Roberta Frank

Roberta Frank (born 1941) is an American philologist^[1] specializing in Old English and Old Norse language and literature. She is the Marie Borroff Professor Emeritus of English^[2] at Yale University.

Roberta Frank
Born	1941 (age 82–83) New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	New York University (BA) Harvard University (PhD)
Occupation	Professor
Years active	1968–present
Title	Marie Borroff Professor Emeritus of English
Spouse	Walter Goffart ​ (m. 1977)​
Website	Page at Yale

Career

Frank received a B.A. in comparative literature from New York University in 1962 and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1968. Her doctoral dissertation was titled Wordplay in Old English Poetry.^[3] Frank taught at the University of Toronto beginning in 1968, from 1978 as a full professor^[4] and from 1995 as University Professor. She was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1985.^[5] At Toronto, she was involved with the Dictionary of Old English project and served as Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies (1994–99).

In 2000, she joined the Department of English Language and Literature at Yale University, first as the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English and then, in 2008, as the Marie Borroff Professor of English. She is also a senior research fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.^[6] Frank was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1989,^[7] serving as the President of that Academy in 2006, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995.^[8] She co-founded the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (now the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England) in 1981 serving as First Vice-President (1985-1986), then as its president (1986–87).^[9][10]

Personal life

Frank was born in the Bronx.^[11] She is married to the medieval historian Walter Goffart.^[12]

Research

Frank's research draws upon archaeological as well as literary and linguistic evidence to analyze aspects of early English and Scandinavian texts. Her work has focused on the poetry of England and Scandinavia, including numerous publications on skaldic verse, the early North, and Beowulf.^[13][14][15] Two festschriften in her honor have been published: Verbal Encounters: Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse Studies, ed. Antonina Harbus and Russell Poole (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005) and The Shapes of Early English Poetry: Style, Form, History, ed. Eric Weiskott and Irina Dumitrescu (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2019). Her latest book, The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse, appeared in early 2022.^{[citation needed]}

Selected works

• “Some Uses of Paronomasia in Old English Scriptural Verse” (1972)
• Co-editor, A Plan for the Dictionary of Old English (1973)
• Old Norse Court Poetry (1978)
• “The Beowulf Poet’s Sense of History” (1982)
• “Germanic Legend in Old English Literature” (1991)
• Frank, Roberta (1992). "Beowulf and Sutton Hoo: The Odd Couple". In Kendall, Calvin B. & Wells, Peter S. (eds.). Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of the Sutton Hoo. Medieval Cultures. Vol. 5. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 47–64. ISBN 978-0-8166-2023-4. JSTOR 10.5749/j.ctttv0mr.8. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)  
• Frank, Roberta (1998). "When Lexicography met the Exeter Book". In Baker, Peter S.; Howe, Nicholas (eds.). Words and Works. Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. Robinson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 207–220. ISBN 0-8020-4153-1.
• “The Search for the Anglo-Saxon Oral Poet” (1993)
• “Like a Bridge of Stones” (2011)
• “Siegfried and Arminius: Scenes from a Marriage” (2013)
• Frank, Roberta (2008). "The Boar on the Helmet". In Karkov, Catherine E. & Damico, Helen (eds.). Aedificia Nova: Studies in Honor of Rosemary Cramp. Publications of the Richard Rawlinson Center. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. pp. 76–88. ISBN 978-1-58044-110-0.
• Frank, Roberta (October 2007). "A Scandal in Toronto: The Dating of 'Beowulf' a Quarter Century On". Speculum. 82 (4). Medieval Academy of America: 843–864. doi:10.1017/S0038713400011313. JSTOR 20466079. S2CID 162726731.  

External links

• Yale University faculty page

References

1. Frank, Roberta (1997-01-01). "The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Philologist". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 96 (4): 486–513. JSTOR 27711570.
2. "Roberta Frank | English". english.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
3. "PhD Dissertations". complit.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
4. "Yale Bulletin and Calendar". www.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
5. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Roberta Frank". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
6. "Roberta Frank | The MacMillan Center". macmillan.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
7. "Fellows - The Medieval Academy of America". www.medievalacademy.org. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
8. "Frank, Roberta - Senior College Encyclopedia". sce.library.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
9. Greenfield, Stanley (1984). "Record of the first conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, at Brussels and Ghent, 22—4 August 1983". Anglo-Saxon England. 13: 1–5. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003471. JSTOR 44510784.
10. GREENFIELD, STANLEY B. (1986). "Record of the second conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, at Cambridge, 19-23 August 1985". Anglo-Saxon England. 15: 1–4. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003653. JSTOR 44510803.
11. Kider, Teddy (2007-08-30). "For Yankees, Squirrel's Visit May Be Omen (a Bad One)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
12. Frank 2007, p. 844.
13. Clover, Carol J.; Lindow, John; America, Medieval Academy of (2005-01-01). Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. University of Toronto Press. pp. 157–196. ISBN 9780802038234.
14. Frank 1992.
15. Frank 2008.