Assistant Professor of English
Phone: (239)590-7525
E-Mail: mbusbee@fgcu.edu
Office: RH 132

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.  He also studies the history of the English language and later medieval literatures, including works by Chaucer.  His publications and presentations cover a variety of topics including the teaching of Beowulf and Wuthering Heights, the nature of human contact in Virgil’s Aeneid, themes and traditions in medieval romance, and, most recently, the role of the monstrous races in medieval thought.  His essay on the first modern translation of Beowulf is forthcoming.

Publications
“A Paradise full of Monsters: India in the Old English Imagination.” Forthcoming (Fall 2008) in India in the World, edited by Bernd Dietz, Cristina Gámez and Antonia Navarro. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.

“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.

“The Beowulf Conference.”  The Journal of the Mississippi Council of Teachers of English.  Vol. 19/ No. 4.  Winter 1998. 3-9.

Selected Conference Presentations
“A Sleeping Spell in Beowulf?” 33rd Meeting of the Southeastern medieval Association, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 4 October 2007.

“Old English Manuscripts Featuring India.” 42 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, 12 May 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.
“Translating Holger Danske into a National Hero.”  41st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, 3 May 2006.
 
 “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.

“Grundtvig and Beowulf.”  The Annual Grundtvig Conference, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA, 14 April 2003.

“Ingeld’s Awakening.”  37th Annual Medieval Association of the Pacific, University of San Diego, San Diego, 22 March 2002.

“Cultural Complexity: Afrisc Meowle in the Anglo-Saxon Exodus.”  The Eighth Citadel Conference on Literature, Charleston, SC, 8 February 2002.