Haruko Momma

Ph.D. Toronto (medieval studies)

M.A. Toronto (medieval studies)

M.A. Hokkaido, Japan (English)

B.A. Hokkaido, Japan (English)

Old English language and literature; lexicology and lexicography; medieval literature and culture; history of the English language; culture of religion; philology and philosophy of language; history of the discipline; medievalism; historical poetics.

Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies; Fellow, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University; Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship; Distinguished Fellow, Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study

I consider myself to be a philologist, that is, etymologically, a “lover of words.” To me, though, a philologist is someone who uses diverse words and languages as entry points to explore the cultures of the people who have used them. In my first book, The Composition of Old English Poetry, I examine how Beowulf (my first “love”) and other Anglo-Saxon verses are put together textually, in terms of both syntax and prosody. My love of the English language—with all its copiousness and energy—led me to co-edit A Companion to the History of the English Language, a collection of fifty-nine essays on subjects ranging from English as an Indo-European or Germanic language to the role of English in the postcolonial world. Also I published From Philology to English Studies: Language and Culture in the Nineteenth Century in order to revisit the history of the field of philology. This monograph takes another look at such key events as the European discovery of Sanskrit, the earliest study of Beowulf, and the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Currently, I have several projects in the areas of the culture of religion, the intersection of indigenous studies, and post colonialism.

“The Theater of Race and Its Supporting Actors: A Tale of Two Islands,” Special Issue “Race and Periodization,” New Literary History 52 (2021): 407–29

“‘Element by Element’: Glosses, Loan Translations, and Lexical Enrichment in Old English,” Litterarum dulces fructus: Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren on his 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce (Brepols, 2021), pp. 323–45

“‘A Vision of Souls’: Charity, Judgment, and the Compilation of Junius 85/86,” in  Old English Lexicology and Lexicography: Essays in Honor of Antonette diPaolo Healey, co-edited by Maren Clegg-Hyer, Haruko Momma, and Samantha Zacher (D. S. Brewer, 2020), pp. 94–109 

“A Darkness Edible: Soul, Body, and Worms in Early Medieval English Devotional Literature,” in Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon Literature, ed. Ruth Wehlau (Richard Rawlinson Center, 2019), pp. 237–54

“Purgatoria clementia: Philosophy and Principles of Pain in the Old English Boethius,” in Revisiting the Legacy of Boethius in the Middle Ages, ed. Erica Weaver and Joey McMullen (Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2018), pp. 53–69

“What Has Beowulf to Do with English? (Let’s Ask Lady Philology),” History of the English Language: Pedagogy in Practice, ed. Allison Burkette and Mary Hayes (Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 211–21

The Study of Old English in Nineteenth-Century Europe, guest editor, with M. J. Toswell, Poetica 86 (2017) 

“The Old English Metrical Psalms: Practice and Theory of Translation,” Early English Poetic Culture and Meter: The Influence of G. R. Russom, ed. by Jane Toswell and Lindy Brady (Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2016), pp. 93–110.

Old English across the Curriculum: Contexts and Pedagogies, guest editor, with Heide Estes, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 22.2 (2015)

“Ælfric’s Fisherman and the Hronrad: A Colloquy on the Occupation,” in The Maritime World of the Anglo-Saxons, Essays in Anglo-Saxon Studies, ed. William Schipper, Stacy S. Klein, and Shannon Lewis-Simpson (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014), pp. 303–22.

“Old English Poetic Form: Genre, Style, Prosody,” in The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature, ed. Clare Lees (Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 278–308.

“Narrating the Battle of Hastings: Multilingual Britain and the Monolingualism of William of Malmesbury,” in Multilingualism in Medieval Britain (c. 1066-1520): Sources and Analysis, ed. by Judith A. Jefferson and Ad Putter, with the Assistance of Amanda Hopkins (Brepols, 2013), pp. 225–39.

“Medievalism—Colonialism—Orientalism: Japan’s Modern Identity in Natsume Soseki’s Maboroshi no Tate and Kairo-ko,” in Medievalisms in the Postcolonial World: The Idea of “the Middle Ages” Outside Europe, ed. Kathleen Davis and Nadia Altschul (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), pp. 141–73.

The History of the English Language: Pedagogy and Research, guest editor, with Michael Matto, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 14.1 (2008)