Salameno School of American and International Studies (SSAIS)

Associate Professor of Literature

Year Joined RCNJ: 2004

Contact Information:

• Phone: (201) 684-6212
• E-mail: ykisor@ramapo.edu 
• Office: B-142
• Office Hours: MR 3:30-4:30 PM; W by Appt
• Personal Website 
• Literature Major Website 

Education:

• B.A., Rice University
• M.A., University of California at Davis
• Ph.D., University of California at Davis

Courses Offered:

• Survey of British Literature I
• British Medieval Literature
• Major Authors: Chaucer
• Major Authors: Tolkien
• Age of Chaucer
• College English
• Readings in the Humanities
• Shakespeare Plays and Arthurian Literature

Teaching Interests:

• Old English Language and Literature
• Middle English
• Beowulf
• Chaucer
• History of the English Language
• Tolkien
• Gender Issues

Research Interests:

• Greek and Latin Texts
• Middle English Romance Emaré
• Nineteenth-century Scholarship on Beowulf
• Tolkien's Use of Medieval Forms in his Fiction

Recent Publications:

• "“Narrative Layering and ‘High Culture’ Romance in the Twilight  Series.” The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films, ed. Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn. Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy 25. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. 35-59. Making the Connection on Page and Screen in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings." Tolkien in Film and Fiction, ed. Janice Bogstad, McFarland Press, forthcoming.
• Kisor, Yvette. “Making the Connection on Page and Screen in Tolkien’s and Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.” Picturing Tolkien: Essays on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings Trilogy, ed. Janice Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. 102-15.
• “Totemic Reflexes in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.” Mythlore 109/110 (Spring/Summer 2010): 129-40.
• "The Aesthetics of Beowulf: Structure, Perception, and Desire." On the Aesthetics of Beowulf and Other Old English Poetry, ed. John Hill, University of Toronto Press, forthcoming 2010.
• "There's Magic in the Web of It: Desdemona's Handkerchief and the 'Magic' Cloths of Emaré and Le Fresne." Translating the Past: Essays on Medieval Literature in Honor of Marijane Osborn, ed. Jane Beal. Tempe, Arizona: ACMRS Press, forthcoming 2009.
• "A Fourteenth-Century Romance," "Genesis," "Gordon, Ida," "Leechbook and Herbarium," "Riddles: Sources," "Ring-giving." The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, ed. Michael Drout. New York: Routledge, 2006, 570-1.