Daniel Birkholz
Associate Professor — Ph.D., 1999, University of Minnesota

Contact
- E-mail: birkholz@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-471-8807
- Office: PAR 225
- Office Hours: by appointment; please contact via email to arrange a time
- Campus Mail Code: B5000
Interests
Middle English literature (especially lyric); Anglo-Norman literature (especially fabliau); geography, travel writing, and the history of cartography; medieval manuscript culture (miscellanies especially); Viking literature and culture; biography and biographical theory; post-medieval medievalism; pedagogy; Digital Humanities
Biography
Daniel Birkholz is a Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin.
His essays have appeared in The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, New Medieval Literatures, Exemplaria: Medieval / Early Modern / Theory, and Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography, as well as in scholarly collections such as The Post-Historical Middle Ages (Palgrave) and Mapping Medieval Geographies (Cambridge).
His first book, The King’s Two Maps: Cartography and Culture in Thirteenth-Century England (Routledge, 2004), was awarded The Nebenzahl Prize, by the Newberry Library (Chicago)’s Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography.
His second book, Harley Manuscript Geographies: Literary History and the Medieval Miscellany, was published by Manchester University Press in June 2020. Please see: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526140401/
Prof. Birkholz’s third book, in progress and currently under review, is entitled: Women Who Walk on Maps: Essays in Cartographic Reception and Map-Biography.
Other long-term projects include We Have to Invent Him: Harley Lyrics, Hereford Maps, and the Life of Roger de Breynton, c.1290-1351 (experimental biography meets literary criticism meets the history of cartography), and a related Digital Humanities / documentary life-records project: "Atlas of a Medieval Life: The Itineraries of Roger de Breynton." Please see: https://sites.utexas.edu/atlasofamedievallife/
As a Provost's Teaching Fellow (2018-2021), Prof. Birkholz (with English Department graduate student Liz Fischer) is currently developing a pilot course building on this material: a Medieval Digital Research Lab that features team-based, project-oriented experiential learning and hands-on new technology exposure, while involving both undergraduate and graduate students in original faculty research. This course will satisfy recently instituted curricular needs in both the English Department's Digital Certificate track and the UT Graduate School's Digital Studies Portfolio.
In 2020, Professor Birkholz was admitted into UT Austin's Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
In 2017, Birkholz was recipient of the Al and Judy Shoaf Award, a biennial Best Essay Prize from the journal Exemplaria; and also received the English Department's Outstanding Service Award.
In 2016, Prof. Birkholz received the University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award. He is also a past recipient of the Humanities Research Award (2015-2018) in the College of Liberal Arts.
In 2015, Birkholz received both the Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellowship and the Silver Spurs Centennial Teaching Fellowship from The University of Texas at Austin. In 2008 he was awarded the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award by UT-Austin. Before coming to UT, Birkholz was Assistant Professor of English at Pomona College (Claremont, CA), where in 2002 he received the Wig Distinguished Professorship Award, for excellence in teaching and research.
A 2009-10 Solmsen Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research in the Humanities, Birkholz's previous fellowships include exchanges at Cambridge University (Downing College, 2002) and the Árni Magnusson Manuscript Institute in Reykjavík, Iceland (1994-95), plus grants for archival research at the Beinecke Library, the Newberry Library, the British Library, the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, and more.
Prof. Birkholz has also spent two semesters on teaching exchange in France, at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle--Paris III (2018) and at the Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (2012). In 2019 he served as Co-Director of the UT English Department's Summer Oxford Program, while also teaching a course on Arthurian Literature and Film. Previous service appointments include five years as Director of the English Honors Program and another as Associate Graduate Advisor.
Birkholz received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1999; his M.A. from the University of Toronto in 1991; and his B.A. from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) in 1990.
Courses
E 314L • Texts And Contexts-Hon
35875 • Fall 2021
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM PAR 310
Wr
E 352K • Arthurian Lit And Film-Wb
36189 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
E 314L • Texts And Contexts-Hon-Wb
34340 • Fall 2020
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM
Internet; Synchronous
Wr
E 348T • Jrr Tolkien-Wb
34965 • Fall 2020
Meets MW 11:30AM-1:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
E 352K • Arthurian Lit And Film
35560 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 208
E 379R • Fiction And Medievalism
35685 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 302
IIWr
E 349S • Jrr Tolkien
35070 • Fall 2019
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:30AM PAR 105
E 352V • Viking Literature
35115 • Fall 2019
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM PAR 204
E S352K • Arthurian Lit And Film-Gbr
80800 • Summer 2019
E 349S • Jrr Tolkien
35564 • Spring 2019
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:30PM PAR 103
E 392M • Medieval Performance Culture
35845 • Spring 2019
Meets M 9:00AM-12:00PM PAR 214
(also listed as MDV 392M)
E 352V • Viking Literature
35780 • Fall 2018
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM PAR 204
GCWr
E S350E • Arthurian Lit And Film
81440 • Summer 2018
Meets MTWTHF 8:30AM-10:00AM PAR 204
E 314L • Texts And Contexts-Hon
34960 • Fall 2017
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM PAR 210
Wr
E 392M • Dig/Celluld/Prfrmtv Mdvlsms
35860 • Fall 2017
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:30AM JES A205A
(also listed as MDV 392M)
E 349S • Tolkien And Morris
35430 • Spring 2017
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 310
Wr
(also listed as LAH 350)
E S350E • Once & Future Middle Ages-Gbr
82125 • Summer 2016
E 350E • Viking Literature
34620 • Spring 2016
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 103
GCWr
E 314L • Texts And Contexts-Hon
33855 • Fall 2015
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM PAR 210
Wr
E 316L • British Literature
33935-33940 • Fall 2015
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM PAR 201
GCWr
HU
E 392M • Fra/Eng & Lit Of 100-Years War
35115 • Spring 2015
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:30PM CAL 323
(also listed as FR 390K, MDV 392M)
E 314L • Reading Lit In Context-Hon
35090 • Fall 2014
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM PAR 210
Wr
E 379R • Fiction And Medievalism
36015 • Fall 2014
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM CAL 323
GCIIWr
E 326K • Lit Of Middle Ages In Transltn
35930 • Spring 2014
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM PAR 204
Wr
E 314L • Reading Lit In Context-Hon
35015 • Fall 2013
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM CLA 0.120
Wr
E S350E • Once & Future Middle Ages-Eng
83760 • Summer 2013
E 392M • Excl Chaucer: Allit 14th Cen
35855 • Spring 2013
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:30PM MEZ 1.104
E 314L • Reading Lit In Context-Hon
34680 • Fall 2012
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM MEZ 2.202
Wr
C1
E 376 • Chaucer
35650 • Fall 2012
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 308
GCWr
E 679HA • Honors Tutorial Course
35505 • Fall 2011
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM CAL 221
E 392M • From Conquest To Plague
35665 • Fall 2011
Meets MW 9:30AM-11:00AM CAL 21
(also listed as MDV 392M)
E 379R • Fiction And Medievalism
35824 • Spring 2011
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 204
IIWr
E 392M • Performing Medieval Culture
35995 • Spring 2011
Meets MW 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.104
(also listed as MDV 392M)
E 336E • British Lit: Begin-Renaissance
34579 • Fall 2010
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM PAR 103
Wr
Publications
Current Work:
Recent Book:
Harley Manuscript Geographies: Literary History and the Medieval Miscellany. Manchester: Manchester University Press (Manchester Medieval Literature and Cultures, vol. 35), June 2020. xi + 315 pp. ISBN: 978 1 5261 4040 1. Please see: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526140401/
Books in Progress:
Women Who Walk on Maps: Essays in Cartographic Reception and Map-Biography
-
In-progress book manuscript (60,000 of a projected 85,000 words [four of six chapters] complete).
-
Book-proposal + sample chapters currently under review at Brill Publishers (Leiden, Neth.).
-
Table of Contents; Précis; Chapter Summaries; and Sample Chapters, available upon request.
We Have to Invent Him: Harley Lyrics, Hereford Maps, and the Life of Roger de Breynton, c.1290-1351
-
Literary criticism meets experimental documentary biography meets cartographic reception.
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Based on archival research conducted at English cathedral libraries and record offices, 1996-present.
-
Project Description and Table of Contents available upon request.
Digital Humanities Project:
Atlas of a Medieval Life: The Itineraries of Roger de Breynton, c.1290-1351
please see: https://sites.utexas.edu/atlasofamedievallife/
Digital Life-Records Database, with accompanying “Map-Biography” visualizations. Supported by multiple grants, this project forms the basis of a vertically-integrated digital pedagogy pilot project (“Medieval Digital Research Lab”) that includes both undergraduate and undergraduate components. Course and project are currently under construction with the help of the Provost’s Teaching Fellows Program and the PCL Digital Scholarship Team.
Previous Publications:
Book
The King’s Two Maps: Cartography and Culture in Thirteenth-Century England. New York: Routledge Press (Studies in Medieval History and Culture, vol. 22), 2004. xxxiv + 254 pp. ISBN: 0415967910. Repr. 2005/paperback 2009. Winner of The Nebenzahl Prize from the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library (Chicago).