Contact: nicholso@hawaii.edu
I came to Hawai‘i in 1974, eager to teach medieval literature and the history of the language, eager also to move far from home to so strange and so exotic a place. In the many years since, my love of literature and language has not changed, but my knowledge and love of Hawai‘i and its people have both broadened and deepened, so that Hawai‘i is now my home, though sometimes no less fascinating and unfamiliar to me than when I first arrived. I teach courses in Old English, Beowulf, Chaucer, medieval literature both English and continental, and the English surveys up to the time of Milton. I also serve on committees, many many committees, and I have been very active in faculty oversight of the athletics program, where gender equity has been a major preoccupation. My research interests for the last few years have centered on John Gower, a lesser known contemporary of Chaucer, and I have been active in the small international circle of Gower devotees. In my spare time, I grow my orchids, I study French, I hike I kayak, I dream of travelling, I cultivate my own sense of place. I don't worry too much about finding either unity or commonality among all these fragments.