Dr. Philip Edward Phillips
Professor, Director of Graduate Admissions,
and Director of Great Books in
Middle Tennessee Prisons

Member, Graduate Faculty

Office: PH 376; Phone/Voice Mail: 898-2699

Dr. Philip Edward Phillips is professor of English and Director of Graduate Admissions in English. He received his Ph.D. in English and American literature at Vanderbilt University. His teaching and research areas include medieval and early modern literature, Milton and the epic tradition, Boethius and the vernacular translations of The Consolation of Philosophy, and Poe and early nineteenth-century American literature.

His major publications include John Milton’s Epic Invocations: Converting the Muse (2000), New Directions in Boethian Studies (2007), The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I (2009), and A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (forthcoming in 2010). He is also the Secretary of the International Boethius Society and the co-editor of its multidisciplinary journal on Boethius, his age, and his influence, Carmina Philosophiae. Dr. Phillips recently published articles in Global Perspectives on Medieval Literature and Culture (2007) and Approaches to Teaching Poe's Prose and Poetry (2008). He is an active member of the Medieval Academy of America, the Modern Language Association, the International Boethius Society, the Milton Society of America, the Poe Studies Association, and the Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea, and he regularly delivers papers and organizes panels at national and international conferences.

Dr. Phillips is the recipient of received a 2007-2008 MTSU Distinguished Research Award and a 2008-2009 Boston Athenæum Mary Catherine Mooney Research Fellowship. With the support of an MTSU Public Service Grant and matching funds from the College of Liberal Arts, he established an innovative, non-credit, Great Books program in three Middle Tennessee prisons--Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Tennessee Prison for Women, and DeBerry Special Needs Facility--through a partnership between the Great Books Foundation, the Tennessee Department of Correction, and MTSU. The program is now in its third year with the support of grants from the MTSU Virginia Peck Trust Fund.

See Publications

Conference Papers

• "Poe and Boston: The 1845 Boston Lyceum Incident Reconsidered," The Third International Edgar Allan Poe Conference: The Bicentennial," Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2009.
• "Alfred, Boethius, and the Victorian Imagination." 124th Annual MLA Convention, San Francisco, CA, December 27, 2008
• "The English Consolation of Philosophy: Translation and Reception," Second Annual Conference on Christian Philosophy: Boethius, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, OH, April 14, 2007.
• "Translating and Remaking Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy into English from the 9 th to the 21 st Centuries," Colloquia Aquitana-II, "Boéce ( Rome , ca . 480-Pavie, ca . 524): l'homme, le philosophe, le scientifique, son oevre et son rayonnement," Le Musée Conservatoire du Parchemin et de l'Enluminure, Duras, France, August 4, 2006.
• "Boece, le Quadrivium , et la Consolation de la Philosophie," Colloquia Aquitana-II, "Boéce ( Rome , ca . 480-Pavie, ca . 524): l'homme, le philosophe, le scientifique, son oevre et son rayonnement," Le Musée Conservatoire du Parchemin et de l'Enluminure, Duras, France, August 3, 2006.
• "Victorian Translations of King Alfred's Boethius ," Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea International Conference, Seoul National University, October 7, 2005.
• "Boethius, the Quadrivium, and the Order of the Universe," 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 6, 2005.
• "Vernacular Translations of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae: The English Consolatio," 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2004.
• "Milton's History of Britain and the Rejection of Historical Epic," Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea, 6th International Conference, Korea University, Seoul, November 22, 2003.
• "Lady Philosophy's Therapeutic Method: The 'Gentler' and 'Stronger' Remedies in Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae," Medieval English Studies Association of Korea International Conference, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, November 23, 2002.
• "Lady Philosophy, Satirist or Consoler?," 37^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2002.
• "Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae and the Lamentatio/Consolatio Tradition," Medieval English Studies Association of Korea International Conference, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, November 17, 2001.
• "Boethius in Eighteenth-Century British Literature," 36^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2001.
• "From Clio to Urania: Epic Invocations in The History of Britain," Conference on John Milton, Middle Tennessee State University, October 24, 1997.
• "Boethian 'Happiness' in Pope's Essay on Man, Epistle IV," 31^st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 10, 1996.
• "'Ever-During Dark Surrounds Me': The Reversal of Miltonic Invocations in Pope's Dunciad," South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of New Orleans, February 24, 1996.
• "'The Inspired Gift of God': The Generic Genius of Milton's Hymn to Holy Light," Conference on John Milton, Middle Tennessee State University, October 27, 1995.
• "Homer, Cleanthes, Boethius, and the Classical Hymn," 29^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 6, 1994.
• "'The Slave of Compassion": Female Complicity in Wollstonecraft's Mary, A Fiction," South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Rice University, February 20, 1994.
• "Dream Vision as Consolatio in Boethius and the Pearl-Poet," 28^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 8, 1993.
• "Catullus's Programmatic Tablets," 23^rd Committee for the Advancement of Early Studies Conference, Ball State University, November 7, 1992.

Professional Memberships

• Conseil scientifique du Musée du Parchemin et de l'Enluminure de Duras, France
• Modern Language Association
• Medieval Academy of America
• Medieval English Studies Association of Korea
• Council of Editors of Learned Journals
• International Boethius Society, Charter Member; Secretary
• Milton Society of America, Life Member
• Poe Studies Association