Geraldine Heng
Geraldine Heng is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Perceval Fellow, with a joint appointment in Middle Eastern studies and Women’s studies, at the University of Texas at Austin.[1] She is noted as a key figure in the development of postcolonial approaches to the European Middle Ages.[2][3] Her book The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (2018) won the Association of American Publishers subject category award for world history.[4]
Education and career
Heng completed her MA degree at the National University of Singapore in 1980, with a thesis entitled "Tilting at Windmills: A Study of Nick Joaquin".[5] She proceeded to study at Cornell University, completing her PhD thesis, Gender Magic: Desire, Romance, and the Feminine in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in 1990.[6]
Amongst other work, Heng is noted for the article 'State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race in Singapore', co-written with her husband Janadas Devan,[7][8] critiquing resistance to same-sex marriage in Singapore.[9] Heng is also the first woman from Singapore to publish a collection of poetry in English, white-dreams (1976).[10] Heng is the keynote speaker at the 46th Annual New England Medieval Conference, 3 December 2020. Her talk is entitled 'The Politics of Race in the European Middle Ages'.
Books
- England and the Jews: How Religion and Violence Created the First Racial State in the West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)
- The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2018)
- Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), ISBN 0231125275
- Whitedreams (Singapore: Woodrose Publications, 1976) [poetry]
- The Sun in her Eyes: Stories by Singapore Women, ed. by Geraldine Heng (Singapore: Woodrose Publications, 1976)
References
- Geraldine Heng
- Simon Gaunt, 'Can the Middle Ages be Postcolonial?', Comparative Literature, 61.2 (2009), 160-76. doi:10.1215/00104124-2009-004.
- Laurie A. Finke, 'Géraldine Heng, Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003)', Arthuriana, 15.2 (Summer 2005), 71-72. doi:10.1353/art.2005.0016.
- 'Association of American Publishers Announces Subject Category Winners of 2019 Prose Awards', States News Service (29 January 2019).
- Geraldine Heng Guan Noi, "Tilting at Windmills: A Study of Nick Joaquin" (unpublished MA thesis, National University of Singapore, 1980).
- Geraldine G. Heng, "Gender Magic: Desire, Romance, and the Feminine in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University, 1990).
- Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2018), p. xiii.
- K. Kanagalatha, 'Mother was our World', The Straits Times (13 May 2018).
- Geraldine Heng and Janadas Devan, 'State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race in Singapore', in Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia, ed. Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 195–215.
- Patke, Rajeev S (Spring 2000). "Poetry in English from Singapore". World Literature Today: 293-299.
External links
- https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/faculty/heng
- http://www.globalmiddleages.org/ (a projected founded by Heng)
- Listen to the opening lecture at the 'Race and Periodization' Symposium, September 2019: https://www.folger.edu/institute/scholarly-programs/race-periodization/geraldine-heng