Contact Information
Research Interests
Scandinavia & the Global North, Old Norse Literature, the global Middle Ages, medievalism in modern & contemporary children's and middle grade literature, queer and trans theory, gender & sexuality studies, apocalypse & Anthropocene Studies.
Research Description
Dissertation Title: "Queer & Trans Medievalisms for End Times: Old Norse Reception in Middle-Grade Children’s Literature"
Chaired by Mimi Thi Nguyen (UIUC, Director of Gender & Women's Studies) and Verena Höfig (LMU, Professor of Premodern Scandinavian Studies).
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in English & Medieval Literature, in affiliation with the Gender and Women's Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Anticipated: December 25, 2025)
MA in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019
MA in Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2017
BA in Medieval Studies & Humanities, Drew University, 2014
Grants
- Medieval Academy of America Centennial Grant awarded for the 2025 Mostly Medieval Theatre Festival Book of Silence Adaptation World Premiere – Spring 2025.
- Research Travel Award from the Program of Medieval Studies – Spring 2025.
- WMU School of Theatre and Dance & Medieval Institute Travel Award – Spring 2025.
- Department of Gender and Women’s Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship – Spring 2025, Fall 2024.
- Department of Gender and Women’s Studies Summer Research Grant –Summer 2024.
- Research Grant from the Program of Medieval Studies – Spring 2024.
- The Block Grant Fellowship – Spring 2024.
- The Block Grant Fellowship – Fall 2023.
- Roxanne Decyk Fellowship – Summer 2023.
- Kirkpatrick Travel Fund Travel Grant – Summer 2023.
- Kirkpatrick Travel Fund Travel Grant – Spring 2023.
- Program in Medieval Studies Travel Grant – Fall 2022.
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Fellowship – Spring 2023, Fall 2022.
- Árni Magnússon Icelandic Award – Spring 2022.
- Gragg-Bar Fund – Spring 2022.
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Fellowship – Summer 2021.
- Department of English Summer Research Award – Summer 2019.
- Roxanne Decyk Fellowship – Fall 2017, Spring 2018.
- Renaissance Consortium Grant – Winter 2016.
Awards and Honors
- Recipient of the 2024 “Strive Awards” Advocate Award for Gender Equity – Spring 2024.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – GER 251, Fall 2025, Spring2019.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – MDVL 201/CWL 253, Spring 2024.
- Nominated for the Cowan Award for Advocacy for LGBTQIA+ Affairs – Summer 2023.
- Award for Excellence in Medieval Programming – Summer 2023.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – CLCV 115, Fall 2021, Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – ENGL 245, Fall 2020.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – SCAN 251, Fall 2019.
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent (Ranked Top Percentile/Outstanding) – RHET 105, Fall 2018.
Courses Taught
----Selected Invited Talks (Feel free to contact wcornell@illinois.edu or wallace.m.cornell@gmail.com for invited lectures/talks.)
UIUC
MDVL 500/GER 571: Vikings in the West - "Children's Literature & the Viking Legacy"
ENGL 109: Global Fairy Tales & Folktales Retold - "Adapting the Viking World(s)"
Medieval Movie Knights Undergraduate & Community Outreach: “Inu-Oh: Medieval Rock Opera, Noh, and Adapting The Tale of the Heike”
Talk it UP! (Uniting Pride LGBTQ+ Youth Group): “Wicca, Heathenry & Neopagan Week”
WMU
Zine Workshop: Making “MALDUIT” – A Trans Resources Zine & Mummers’ Manuscript
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI): Behind the Scenes of ‘The Book of Silence’: Transforming a Medieval Romance into Modern Performance
Regular Courses
UIUC
GER 251: The Grimm's Fairy Tales in Context (Sp 2019, Fa 2025) - TA, 5 sections
CLCV 115: Classical Mythology (Fa 2021, Sp 2020, Fa 2019, Sp 2019, Fa 2018) - TA, 9 sections
ENGL 245: The Short Story-Telling Tales Throughout Time (Fa 2020) - Instructor of Record
ENGL 209: Intro to British Literature to 1800 (Sp 2020) - TA, 2 sections
SCAN 251: Viking Mythology (Fa 2019) - TA, 3 sections
RHET 105: Writing & Research (Fa 2018) - Instructor of Record
WMU
MDVL 1450: Medieval Voices (Sp 2017, Fa 2016) - Instructor of Record
Additional Campus Affiliations
The Medieval Globe - Assistant Editor
The Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books - Reviewer
"Medieval Movie Knights" Undergraduate Outreach Program Co-President with Jamie Keener
Premodern World Reading Group
HRI Adaptation Studies Reading Group, co-founded with Fiona Hartley-Kroeger
Scandinavian Program (Department of Germanic Language & Literatures)
The Center for Children's Books
Non-Campus Affiliations
The Society for Queer and Trans Medieval Studies
The Children's Literature Association
Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship
Critical Creative Work
Co-Writer, Co-Adapter, Associate Director, The Book of Silence, play performed at the 18th Triennial Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l'étude du théâtre medieval (SITM), Freiburg, 2025.
Co-Writer, Co-Adapter, Associate Director, The Book of Silence, play performed at the Mostly Medieval Theatre Festival, held at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2025.
MALDUIT: A Trans Resources Zine & Mummer’s Manuscript, Vol. 1, Kalamazoo: 2025. Archived at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and digitally with the Mostly Medieval Theatre Festival.
Highlighted Publications
Marie de Trans: Tranimality, Transformations and Queer Reception in the Lais of Marie de France ed. collection by Wally M. Cornell and Sara Petrosillo, in the “Transgressive Premodern Literatures” Marie de Trans: Tranimality, Transformations and Queer Reception in the Lais of Marie de France ed. collection by Wally M. Cornell and Sara Petrosillo, in the “Transgressive Premodern Literatures” Series, Medieval Institute Press, expected 2026.
“‘What if you held it in? If you didn’t shape-shift?’ ‘I’d die’: Marie, Nimona, and the Undying Romances of Medieval Trans Youths,” in Marie de Trans: Tranimality, Transformations and Queer Reception in the Lais of Marie de France, ed. collection by Wally M. Cornell and Sara Petrosillo, in the “Transgressive Premodern Literatures” Series, Medieval Institute Press, expected 2026.
"Introduction: Why Marie de Trans Now?" and “Preface: Editing in Transformation,” in Marie de Trans: Tranimality, Transformations and Queer Reception in the Lais of Marie de France, ed. collection by Wally M. Cornell and Sara Petrosillo, in the “Transgressive Premodern Literatures” Series, Medieval Institute Press, expected 2026.
“Viking Resissytance in How to Train Your Dragon: Queer Children, Interspecies Kinships, and the Global Middle Ages in Adaptation,” under review.