Note that some of this information has appeared in other versions in other webspaces I have maintained.

I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1982. From there, I moved with my family to Kerrville, Texas, in 1988, where I lived through graduating high school and during my undergraduate study at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In San Antonio, I studied most under Dr. Ben V. Olguín and the late Dr. Jan Tillery, despite emerging as neither a Latin-Americanist nor a linguist. After earning a baccalaureate in English with a minor in music and teaching certification, I pursued graduate studies in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Working under the supervision of Drs. Chris Healy and Jennifer Vaught, I received a Master of Arts degree from that institution in 2007 and a doctorate in 2012, both degrees in English and both supported by a graduate teaching assistantship I held from 2005 through 2009.

In 2009, I moved from Lafayette, Louisiana, to New York City, taking up teaching at Technical Career Institutes, a now-closed for-profit two-year vocational college in Midtown. After several terms on the part-time faculty, I was promoted to full-time status, which I held at that institution until August 2013, when I accepted a position as a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I held the position through May 2016, living near the school with my wife and daughter (the latter of whom joined us in that place), writing, conducting research into literature (particularly how the medieval is appropriated by the post-medieval), and teaching in the classroom and outside of it. In addition, from late 2015 through early 2016, I took on additional teaching duties at Northern Oklahoma College.

At the end of May 2016, as both Oklahoman positions ended, my family and I relocated to the Texas Hill Country, where I engaged more heavily in freelance work, including some social media consulting. I also picked up some teaching duties at DeVry University in San Antonio and Schreiner University in Kerrville (which have since ended). I also worked for a restaurant chain from April to August 2017—when I started at a non-profit where I could be of help to a group of people who need all the help they can get. At that non-profit, I rapidly rose to leadership, and I was privileged to lead the small agency as it worked to serve some of the least-helped people in the greater Kerrville area–until I accepted a position teaching English at Burnet High School in the 2021-2022 school year, relocated to Johnson City, and subsequently struck out on my own. Alas, freelancing, while remunerative, is not stable, and so I have maintained other ongoing work for a variety of companies, including taking up a new managerial position in Blanco County.

My research continues as other concerns allow, and I write poetry and the occasional essay. More information about each is listed on my combined resume and curriculum vita, below, as well as on LinkedIN. I also have an account on Twitter, although that will be receiving less attention as I move forward.

Geoffrey B. Elliott
10 May 2024

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Navigation

• Education
• Professional Positions
• Collegiate Positions
• Notable Skills and Qualifications
• Scholarly and Reviewed Publications
• Other Publications
• Publications in Process
• Conference Presentations
• College Teaching Experience
• Secondary Teaching Experience
• Academic and Professional Associations
• Academic Service
• Awards and Honors
• Community Involvement

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Education

Degrees

• PhD, English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2012
  • Dissertation: The Establishment of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur as the Standard Text of English-Language Arthurian Legend
  • Comprehensive exams (British Literature to circa 1500, British Literature of the Renaissance, American Literature to circa 1900, Fantasy Literature of the United States and Britain from 1950 to the Present) passed with distinction
  • Advisors: Drs. Chris Healy and Jennifer Vaught
• MA, English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2007
  • Thesis: “Manifestations of English Arthurian Legend in the Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies of Robin Hobb.”
  • Advisor: Dr. Chris Healy
• BA, English (minor in music), University of Texas at San Antonio, 2005
  • Cum laude
  • Honors College Highest Honors

Continuing Education

• Liberty Tax Service Payroll Fundamentals, 2022
• Liberty Tax Service Bookkeeping Fundamentals, 2022
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: Law and Culture in Medieval England, 2021
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Continuity and Coordination of Care Training, 2020
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas What You Need to Know About Substance Abuse Training, 2020
• San Antonio Council on Alcohol & Drug Awareness Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Training, 2019
• FEMA Emergency Management Institute, IS-00230.d: Fundamentals of Emergency Management, 2018
• Oklahoma State University Provost’s Initiative (Critical Thinking in the Arts and Humanities), 2015-2016
• Oklahoma State University Provost’s Initiative Workshops (Written Communication, Diversity), 2014-2015
• University of Cambridge International Summer Schools (Medieval Studies), 2012

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Professional Positions Held

Manger

• Liberty Tax Service | Johnson City, Texas | Beginning January 2024

Social Media Manager

• Heart’s Desire Stained Glass | Kerrville, Texas | Beginning August 2016
  • Projects at https://www.facebook.com/HDStGlass/ and https://twitter.com/HDStGlass, with more to come

Freelance Independent Proofreader, Tutor, and Writer

• Various agencies and independently | online and in various locations | Beginning May 2013

Office Specialist

• Liberty Tax Service | Kerrville, Texas | August 2016 to December 2023
  • Projects at facebook.com/libertytax12168, twitter.com/libertytax12168, and instagram.com/libtax12168/

AP / AR Specialist

• MFE Inspection Solutions | Dripping Springs, Texas | October 2022 to September 2023

Classroom Teacher

• Burnet High School | Burnet, Texas | September 2021 to November 2021

Executive Director

• Hill Country Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse | Kerrville, Texas | August 2019 to September 2021

Associate Director

• Hill Country Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse | Kerrville, Texas | August 2018 to August 2019

Administrative Assistant

• Hill Country Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse | Kerrville, Texas | August 2017 to August 2018

Office Clerk

• Chacho’s Restaurants | San Antonio, Texas | April 2017 to August 2017

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Collegiate Positions Held

DeVry University

• Visiting Professor II—College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, 2016-2019

Schreiner University

• Adjunct Instructor of English, 2016-2017

Northern Oklahoma College

• Adjunct Instructor, 2016

Oklahoma State University

• Visiting Assistant Professor of English, 2013-2016

Technical Career Institutes

• Instructor in Arts and Sciences, 2010-2013
• Adjunct Instructor in Arts and Sciences, 2009-2010

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Graduate Teaching Assistant, 2005-2009

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Notable Skills and Qualifications

• Notary Public Commission (133813729), Texas 2022-2026
• Expertise in English-language writing (including major style manuals such as MLA, APA, AP, and Chicago) and public speaking
• Expertise in media research and generating and maintaining online content in social media (especially blogs) and static websites
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), 2000+
• Proficiency in QuickBooks 2018-2023
• Proficiency in cash-handling and basic bookkeeping
• Proficiency in office and clerical tasks:
  • Typing at approximately 70 words per minute
  • Ten-keying at approximately 8000 keystrokes per hour
• Experience in customer service/client relations with diverse populations
• Experience in teaching non-traditional students
• Experience in management and leadership
• Competence in hair sample collection for drug testing
• Basic proficiency in income tax preparation (PTIN P03062298)
• Basic proficiency in non-English languages: Spanish (reading/writing, speaking), German (reading)
• Basic proficiency in HTML coding

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Scholarly and Reviewed Publications

• “Medieval Robots in Mega Man VI.” The Public Medievalist, 1 April 2021, publicmedievalist.com/medieval-robots-mega-man/.
• “Keeping It Old-School on the New Faculty Majority.” Ballad of the Lone Medievalist, edited by Kisha G. Tracy and John Sexton, Punctum, 2018, pp. 51-64.
• Review of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where, and Why It Happens, by Benedict Carey. Currents in Teaching and Learning, vol. 9, no. 1, 2017, pp. 48-50.
• “Moving beyond Tolkien’s Medievalism: Robin Hobb’s Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies.” Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones, edited by Helen Young, Cambria P, 2015, pp. 183-98.
• “Where Writes Me.” CCC, vol. 66, no. 2, 2014, pp. 247-49.
• “Melville’s Moby-Dick.” The Explicator, vol. 67, no. 4, 2009, pp. 252-54.
• “Shades of Steel-Gray: The Nuanced Warrior-Hero in the Farseer Trilogy.” Studies in Fantasy Literature, vol. 4, 2006, pp. 70-78.

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Other Publications

• “A Response.” Flora Fiction, 1 June 2021, florafiction.com/a-response-by-geoffrey-b-elliott/.
• “No Scholar.” Luna: Pen to Paper, 3 September 2020, lunatheblog.com/2020/09/03/no-scholar/.
• “Still Afraid.” Luna: Pen to Paper, 28 February 2020, lunatheblog.com/2020/02/28/still-afraid/.
• Untitled poem. Luna: Pen to Paper, 21 December 2019, lunatheblog.com/2019/12/21/untitled/.
• “One Other Bone in the LotR Online Soup.” UNICORN Cloud Conference and Virtual Museum, 20 February 2015, unicornvirtualmedievalmuseum.org.
• “My Revised Plan B.” How to Succeed in College: It’s Never Too Late! Part Two for Adult Learners, edited by Nancy Riecken, It’s for Your Community, 2014.
• “Undisregard.” The View from Here: Poetry to Help You Soar, edited by Nancy Riecken, It’s for Your Community, 2014.
• “By the Crawl-Space Door.” One Image: One Hundred Voices. Elizabeth S. Gunn, 9 December 2013, oneimage-onehundredvoices.com/?page_id=83.
• “My Acquaintance with Katrina.” Beyond Katrina, edited by Patricia Ellyn Powell, Arts & Healthcare P, 2005, p. 16.

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Publications in Process

• “No Accounting for the Old School—Or So Folks Wrongly Think.” Out of the Cloister: Lone Medievalists Making the Middle Ages Matter, edited by Kisha G. Tracy and John Sexton, accepted for publication.
• Review of The Berlin Project, by Gregory Benford. Journal of Science Fiction, accepted for publication.

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Conference Presentations

General

• “Tales after Tolkien: Shakespeare in Robin Hobb.” Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque, New Mexico). 2017. (Accepted but not presented.)
• “One Other Bone in the LotR Online Soup.” Popular Culture and the Deep Past, 2015: Tolkien Days (Columbus, Ohio). 2015.
• “Royal Evils in Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy.” Evil Incarnate: Manifestations of Villains and Villainy (Cleveland, Ohio). 2014.
• “Play with It.” Legacies of Undergraduate Research Roundtable. CCCC (Indianapolis, Indiana). 2014.
• With Sonya Jaramillo. “Is the English Strong Verb Making a Comeback?” City University of New York Graduate Center Strange and Quirky Ideas in Development Symposium (New York, New York). 2009.
• “Here There Be Dragons: Draconic Parallels between Beowulf and The Faerie Queene.”  South Central Renaissance Conference (San Antonio, Texas). 2007.
• With Michael Berntsen. “Tutors, Pimps, and Other Advertising Geniuses.” South Central Writing Center Association Conference (Little Rock, Arkansas). 2006.
• With Sonya Jaramillo and Melissa A. Kizina. “Building Ideas: The Use of Tangibles in the Writing Center.” South Central Writing Center Association Conference (Little Rock, Arkansas). 2006.

International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

• “An Update to ‘Moving Beyond Tolkien’s Medievalism.’” 2024.
• “Playing with Medieval(ist?) Religion in Forum-Based Play-by-Post Roleplaying Games: A Case Study.” 2023.
• “Laying Down the Law in the Pendragon RPG.” 2022.
• “Sites of Memory in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings.” Accepted for 2020, cancelled due to COVID-19; presented 2021.
• “Manifestations of Medieval Religion in Robin Hobb’s Elderlings Corpus.” 2019.
• Panelist, “Greater than the Sum of our Arts: The Multitasking Life of the Lone Medievalist” Roundtable. 2017.
• “The Malorian Kay as Fredalian Figure.” 2016.
• “White Hats for White Plumes: The Western as Arthurian Romance Reimagined.” 2015.
• “Unchurched: On the Relative Lack of Religion in Tolkienian-Tradition Fantasy Literature.” 2014.
• “A Divergent Medievalism in Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man Trilogy.” 2013.
• “Knighthood Continued: The Endurance of the Chivalric in Early Stuart England.” 2011.
• “No Advice sans Knowledge: The Major Martial Aspect of Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier.” 2010.

South Central Modern Language Association

• “A Tacit Satire in Stansby’s 1634 Le Morte d’Arthur.” (Austin, Texas). 2014.
• “Which Way I Fly Is Middle-earth; Myself Am Middle-earth: Miltonic Resonance in Tolkien.” (Hot Springs, Arkansas). 2011.
• “Manifest Destiny and Other Western Ideas in Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son.” (Fort Worth, Texas). 2010.
• “Closed-Lipped Howls: Lupine/Human Psychic Projections in Contemporary Fantasy Literature.” (Baton Rouge, Louisiana). 2009.
• “Riddle Me This: Warrior Ethics in The Dream of the Rood.” (San Antonio, Texas). 2008.
• “Martial Methodology in Malory.” (Memphis, Tennessee). 2007.

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College Teaching Experience

DeVry University

• Classes Taught
  • SPCH 275: Public Speaking (hybrid)—March 2017 Session, March 2019 Session
  • ENGL 227: Professional Writing (hybrid)—September 2016 Session, March 2017 Session
  • ENGL 216: Technical Writing (hybrid)—November 2017 Session, January 2018 Session, May 2018 Session
  • ENGL 147N: Advanced English Composition (online)—July 2017 Session
  • ENGL 135: Advanced Composition
    • Hybrid—July 2016 Session, May 2017 Session, July 2017 Session, November 2017 Session, March 2018 Session
    • Online—September 2018 Session, November 2018 Session, May 2019 Session, November 2019 Session
  • ENGL 112: Composition (hybrid)—November 2018 Session, July 2019 Session
  • ENGL 062: Introduction to Reading & Writing (hybrid)—May 2017 Session, September 2017 Session, July 2018 Session, January 2019 Session

Schreiner University

• Classes Taught
  • ENGL/THRE 3333: Shakespeare: Comedies and Sonnets—Fall 2016
  • ENGL 2340: World Literature through the Renaissance—Fall 2016
  • ENGL 1302: Literature and Composition—Spring 2017
  • ENGL 1301: Rhetoric and Composition—Fall 2016

Northern Oklahoma College

• Classes Taught
  • ENGL 1213: Composition II—Spring 2016

Oklahoma State University

• Classes Taught
  • ENGL 3323: Technical Writing—Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015
  • ENGL 2543: Survey of British Literature I—Spring 2014
  • ENGL 2413: Introduction to Literature—Fall 2014
  • ENGL 1213: Composition II—Spring 2016
  • ENGL 1113: Composition I—Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2015
• College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology Summer Bridge Program—2015

Technical Career Institutes

• Classes Taught
  • LIT 203: Introduction to American Literature—Summer 2013
  • ENG 202: Technical Writing and Presentation—Summer 2011 through Spring 2012, Fall 2012 through Summer 2013
  • HUM 110: Speech—Fall 2010 through Spring 2012, Fall 2012 through Summer 2013
  • ENG 102: Freshman Composition II—Summer 2013
  • ENG 101: Freshman Composition I—Summer 2011 through Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • ENG 100: Freshman Composition I (Developmental)—Summer 2009 through Spring 2011
  • ENG 099: Basic Communication—Fall 2010 through Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
  • ENG 082: Basic Writing Skills—Summer 2009 through Summer 2010
  • ENG 081: Basic Reading Skills—Summer 2009 through Summer 2010
• Guest Lectures
  • ESL 031: Advanced ESL—Spring 2011, Spring 2012
  • RV 021: Reading and Vocabulary II—Spring 2009

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Classes Taught
  • ENGL 360: Advanced Exposition—Fall 2007
  • ENGL 207: Poetry—Fall 2008 (inaugural semester of the course)
  • ENGL 205: Early American Literature (Beginnings through 1865)—Spring 2008
  • ENGL 204: Novel and Short Fiction (Fantasy Literature)—Spring 2009
  • ENGL 201: British Literature I (Beginnings through 18th Century)—Fall 2007
  • ENGL 102: Writing and Culture—Spring 2007, Spring 2009
  • ENGL 101: Introduction to Academic Writing—Fall 2006, Spring 2008, Fall 2008
  • ENGL 090: Developmental English—Summer 2006, Summer 2007, Summer 2008
• Guest Lectures
  • ENGL 505: Medieval Studies (Arthurian Literature)—Spring 2009
  • ENGL 424: Shakespeare, Later Plays—Spring 2008
  • ENGL 360: Advanced Exposition—Spring 2009
  • ENGL 102: Writing and Research about Culture—Spring 2006
  • ENGL 101: Introduction to Academic Writing—Spring 2006
• Writing Center Tutor—Fall 2005, Spring 2006

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Secondary Teaching Experience

Burnet High School

• Classes Taught
  • English IV—2021
  • English III—2021

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Academic and Professional Associations

• Medieval Academy of America
• Tales after Tolkien Society
• Lone Medievalist Society
• International Porlock Society

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Academic Service

General

• Contributor, New Chaucer Society Annotated Chaucer Bibliography—2014-2019
• Adviser, Sigma Tau Delta Alpha Gamma Xi Chapter (Schreiner University), 2016-2017
• Member, UNICORN Virtual Museum of Medieval Studies and Medievalism Board of Directors—2015-2017
• Presenter, City University of New York Graduate Center Department of Linguistics Professional Development Series—2009

Tales after Tolkien Society

• Social Media Officer—2024-2025
• Curator, Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism—beginning 2014
• President—2018-2024
• Vice-President (USA)—2014-2018

International Congress on Medieval Studies

• Organizer, Alternative Medievalisms against the Tolkienian Tradition Sponsored Session, 2024.
• Organizer and Presider, Tolkien and Twenty-First Century Challenges Sponsored Session, 2024.
• Organizer, Religion along the Tolkienian Fantasy Tradition: New Medievalist Narratives Sponsored Session, 2023
• Organizer, Twenty-First Century Neo/Medievalisms, 2022
• Organizer, Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption Sponsored Session, cancelled due to COVID-19 in 2020 and reorganized for 2021
• Organizer and Presider, The Legacy of Tolkien’s Medievalism in Contemporary Works Sponsored Session, 2019
• Organizer, Afterlives of Medieval Religion in Contemporary Works Sponsored Session, 2019
• Presider, The Medieval Past General Session, 2017
• Presider, Growing Up Medieval: The Middle Ages in Children’s and Young Adult Literature Sponsored Session, 2017
• Presider, Middle English Verse General Session, 2016
• Presider, A Session of Ice and Fire: Medievalism in the Game of Thrones Franchise Sponsored Session, 2016
• Presider, Looking Back at the Middle Ages General Session, 2015
• Presider, From Frodo to Fidelma: Medievalism in Popular Genres Sponsored Session, 2015
• Presider, Middle English Arthuriana General Session, 2014
• Presider, Arthuriana General Session, 2013

South Central Modern Language Association

• Chair, English I: Old and Middle English Regular Session; Nashville, Tennessee, 2015
• Chair, English I: Old and Middle English Regular Session; New Orleans, Louisiana, 2013
• Organizer and Presider, Tauroscatology Special Session; San Antonio, Texas, 2012
• Organizer and Presider, Borrowings from the Past: Reception Studies Special Session; Hot Springs, Arkansas, 2011
• Organizer and Presider, Re-creations of the American West in Popular Culture Special Session; Fort Worth, Texas, 2010

Humanities Directory

• Member, Editorial Board—2013-2014
• Reviewer—2013-2014

Technical Career Institutes

• Member, Division of Arts and Sciences External Program Review Committee—2013
• Member, Library Committee—2011-2013
• Faculty Peer Mentor—2012
• Coordinator, Professional Development Research Forum—2012
• Participant, Lecture Capture Pilot Program—2011
• Originator, Standard Course Syllabus for HUM 209: Ethics and Technology—2011

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Contributor/Organizer, Department of English Thursday Night Reading Series—2008-2009
• Presenter, Department of English First-Year Writing Workshops—2008
• Member, Louisiana Conference on Language and Literature Abstracts Committee—2007-2008
• Graduate Student Conference on Languages and Literatures
  • Chair, Abstracts Committee—2005-2007
  • Member, Hospitality Committee—2005-2006
  • Member, Technical Committee—2005-2006
• Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society, Lambda Zeta Chapter
  • President—2005-2006
  • Corresponding Secretary—2006-2007
  • Member—2005-2009

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Awards and Honors

General

• Oklahoma State University Department of English Travel Program for Visiting Assistant Professors—2015, 2016
• South Central Modern Language Association Travel Grant—2013, 2014, 2015

Technical Career Institutes

• Sabbatical Leave—Fall 2013 (waived in favor of other employment)
• Research and Travel Grant—Fall 2009, Summer 2010, Summer 2011

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Florence Sanders Jones Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in English—2009
• Graduate Assistantship, Department of English—2005-2011 (waived 2009 in favor of other employment)
• Graduate Student Organization Research and Travel Grant—Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Fall 2008

Community Involvement

• Tivy High School Band Alumni, 2019-2023
• Kerrville Independent School District Band Boosters, 2019-2021
• Nimitz Elementary School PTO, 2019-2021
• Kerr County Community Band, 2018

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