Professor of Literature

Year Joined RCNJ: 2004

Contact Information

• Phone: (201) 684-6212
• Email: ykisor@ramapo.edu
• Office: B-142
• Office Hours: TF 3:30-5:00 pm
• Department Website

Education:

• B.A., Rice University
• M.A., University of California at Davis
• Ph.D., University of California at Davis

Courses Offered:

• Survey of British Literature: Anglo-Saxon Period to Eighteenth Century
• British Medieval Literature
• Author Studies: Chaucer
• The Medieval and the Modern in Tolkien’s Middle-earth
• Topics in Popular Literature: Harry Potter
• Senior Seminar: Arthurian Literature
• Honors First-Year Seminar
• Readings in the Humanities

Teaching Interests:

• Old English Language and Literature
• Middle English
• Beowulf
• Chaucer
• History of the English Language
• Tolkien
• Gender Issues

Research Interests:

• Greek and Latin Texts
• Computer-assisted Textual Analysis
• Tolkien’s Use of Medieval Forms in his Fiction

Scholarly Activity:

• “‘We Could Do with a Bit More Queerness in These Parts’: An Analysis of the Queer against the Peculiar, the Odd, and the Strange in The Lord of the Rings.” Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 16, issue 1, 2023, article 4.
• “‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun’: Sexuality, Imagery, and Desire in Tolkien’s Works.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 18, 2021, pp. 19-62.
• “Children’s Beowulfs for the New Tolkien Generation.” Beowulf as Children’s Literature: Studies in Adaptation for Youth. Britt Mize and Bruce Gilchrist, eds. University of Toronto Press, 2021, pp. 243-64.
• Tolkien and Alterity. Christopher T. Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor, eds. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave, 2017.
• Beowulf Unlocked: New Evidence from Lexomic Analysis. Michael D.C. Drout and Yvette Kisor et al. Palgrave, 2016.
• “Queer Tolkien: A Bibliographical Essay on Tolkien and Alterity.” Tolkien and Alterity. Christopher T. Vaccaro and Yvette Kisor, eds. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave, 2017, pp. 17-32.
• “Using the History of Middle-earth series with Tolkien’s Fiction.” MLA Approaches to Teaching: J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works, ed. Leslie Donovan. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2014. 133-43.
• “Poor Sméagol: Gollum as Exile in The Lord of the Rings.” Author of the New Century: T. A. Shippey and the Creation of the Next Canon, ed. John William Houghton, Janet Brennan Croft, Nancy Martsch, John D. Rateliff, and Robin Anne Reid. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014.
• “‘naked as a nedyll’: The Eroticism of Malory’s Elaine.” Sexual Culture in Medieval Britain, eds. Amanda Hopkins and Cory James Rushton. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014. 38-47.
• “Incorporeality and Transformation in The Lord of the Rings.” The Body in Tolkien’s Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality, ed. Chris Vaccaro. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013. 20-38.
• “There’s Magic in the Web of It: Desdemona’s Handkerchief and the ‘Magic’ Cloths of Emaré and Le Fresne.” Translating the Past: Essays on Medieval Literature in Honor of Marijane Osborn, ed. Jane Beal and Brad Busbee. Tempe, Arizona: ACMRS Press, 2012. 131-44.
• “Narrative Layering and ‘High Culture’ Romance in the Twilight Series.” The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films, ed. Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn. Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy 25. McFarland, 2010, pp. 35-59.
• “The Aesthetics of Beowulf: Structure, Perception, and Desire.” On the Aesthetics of Beowulf and Other Old English Poetry, ed. John Hill. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. 227-46.
• “Totemic Reflexes in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.” Mythlore 109/110 (Spring/Summer 2010): 129-40.
• “Numerical Composition and Beowulf: A Reconsideration.” Anglo-Saxon England 38 (2009): 41-76.
• “Harthgrepa.” ANQ, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2007, pp. 63-5.
• “‘Elves (and Hobbits) always refer to the Sun as She’: Some Notes on a Note in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 4, 2007, pp. 214-24.
• “Moments of Silence, Acts of Speech: Uncovering the Incest Motif in the Man of Law’s Tale.” The Chaucer Review, vol. 40, no. 2, 2005, pp. 141-62.