Joyce Coleman

Joyce Coleman is the Rudolph C. Bambas Professor of Medieval English Literature & Culture at the University of Oklahoma. She has served as Director of the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (CMRS) since 2013, organizing events like the Medieval Fair, Global Shakespeare Festival, and symposiums on parchment and early book culture.

• B.A., Barnard College (1971)
• M.A., University of Texas at Austin (1979)
• Ph.D., University of Edinburgh (1993)

Her research focuses on medieval literary reception, performance, and patronage, particularly the social and cultural values encoded in manuscript illuminations of authors and readers. She co-edited The Social Life of Illumination and is working on a monograph titled The Iconography of the Book in Late Medieval Secular Illumination.

Scientific support includes grants from the Huntington Library, American Philosophical Society, and a sabbatical visiting fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. She teaches medieval literature and modern adaptations like J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, and co-created films of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde with graduate students.