Phyllis R. Brown, Professor in the Department of English, received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1979 and has been teaching at Santa Clara University since 1982. Between 2008 and 2015, Brown served as Director of the Core Curriculum and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies.  In 2015 Brown returned to full-time teaching and scholarship. Her publications include essays on Beowulf, writings by Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Heloise's letters to Abelard, Guillaume de Machaut's lyric poetry, Louise Labe's poetry, and issues in higher education. Current research and writing address Catholic identity in higher education and transformative learning.

Research Interests

• Undergraduate education
• Hrotsvit of Gandersheim's writings
• Anglo-Saxon poetry

Courses

• Critical Thinking & Writing
• Introduction to Literary Study
• Introduction to Poetry
• Studies in Medieval Literature
• Medieval Women Writers and Writing

Publications

• "Community and Conscience Formation." Catholic Identity in Higher Education. University of San Francisco Press. In press
• With Jennifer Merritt, Andrea Brewster, and Irene Cermeno, “The Sacramental Nature of Community.” University of San Francisco Press. Catholic Identity in Higher Education. In press.
• With Maria J. Pando-Cantelli. "Transformative Learning in Higher Education." The Role of the Humanities in Times of Crisis, ed. Maria Pilar Rodriguez. Madrid, Spain, 2016. 37-56.
• "Authentic Education: The Example of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim." Fromme Frauen als gelehrte Frauen: Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kunst im weiblichen Religiosentum des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. Ed., Edeltraud Klueting and Harm Klueting. Schriften der Erzbischöflichen Diözesan- und Dombibliothek zur rheinischen Kirchen- und Landesgeschichte sowie zur Buch- und Bibliotheksgeschichte 37. Cologne, Germany, 2010. 85-112.
• With Diane Jonte-Pace. "Ignatian Values in the Core Curriculum: Justice, Citizenship, and Reflection for a Globalizing World." Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education 38 (fall 2010): 36-39.
• "Rhetoric and Reception: Guillaume de Machaut's 'Je Maudi.'" Romance and Rhetoric:  Essays in Honour of Dhira B. Mahoney. Ed., Georgiana Donavin and Anita Obermeier. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010. 125-47.
• Reprint of "Louise Labé and Semiramis: A Feminist Reading." (1997) and "A Voice Restored: Louise Labé's Impersonation of Sappho" (1999) in Literature Criticism from 1400-1800: Critical Discussion of the Works of Fifteenth-, Sixteenth-, and Eighteenth-Century Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Philosophers, and Other Creative Writers. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau.  Vol. 120. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 80-89; 94-100.
• "Rosemary Cramp: The Hilde of Durham."  Women Medievalists and the Academy.  Ed. Jane Chance. University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. 885-900.
• Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Contexts, Identities, Affinities, and Performances.  Ed., Phyllis R. Brown, Linda A. McMillin, and Katharina M. Wilson.  University of Toronto Press, 2004.
• "Hrotsvit's Sapientia as a Foreign Woman."  Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Contexts, Identities, Affinities, and Performances.  Ed. Phyllis R. Brown, Linda A. McMillin, and Katharina M. Wilson.  University of Toronto Press, 2004. 160-76.
• With Laurie J. Churchill and Jane E. Jeffrey, eds.  Women Writing Latin. 3 vols. Women Writers of the World.  New York: Routledge, 2002.         
  • With John C. Peiffer, II. "Heloise, Dialectic, and the Heroides." Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth-Century Woman. The New Middle Ages. Ed. Bonnie Wheeler.  New York: St. Martin's, 2000.143-60.  John Peiffer graduated from SCU in  1998.