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Seeta Chaganti

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Seeta Chaganti
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University (A.B.); Georgetown University (MA); Yale University (PhD).
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish studies
Sub-disciplineMedieval poetry
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Davis

Seeta Chaganti is a medievalist and professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on Old and Middle English poetry and contemporary material culture.

Education

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Chaganti completed her A.B. at Harvard University in 1989, followed by an M.A. at Georgetown University in 1995.[1] Her MA dissertation was entitled Crossing the boundaries of substance and accident: rhetoric, ecclesiastical hypocrisy, and eucharistic language in The Pardoner's Tale.[2] She then completed a PhD at Yale University in 2001, with a thesis entitled Memorial and metamorphosis: the image of the reliquary in the poetry of medieval England and France.[3]

Career

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After completing her PhD, Chaganti joined the English department at UC Davis, where she continues to work. Her first book, entitled The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance, The New Middle Ages, was published in 2008 and built upon her PhD thesis for a study on the relationship between reliquaries and poetic form.[4]

In 2018, Chaganti published her second monograph on dance and medieval poetics. This won the Modern Language Association's 2018 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.[5][6]

Chaganti was appointed a Trustee of the New Chaucer Society for the period 2018–2022.[7] She has also been elected as a Councillor of the Medieval Academy of America for 2020–23.[8] In 2019, she served as a member of Medievalists of Color's steering committee,[9] and as of 2021 is an Executive Board Member of RaceB4Race.[10] She also served as an interim director for the Davis Humanities Institute in 2013.[11]

Throughout her academic career, Chaganti has been awarded various fellowships and awards. These include an Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Davis in 2014,[12] and an Outstanding Mentor Award from UC Davis' Consortium for Women and Research in 2012.[11] She was awarded a Davis Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship in 2015,[13] and a Society for the Humanities Fellowship at Cornell University in 2009.[14]

Chaganti's current research interests include a project on early English law's role in violence in the American South,[1] and a collaboration with Gabrielle Nevitt on poetic form and animal studies.[15]

Selected bibliography

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Monographs

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  • (2008) The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance, The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-60466-7.
  • (2018) Strange Footing: Poetic Form and Dance in the Late Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-54799-2.

Edited volumes

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  • (2012) Medieval poetics and social practice: responding to the work of Penn R. Szittya. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-823-24324-2

References

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  1. ^ a b "Seeta Chaganti | Department of English". Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  2. ^ Chaganti, Seeta (1995). Crossing the boundaries of substance and accident: rhetoric, ecclesiastical hypocrisy, and eucharistic language in The pardoner's tale (Thesis). OCLC 32163940.
  3. ^ Chaganti, Seeta (2001). Memorial and metamorphosis the image of the reliquary in the poetry of medieval England and France (Thesis). New Haven. OCLC 1068832240.
  4. ^ "09.11.15, Chaganti, The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary | The Medieval Review". scholarworks.iu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  5. ^ "Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies..." Modern Language Association. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  6. ^ Reporter, India-West Staff. "UC Davis Professor Seeta Chaganti Honored by Modern Language Association of America for Her Book". India West. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  7. ^ "The New Chaucer Society › About the Society". newchaucersociety.org. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  8. ^ "Governance Officers and Councillors - The Medieval Academy of America". Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  9. ^ "Statement of Support for Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm – Medievalists of Color". Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  10. ^ "RaceB4Race® | Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies". acmrs.asu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  11. ^ a b WebDev, I. E. T. (2013-01-10). "Chaganti leads Davis Humanities Institute during search for new director". UC Davis. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  12. ^ WebDev, I. E. T. (2014-04-29). "Senate, federation awards: And the winners are …". UC Davis. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  13. ^ epo (2020-09-03). "Past Faculty Research Fellowships". UC Davis Humanities Institute. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  14. ^ "2009-10: Networks/Mobilities | Society for the Humanities Cornell Arts & Sciences". societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  15. ^ "Seeta Chaganti: MRGSA Symposium Keynote Lecture - Bodies in Motion". cmrs.osu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-23.