Associate Professor of English and Department Chair of Language & Literature
Phone: (239) 590-7525
E-Mail: mbusbee@fgcu.edu
Office: RH 219

Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2005
M.A., Middlebury College, 1999
B.A., Presbyterian College, 1992

Primary Teaching Areas: Old English and Middle English Literature and Culture, The History of the English Language, Old Icelandic and Medieval Scandinavian literature

Secondary Teaching and Scholarship: Comparative literature, Translation Studies

Professor Busbee joined the Florida Gulf Coast University English faculty in 2006, after holding a post-doctoral position at the University of California, Davis (2005-06), a visiting lectureship at Johannes Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany (2004-05), and a Fulbright Fellowship to Denmark (2003-04). He studies early medieval literatures and cultures, with particular interest in how early texts like Beowulf have in modern times been put to nationalistic ends, and how medieval literature imagines foreign lands and peoples. He also studies the history of the English language and later medieval literatures, including works by Chaucer. But his interest in the intersections of language and culture has led him into fields as diverse as the writings of N.F.S. Grundtvig, a leading Danish religious, educational and national leader of nineteenth-century Denmark; and the role of English translation in the transformation of Navajo culture.

Publications
Books

• Translating the Past: Essays on Medieval Literature in Honor of Marijane Osborn, co-edited with Jane Beal. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2012.
• Approaches to Teaching the Middle English Pearl (under review for PMLA, co-edited with Jane Beal).

Selected Articles

• “The First Translation of Beowulf into a Modern Language.” Translating the Past: Essays on Medieval Literature in Honor of Marijane Osborn, eds. Jane Beal and Mark Bradshaw Busbee. Tempe, AZ: AMRTS, 2012.
• “The Idea of India in Early Medieval England.” India in the World. Ed. Bernd Dietz, Cristina Gámez and Antonia Navarro. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2011.
• “Grundtvig and Tolkien on Beowulf: A Comparative Analysis.” Grundtvig-Studier (2010): 12-30.
• “A Paradise full of Monsters: India in the Old English Imagination.” LATCH: A Journal for the Study of the Literary Artifact in Theory, Culture, or History. (November 2008): 49-70.
• “How Nationalism Enhanced the First Translation of Beowulf.” Transverse: A Comparative Studies Journal. 7 (Spring 2007): 64-80.
• “The Twisted Embrace in the Aeneid.” Note Bene: The Journal of Classical Studies at UC Davis. Davis: UC Davis, 2001. 23-28.

Selected Conference Presentations

• “The Old English Wonders of the East as Pre-National, Imaginary Travelogue.” 42nd Annual Conference of the College English Association, St. Petersburg, Florida, 31 March 2011.
• “‘O serpent under femynynytee’: The Lamia in the Man of Law’s Tale.” 36th Meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association, Roanoke, Virginia, 19 November 2010.
• “N.F.S. Grundtvig and the Rise of English Medievalism.” 21st DeBartolo Conference, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 2 April 2010.
• “The Degenerative Cultural Effects of English Translation on Navajo Ritual.” 125th Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 December 2009.
• “The Love Engendering Letter in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre.” 80th Annual South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Louisville, Kentucky, 8 November 2008.
• “The Blessingway of ‘Endishodi Yazzi’and the Translation of Navajo Culture.” 49th Annual Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Cleveland, Ohio, 10 November 2007.
• “A Sleeping Spell in Beowulf?” 33rd Meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 4 October 2007.
• “A Paradise Full of Monsters: India in the Anglo-Saxon Imagination.” I International Conference “India in the World", Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, 9 March 2007.
• “The Question of Proto-Nationalism in Anglo-Saxon England.” Nations, States, and Colonies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 13 May 2004.
• “The Living Words of Beowulf.” Approaches and Objects in Translation Studies Today, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 6 May 2004.
• “Cultural Complexity: ‘Afrisc Meowle’ in the Anglo-Saxon Exodus.” The Eighth Citadel Conference on Literature, Charleston, SC, 8 February 2002.