About

Rachel Kapelle received her PhD from Brandeis University. Her teaching experience includes courses on writing, medieval literature, the Arthurian legends, the fantasy genre, and Shakespeare. In her classes, students compete in a Quest for the Holy Grail board game, pitch their own Arthurian adaptations, finish The Canterbury Tales, and evaluate critical works that explain the significance of monsters. Her scholarship considers the topics of interpretation and prediction as they are presented within the frameworks of medieval genres and specific manuscripts. Studying these two topics gives us insights into the questions that medieval authors used imaginative writing to explore—such as how knowledge is acquired, how mysteries are solved, and how much freedom individuals have to determine the future. One of her current projects discusses the spin that a poem about the fourteenth century Anglo-Scottish wars put on a prophecy which originated in the seventh century CE. She has published in journals including Modern Philology, Arthuriana, and Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England.