Profile | Directory | Utah Valley University

Faculty Member

Dr. Ruen-chuan Ma

Email: [email protected]
Office: CB 402G
Phone: 801-863-6293
Mail Stop: 153

Biography

Associate Professor of English and Literature

Research Interests

Late medieval English and French literature, medieval manuscript studies (esp. page design and codicology), relationship between text and image, medieval reception of classical texts

Courses Taught

ENGL 2010/201H - Academic Writing & Research
ENGL 2230 - Myths and Legends in Literature
ENGL 2610 - British Literature to 1800
ENGL 3090 - Academic Writing for English Majors
ENGL 3610 - Medieval Literature
ENGL 376G - World Literature (Ideas of the World in the Middle Ages)
ENGL 4620 - Chaucer
ENGL 463R - Topics in Shakespeare
ENGL 471R - Eminent Authors
HONR 2000 - Ancient Legacies

Director, International Hoccleve Society, July 2019 to present
Chair, MLA Middle English Forum Executive Committee, 2025-26

Faculty Advisor, Essais, 2018-19 and 2019-20
UVU's premier student publication for scholarly endeavors in critical literary analysis and literary theory

Co-Director, English Department London Study Abroad Program

Speaker, Roots of Knowledge Lecture Series, UVU Fulton Library, September 2018
"Reading Stained Glass and Parchment: Reimagining Time and Space in Medieval Literature and Beyond"

Education

PhD, Columbia University, 2017

Major: English and Comparative Literature

MA, University College London, 2008

Major: Medieval Studies

BA, University of Chicago, 2007

Major: English Language and Literature

Teaching

ENGL 2010

Intermediate Academic Writing CC, Spring 2024

ENGL 2010

Intermediate Academic Writing CC, Spring 2024

ENGL 374G

Literature of the Sacred GI, Spring 2024

ENGL 2230

Myths and Legends in Literature HH, Spring 2024

Presentations

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Ab Uno Disce Omnes_ A Conference in Honor of Christopher Baswell, "Magnifying the Magnificat_ Translation and Page Design in Manuscripts of Lydgate's Life of Our Lady", Columbia University Medieval Studies Seminar, Barnard College, New York, New York. (May 23, 2025)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , International Congress on Medieval Studies, "The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in the Book History Classroom_ Medieval World Maps", Kalamazoo, Michigan. (May 8, 2025)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Faculty Colloquium, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, "Rare Books and Imperial Ambitions_ Situating Western Medieval Manuscripts in East Asia", Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. (February 26, 2025)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society, "Books in 'Ferne Halwes’ and 'Sondry Londes’: Critical Provenances and the Evolving Object Legacies of Medieval Literary Manuscripts", New Chaucer Society, Pasadena, CA. (July 18, 2024)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , V International Congress of the John Gower Society, "Mixed Modes and Mixed Tongues_ Re-evaluating Gower’s Bilingualism, V International Congress of the John Gower Society, St. Andrews University, U.K., July 2023", John Gower Society, St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. (July 8, 2023)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society, "The Semantic Potential of Manuscript Decoration_ Communities of Reading in the House of Fame", New Chaucer Society, Durham, UK. (July, 2022)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Ma, Ruen-chuan , (2025) "Reading “thise lettres rede”: Page Design, Visual Data, and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde" (Issue: 1, vol. 14). Digital Philology. https://doi.org/10.1353/dph.2025.a959169

Ma, Ruen-chuan , (2025) "John Gower’s Rhetoric_ Classical Authority, Biblical Ethos, and Renaissance Receptions" (Issue: 1, vol. 100). Speculum. https://doi.org/10.1086/733601

Ma, Ruen-chuan , "Margin(e)" (vol. 38). Medieval Perspectives.

Medieval Literature, Fall 2017

Ma, Ruen-chuan , International Congress on Medieval Studies, "Multilingual and Multimodal Aesthetics of Reading in the Confessio Amantis", , Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (virtual). (May, 2022)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Marco Manuscripts Workshop, "Magnifying the Magnificat_ Text and Sound in Manuscripts of Lydgate’s Life of Our Lady", , Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN. (February, 2022)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Region and Enmity_ a RaceB4Race Symposium, "A Medieval Manuscript Travels to East Asia_ Coloniality, Provenance, and Shifting Prestige in National Taiwan University Otori 299", , Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Rutgers University-Newark, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (virtual). (October, 2021)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , MLA Convention, "Interlingual Lineation and Poetics in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde", , Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA. (January, 2020)

Ma, Ruen-chuan , Roots of Knowledge Speaker Series, Utah Valley University, "Reading Stained Glass and Parchment_ Reimagining Time and Space in Medieval Literature", , UVU Library, Orem, UT. (September, 2018)