, Twice Remembered: The Reader, Saint Margaret, and the Devil”; Plymouth State University Medieval and Renaissance Forum; Plymouth, NH; April 2014
• “Teaching the Archaic in the Modern Classroom”; New England Faculty Development Consortium Fall Conference: “The Interactive Classroom: Collaboration and Learning in Higher Education”; Worcester, MA; November 2013
• “Engaging with Wikis”; New England Faculty Development Consortium Spring Conference: “Engaged Learning: Impacts and Implications”; Westford, MA; June 2013
• “A Practical Guide to Pedagogical Wikis”; Massachusetts Colleges Online 9^th Annual Conference on eLearning Best Practices; Bridgewater State University; June 2013
• “Lament and Misremembering in Dispute between Mary and the Cross”; Indiana University Medieval Studies Institute Symposium: “Lamentations”; Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; April 2013
• “Life After Google: Integrated Information Literacy in First Year Writing” (co-presenter); New England Education Assessment Network (NEEAN) Fall Forum; Worcester, MA; November 2012
• “Impediments to Confession in Medieval Literature”; 47^th International Congress on Medieval Studies; Kalamazoo, MI; May 2012
• “The Reluctantly Resurrected: Lydgate’s Saint Austin at Compton”; 46^th International Congress on Medieval Studies; Kalamazoo, MI; May 2011
• “Aging, Memory, and Medieval Confession”; “Aging, Old Age, Memory, Aesthetics” Conference; University of Toronto; March 2011
• “John Lydgate and Rhetorical Repentance”; For David Benson: New Work in Old and Middle English Studies; Harvard University; October 2010

Courses:

• British Literature I: Beowulf to Milton
• World Literature I
• The Middle Ages
• Chaucer
• Study Abroad
• Bible as Literature
• Structure and Nature of Language
• Classic Mythology

Other:

• Boston Bruins fanatic
• Amateur photographer
• Creative writer
• Classic film enthusiast