Aaron Kleist
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Aaron Kleist

Professor of English

DepartmentDepartment of English
Biola AffiliationsFaculty

Documents

CV Document (PDF)

Degrees

  • Litt.D., University of Cambridge
  • Ph.D., University of Cambridge
  • M.A., Indiana University
  • B.A., Taylor University

Member of

Biography

Raised on the island of Saipan, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Aaron J. Kleist completed his doctorate degree in Old English literature at the University of Cambridge before coming to Biola in 2001. His research on reconstructing medieval texts through digital editions brought him a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and a posting as a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge in 2004. His work also led him to direct a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant from 2006–2011 and allowed him to return to Cambridge as a Life Fellow of Clare Hall. He consulted as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland in 2008, at the University of Munich in 2011, and at the Belarus State University in 2018. At Biola, moreover, he has served in a wide variety of capacities, ranging from director of the interdisciplinary general education IRIS program to the Associate Provost of Academic Innovation.

Affiliations

[Selected]

  • Life Member, Fulbright Association, 2012–present
  • Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2008–present
  • Research Associate, CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, UCLA, 2003–present
  • Member, Clare College, University of Cambridge, UK, 2000–present
  • Honorary Invited Associate, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, Princeton University, 2002–present
  • Reader, Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK, 1999–present
  • Reader, Cambridge University Library, UK, 1997–present
  • Reader, National Library of Belarus, 2018
  • Reader, Batthyaneum Library, Transylvania, Romania, 2011
  • Reader, Stiftsbibliothek, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 2008

Awards

[Selected]

  • Sir Israel Gollancz Prize, British Academy, for “one of the most important contributions to Old English studies of the last generation,” 2024
  • Fulbright Specialist Roster Candidate, 2006–2011, 2015–2020, and 2022–2025
  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Plovdiv University, Bulgaria, 2022
  • Fulbright Specialist, Belarusian State University, 2018
  • Fulbright Specialist, University of Munich, Germany, 2011
  • Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2008
  • Fulbright Specialist, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 2008
  • Honorary Research Associate; Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic; U of Cambridge, 2004 and 2008
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Scholarly Editions Grant, 2006
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2004

Publications

Books

  • Kleist and Robert Upchurch. Ælfrician Homilies and Varia, vol I. Anglo-Saxon Texts 13a. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022. [xxii + 485 pp.]
  • Kleist and Robert Upchurch. Ælfrician Homilies and Varia, vol. II. Anglo-Saxon Texts 13b. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022. [vi + 518 pp.]
  • The Chronology and Canon of Ælfric of Eynsham. Anglo-Saxon Studies 37. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2019. [xxii + 347 pp.]
  • Ed. The Digital Ælfric. Scholarly Digital Editions. Boydell & Brewer, 2016. [1,167,988 words] Received the MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions’ Seal of Approval, 2014.
  • Striving with Grace: Views of Free Will in Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto Old English Series 20. University of Toronto Press, 2008. [xv + 418 pp.]
  • Ed. The Old English Homily: Precedence, Practice, and Appropriation. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 17. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007. [xiii + 532 pp.]

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

  • “The Sources of Ælfric’s De creatore et creatora (AH II.14; C.B.1.6.4).” Fontes Anglo-Saxonici: A Register of Written Sources Used by Anglo-Saxon Authors. Ed. Malcolm Godden and Christine Rauer. Oxford University and the University of St Andrews. https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/fontes/ (2022; rev. ed. 2023)
  • “Per coronauirum ad astra: Improving Pedagogy in Covid’s Aftermath.” The Child is the Father of the Man: 30 Years of English Philology at Plovdiv University. Ed. Yana Rowland and Dimitar Karamitev. Plovdiv: University of Plovdiv P, 2022. 29–51.
  • “Clement of Alexandria.” Sources of Old English and Anglo-Latin Literary Culture. Ed. Brandon Hawk, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/epcj-f540 [book series, now digital]
  • “A Fourth Ælfrician Commonplace Book? Vestiges in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 190.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology (2019): 31–72.

Presentations

[Selected]

  • “These Things of Darkness I Do Not Acknowledge Mine: Liminality and Legitimacy in Ælfric’s Afterlives,” Ælfric’s Afterlives Conference, Leiden University, Netherlands, June 2025 (upcoming)
  • “The [Ostensible] Obsolescence of the Old,” British Academy, London, UK, October 2024
  • “Effectively Incorporating AI into Higher Education,” Fulbright National Conference, Washington, D.C., October 2024
  • “Editing Shakespeare: The Quartos and First Folio.” Fulbright Lecture, Huntington Library, Pasadena, January 2024
  • “Searching for Shakespeare: Textual Evidence, Extra-Textual Decisions, and Unexpected Complications in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Downing College, University of Cambridge, July 2023
  • “Networks of Sanctity in Ælfric’s Temporale Homilies.” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, U.K., July 2023
  • Fulbright Seminar Series on Pedagogy [9 seminars, 1.5 – 2 hours each]. Faculty of Philology, Plovdiv University, February–May 2022
  • “Gained in Translation: Authorial Revision and the Transmission of Ideas in Early England.” Translation Theory Lectures, Department of English, Plovdiv University, May 2022
  • “Ælfric’s Chronology and Canon.” International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, University of New Mexico, August 2019
  • The Fulbright Lectures [13 addresses, 1.5 – 3 hours each]. Belarusian State University, October–November 2018

Courses

[Selected]

  • The Battle of the Sexes in the Middle Ages
  • Castles, Kings, and Conquest
  • Digital Manuscript Restoration
  • Dystopian Literature and Film
  • Humanities Internships: Preparing for Your Profession
  • Legends of King Arthur
  • Money, Sex, and Power
  • Old English Literature and Language
  • Science Fiction: The Building of Empire
  • Shakespeare in Script, Stage, and Screen
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