Kevin J. Wanner
Kevin J. Wanner
 |
Associate Professor, Undergraduate Advisor Medieval Christianity 2007 Moore Hall (269) 387-4348 kevin.wanner@wmich.edu |
Education
Ph.D. in the History of Religions
The University of Chicago, 2003
M.A. in Religion
The University of Chicago, 1998
B.A. in Psychology and Religious Studies; minor in Sociology
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1995
Teaching
I teach mainly on Christianity and theory and method in the study of religion. Courses that I regularly teach include REL 2000: Introduction to Religion, REL 3050: The Christian Tradition, and, at the graduate level, REL 5000: Medieval Christianity. I also participate in our faculty team-taught section of REL 1000: Religions of the World.
Research
My area of specialization is Medieval Christianity, with a particular focus on the pre- and post-conversion religion and culture of Scandinavia.
Publications
Books
Snorri Sturluson and the Edda: The Conversion of Cultural Capital in Medieval
Scandinavia. Toronto Old Norse-Icelandic Series 4. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 2008.
Articles
"Purity and Danger in Earliest Iceland: Excrement, Blood, Sacred Space, and Society in Eyrbyggja saga." Viking and Medieval Scandinavia (forthcoming, 2009)
“Off-Center: Considering Spatial Valences in Norse Cosmography.” Speculum:
A Journal of Medieval Studies 84 (2009): 37-72.
"Adjusting Judgments of Gauta Þáttr's Forest Family." Scandinavian Studies 80.4 (2008): 375-406.
“Cunning Intelligence in Norse Myth: Loki, Óðinn, and the Limits of
Sovereignty.” History of Religions 48.3 (2009)
“God on the Margins: Dislocation and Transience in the Myths of Óðinn.”
History of Religions 46.4 (2007): 316-50.
“At Smyrja Konung til Veldis: The Question of Royal Legitimation in Snorri
Sturluson’s Magnúss saga Erlingssonar.” Saga-Book of the Viking Society 30 (2006): 5-38.
“‘Lord Help Us’: Religion in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.” Method and
Theory in the Study of Religion 18.2 (2006): 166-78.
“The Giant who Wanted to be a Dwarf: The Transgression of Mythic Norms in
Þórr’s Fight with Geirrøðr.” Scandinavica 40 (2001): 189-225.