Faculty Profile
Chelsea Skalak
(she/her/hers)Assistant Professor of English (2015)
Contact Information
East College Room 304
717-245-1064
Bio
Professor Skalak is a teacher and scholar of medieval British literature. Her research interests include medieval gender and sexuality, legal studies, female authorship, and digital humanities. She has published articles on medieval romance, marital rape in The Canterbury Tales, and teaching the global Middle Ages. Recent courses include Chaucer's Women, Medieval Women Writers, King Arthur from Medieval to Modern, and Mapping the Global Middle Ages. She is a contributing faculty member in Medieval and Early Modern Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Education
- B.A., Northwestern University, 2008
- M.A., University of Virginia, 2011
- Ph.D., 2015
2025-2026 Academic Year
Fall 2025
MEMS 200 Mapping the Global Middle Ages
Cross-listed with ENGL 321-02.
ENGL 321 Mapping the Global Middle Ages
Cross-listed with MEMS 200-02. From England to Jerusalem, Morocco to Rome, Ireland to India, the medieval traveler encountered and came to terms with varieties of cultures, religions, and races. The maps and written records of these travelers, both imagined and real, inspired the imaginations of their contemporaries and helped shape larger cultural narratives about nationalism, religion, and personal identity. This course will examine medieval maps and travel narratives from 1000-1500 CE in order to better understand the diverse cultural work performed by reports of encounters with other cultures. How did these travel narratives strengthen or question faith, critique or support nationalism, and establish or sustain gendered and racial identities?
ENGL 403 Meth/Models of Lit Schol
This course prepares students to write a senior thesis by exploring key questions and methods in literary scholarship. Students in this seminar will pursue intensive reading, writing and discussion designed to: (1) strengthen their grasp of the history and current configuration of literary studies and related fields; (2) help them frame and begin to pursue the questions that will motivate their senior theses; and (3) hone their critical self-awareness as readers and writers.