Draft:Richard Fahey (professor)

Dr. Richard Fahey (born October 22, 1985) is an American educator of English and history. While his main interests in those subjects are in old literature such as Beowulf and the historic time of Medieval history, he is still dedicated to his work of helping his students develop their writing skills and educating them in the historical time periods related to the course he teaches. He also participates in many other activities relating to his specific interest of study such as being involved with an academic blog and journal that focus on Medieval topics.

Early life and education

Fahey was born on October 22, 1985, in Lawrence, Massachusetts to his parents Kellie Carter and John Fahey. He has two siblings, a twin brother named Tom Fahey and a sister named Katheryn Fahey. He grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and attended the local public schools for their high school education. He attended the University of Vermont for his undergraduate degree, where he majored in History with a focus on Medieval history. He also minored in religion with a focus on American Indigenous religions at the University of Vermont. He was able to connect his knowledge from his major and minor in his honors thesis, “Beowulf, Orality and the Anglo-Saxon Conversion”, and graduated on May 18, 2008. Fahey originally wanted to become a tribal lawyer, but quickly realized there would be no money in that field and that would then drive him to become a corporate lawyer which he really had no desire to do. He then decided to switch his major to history because he had always been interested in medieval times since he was a child. His Uncle Richard Carter was the one who sparked this interest when he introduced Fahey to a game called Conquest of Camelot which was a game similar to Dungeons and Dragons which was the next game that also interested him in medieval history. He also found inspiration for what major he wanted to study from the Lord of the Rings books which also had aspects of medieval times within the story. After choosing to study History he decided that he was going to aim to be a professor and pursued his education further with that intention.

He attended the University of Toronto, where he got an accelerated M.A. in Medieval Studies and graduated on November 11, 2011. He then went to the University of Notre Dame for an M.A. in English and graduated on January 6, 2019. After this, he finished up his educational journey by getting a Ph.D. in English, also at the University of Notre Dame.

Career

Fahey started off his career path as a special education teaching assistant in 2008 but he was on and off with this job until June 2021. The next job he took was in 2015, as a blog manager and contributor for the University of Notre Dame. The blog was called Medieval Studies Research Blog and was set up by the university’s Medieval Institute. He still works for them to this day. In 2019 he became a managing book review editor for a journal made by the University of Notre Dame. In August of 2021, he took on three new jobs where he still works presently. He became an advisory board member for the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture where he plans and organizes conference sessions along with presenting conferences about Medieval references in today’s popular culture. He also became a high school humanities teacher for the Orchard Street Academy High School where he is teaching his students English Language Arts and History. The last job he took was as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he teaches two sections of the course “Lowell as Text” as a part of the First Year Seminar in Honors course for Freshman students that are a part of the university’s Honors College. As a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell he developed a peer review method that was so beneficial to the students writing development that the method was then adopted for all Honors College writing courses.

Personal life

Fahey is currently married to his wife Rajuli Fahey, with whom has two children. Fahey is currently working on two side projects in his free time. He is planning a Renaissance fair with his wife that’s expected to take place in April of 2024 called Wyndonshire Renaissance Faire. They’re working together with the Parks and Recreation Department of Massachusetts to set this up. He’s also in the process of writing a book which will be an edited version of his dissertation.

Awards

• Presidential Scholarship: $2,000 award scholarship (toward tuition each year), received upon admission in August 2004 (University of Vermont)
• Ruth Baird Award: $2,000 award – distinguished out of state student in History from the Class of 2008 (University of Vermont)
• Kirby Flower Smith Prize: $300 award – distinguished student in Intermediate Latin, May 2008 (University of Vermont)
• Honors Degree (Honors Thesis): “Beowulf, Orality and the Anglo-Saxon Conversion”: A+, May 2008 (University of Vermont)

Publications

• “Three-Dimensional Heroism in Beowulf." In A Practical Guide to Beowulf, edited by Larry Swain and Aaron Hostetter. Medieval Institute Publications: Western Michigan University Press, 2023. [coauthored with Larry Swain]
• “Teaching the Beowulf-monsters." In A Practical Guide to Beowulf, edited by Larry Swain and Aaron Hostetter. Medieval Institute Publications: Western Michigan University Press, 2023.
• “Scyld and Grendel: Two Reigns of Terror.” Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe 21, 2023: 1-15. [coauthored with Christine Vinsonhaler]
• “The Wonders of Ebrietas: Drinking and Drunkenness in Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddles." In Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism, edited by Noelle Phillips, Rosemary O’Neill and John A. Geck, 315-340. The New Middle Ages: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
• “Decoding gerûni: runic sacramenta in the Old Saxon Heliand.” In Old English and Continental Germanic Literature in Comparative Perspectives, edited by Larry Swain, 97-113. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2019.
• “Beowulf: lines 646-660.” In Beowulf By All, edited by Elaine Treharne and Jean Abbott. Stanford, CA: Stanford Text Technologies, 2018