Maija Birenbaum, PhD

Editor

Associate Professor Emerita

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Department of Literature, Writing, and Film

Phone:

917-613-2693

A Bit About Me

I am a retired professor of medieval literature and culture. I have twenty-five years of experience in teaching, research, writing, tutoring, and editing.

Education

Fordham University

PhD English Literature

Hunter College, CUNY

MA English Literature

McGill University

BA English Literature

Editing Experience

Associate Editor. New Perspectives in Edward Albee Studies. Series Ed. Michael Y. Bennett. Brill Publishing, volumes 1-4, 2016-2021.

For this peer-reviewed book series, I prepared each manuscript for publication by assisting contributing authors with line-editing, copyediting, and proofreading as well as with citation verification and formatting.

Freelance Editorial work.

As a freelance editor, I have guided authors composing a broad range of writings: dissertations, books, articles, reports, essays, and stories. My experience extends across disciplines, including literature, history, psychology, medicine, fiction, and creative non-fiction. In addition to copyediting and proofreading, I help writers to improve the structure of their work, the strength of their arguments, and the clarity of their prose.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the literature of medieval England, primarily on representations of Jews and Judaism in Middle English and Anglo-Norman devotional literature.

Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters

"Judaism." Routledge Companion to Global Chaucer. Ed Craig E. Bertolet and Susan Nakley. Routledge Literature Companion Series. Routledge Press, 2024.
"Titus and Vespasian." Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. Ed. Sian Echard and Robert Rouse. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
"Distichs of Cato by Everart." The French of England: Vernacular Literary Theory and Practice 1130 – 1450. Ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Thelma Fenster, and Delbert Russell. D. S. Brewer, 2016.
"Communal Purity and Jewish 'Filþ' in Cleanness." Philological Quarterly vol. 91, no. 3, 2012, pp. 338-359.
"Affective Vengeance in Titus and Vespasian." Chaucer Review vol. 43, no. 3, 2009, pp. 330-344.

Book Reviews

John Clark, The Green Children of Woolpit: Chronicles, Fairies and Facts in Medieval England. Supernatural Studies vol. 11, no. 1, Winter 2026.
Polemic: Language as Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Ed. Almut Suerbaum and George Southcombe. The Medieval Review, October 7, 2017.
Medieval Women and their Objects. Ed. Jenny Adams and Nancy Mason Bradbury. Studies in the Age of Chaucer vol. 39, 2017.
Adrienne Williams Boyarin, Miracles of the Virgin in Medieval England: Law and Jewishness in Marian Legends. Religion and Literature vol. 43, no. 3, Autumn 2011.

Selected Presentations

"The Croxton Play of the Sacrament and Collective Memory." 25th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 2018.
"The Invention of Love: Representations of Desire in Medieval Literature." Scholarly Scoop, Monona Senior Center, Monona, WI, 2016.
Panel Organizer, Presenter, and Facilitator: "Apocalyptic Assemblages: Reading to the End in Religion, Ecology, and Popular Culture." 4th Biennial Meeting of the BABEL Working Group, University of Toronto, 2015.
"Revelation in Pulp Fiction: Rapture Culture, Christian Fundamentalism, and the Battle for the Mind." 4th Biennial Meeting of the BABEL Working Group, University of Toronto, 2015.
"Jews Experience Christ's (Tough) Love: Devotional Uses of The Infancy of Jesus Christ in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Selden Supra 38." 33rd Annual Conference for the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, 2013.
"Christ Behaving Badly?: Les Enfaunces Jesu Crist and the Hermeneutics of Supersession." Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, Tempe, AZ, 2011.
"Vengeance, Jews, and the Christ Child in the Illustrated Evangile de l'Enfance." Fall Lecture Series, Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies, 2010.
"'Þei were never in wille to mende': Penance and Vengeance in Titus and Vespasian." 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2008.
"'Devoydynge þe Vylanye': Cleanness and the Shaping of Pious Vengeance." 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2007.
"Blessed Vengeance: Saints and Miraculous Punishment." Hagiographical Society Meeting, New York, 2005.

Teaching

I have taught numerous university-level literature and writing classes over the last twenty-five years.

Courses include the following:

Medieval Monsters and Marvels
The "Other" in Text and Image
Apocalyptic Literature
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton
Saints and Sinners in Medieval Literature
Sin in Medieval Tradition
Medieval Sex, Love, and Marriage
Survey of British Literature
Literature of Vengeance and Justice
Composition and Rhetoric
Close Reading and Critical Writing

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