Kenneth Chong was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) at The University of Queensland (2015–2018), and is an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia. A medievalist, he focuses on intellectual history and literature. He has degrees in English from the University of New South Wales (BA, MA) and Princeton University (MA, PhD), and wrote his dissertation on medieval theology and poetry – in particular, how a vibrant theological poetics emerged, in Middle English, out of an older, scholastic tradition. In addition to a book manuscript, he is at work on a project concerning the theological passions, especially in the context of medieval confession.
Contact
kchong@uq.edu.au
Research
Literary Theologies: The Medieval Poetics of Scholasticism
Publications
Chong, K. ‘“Bot a quene!”: Calculating Salvation in Pearl’. Studies in the Age of Chaucer 40 (2018): 217–55.
'Trees of Knowledge'. Books & Culture, March/April (2015): 33‒34.
'Faith and Reason: Warning the Reader in The Pilgrim’s Progress'. 1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era 15 (2008): 37‒61.
'Enchanting the Reader in The Pilgrim’s Progress'. Bunyan Studies 12 (2006/2007): 70‒87.
'Blood, Sweat and Tears: Self-Chastisement in Donne’s "If poysonous minerals"'. Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme 29.4 (2005): 41‒56.
Selected Presentations
'Versions of Medieval Freedom' masterclass, The University of Queensland, 7 June 2018.
‘Inarticulate Signs: The Tears of Margery Kempe’, 'Art and Affect' CHE Meanings Program Collaboratory, UQ, 12‒14 July 2017.
'"Alle shalle be wele": Rethinking the Future in Julian of Norwich’s A Revelation of Love', 'Emotions in Middle English Literature V: Emotional Practices' Study Day, The University of Melbourne, 3 June 2016.
‘Seeing, Feeling, Learning: Julian of Norwich’s Vision and Revelation’, 'Passions for Learning in Religious Perspective: from Jerome to the Jesuits' symposium, The University of Western Australia, 5‒6 November 2015.
‘Ecstatic Celebrities: Saints in Medieval Society’, Continuing Professional Development Seminar 'Ecstasy: Art, Literature, Religion, History', UQ Art Museum, 16 September 2017.Seminar: 'The Disappearance of Theology in Piers Plowman', Early Modern Literature Forum, UQ, 10 April 2015.