• UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
• GRADUATE PROGRAM
• NONFICTION WRITING PROGRAM
• FACULTY RESEARCH
• FACULTY DIRECTORY
• CURRICULUM
• OFFICE HOURS
• ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

 

Geoffrey Russom

Professor Emeritus of English

Office: 70 Brown St., Rm. 412
Phone: (401) 863-3275

Old English Tutorials

[] [office hours]

Degrees
Ph.D. SUNY at Stony Brook, 1973
M.A. SUNY at Stony Brook, 1970
B.A. Stanford University, 1968

Research Interests
Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, and Old Irish literary cultures; linguistic theory; theory of poetic form; and the concept of 'barbarian' in imperialist writing.

Professional Accomplishments
Russom is the author of Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory (1987) and Beowulf and Old Germanic Metre (1998). In addition to work on English verse form, Russom has published articles on the linguistic history of English, the multicultural backgrounds of Beowulf, and the artistic excellence of preliterate verse traditions. He is best known for arguments showing that rules of poetic meter are abstracted from rules of ordinary language and operate like new linguistic rules.