Professor Mary Dzon
Mary Dzon, who received her PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto, is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and an affiliate of the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her current book project explores divine wrath and Marian piety in the imaginative theology of late-medieval England. In addition to researching medieval devotional culture, her interests include medieval animal studies, hagiography, the history of emotion, the life cycle, and medieval women.
Select publications
- Mary Dzon, The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017)
- Mary Dzon and Theresa M. Kenney, eds, The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha es et O! (University of Toronto Press, 2012)
Recent Articles:
- “The Pelican as Angry Bird in the Ancrene Wisse and in Medieval Devotional Culture,” The Mediaeval Journal 12.1 (2022; published in 2025): 53-110.
- “Affective Piety,” in The Chaucer Encyclopedia, ed. Richard Newhauser et al., 4 vols. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023), I: 22-25.
- “Facing Jesus: Julian of Norwich, the Veronica in Rome and the Colors of Jesus’ Skin,” in Beyond the Window: Devotion, Materiality, and Reclusion in Medieval Europe (1080 – 1400), ed. Michelle Sauer and Joshua Easterling, pp. 173-98. Boydell & Brewer, 2026.
Select awards
- Bonnie Wheeler Fellowship, 2026
- Best First Book Award, Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA), 2021
- Huntington Library Exchange Fellowship with Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2027
- Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts, University of Tennessee, Faculty Fellowship, 2022-2023
