Katharine Breen is a Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at Northwestern University. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on medieval English literature (13th–15th centuries), medieval book history, and classical reception. She co-edits the Yearbook of Langland Studies and has authored two major books: Imagining an English Reading Public, 1150-1400 (2010) and Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature (2021). Her work examines how medieval texts shape readers through material and textual interplay, exploring themes like moral habitus, allegory, and multilingual literary traditions. Her research interests span allegory, medieval pedagogy, translation, and the ethical dimensions of literature. Notable specializations include the intersection of literature and ethics, comparative medieval literatures, and gender studies. Her recent scholarship emphasizes personification theory and the materiality of medieval manuscripts. Breen's publications reveal a focus on intellectual frameworks like medieval universals debates and the socio-religious context of vernacular writing. She has organized thematic clusters on topics such as Langland and disability, Chaucer-Langland connections, and personification in medieval thought. Her work bridges late antique and medieval literary traditions, often analyzing how textual forms encode ethical instruction.
