John William Houghton, Ph.D.
john_houghton_AB75 [at] post.harvard.edu

Education | Academic Employment | Academic Publications | Conference Presentations | Academic Service | Awards and Fellowships | Other Employment | Fiction and Poems | Professional Organizations | Languages Read

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Education:

  • Hillcrest Medical Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Clinical Pastoral Education Internship, 2004
  • The University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute, M.M.S., 1991; Ph.D., 1994

    Dissertation: Bede's Exegetical Theology: Ideas of the Church in the Acts Commentaries of St. Bede the Venerable (Director, John Cavadini)

  • Yale Divinity School, M.A.R. summa cum laude with concentration in systematics, 1989
  • Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Diploma in Anglican Studies, 1989
  • Indiana University, A.M. in English, 1977
  • Harvard College, A.B. cum laude in English and American Language and Literature, 1975
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Academic Employment:

  • 2005- : Chair, Department of English
    The Canterbury School, Fort Wayne, IN
  • 1999-2004: Chaplain; Chair, Department of Religious Studies; Director, Honors Diploma Program; Instructor in English and Religion
    The Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, LA
  • 1994-1999: Instructor in English and History
    Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, Ladue, MO
  • 1993-1994: Teaching Fellow, Freshman Writing Seminar
    University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
  • 1978-1987: Instructor in English and Theology; Neville-Parry Chair in English and Department Chairman; Chair, Faculty Executive Committee; Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee on Search for a Headmaster
    John Burroughs School, Ladue, MO
  • 1977-1978: Instructor in English
    Riverside Military Academy, Gainesville, GA
  • 1975-1976: Assistant Instructor in English; Assistant Counselor
    Culver Military Academy, Culver, IN

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Academic Publications:

  • “Tolkien, King Alfred and Boethius: Platonist Views of Evil in The Lord of the Rings,” with Neal K. Keesee, Ph.D., Tolkien Studies 2 (2005), 131-159.
  • Abstracts for The Year’s Work in Old English Studies, 2003 (for 2000).
  • “Twice-Told Tales: Teaching Medievalisms to High School Seniors,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, 9:2 (Fall, 2002), 15-34.
  • “Augustine in the Cottage of Lost Play: The Ainulindalë as Asterisk Cosmogony,” in Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. Jane Chance (Medieval Religion and Culture) (London: Routledge, 2002), 171-182.
  • “St. Bede among the Controversialists: A Survey,” American Benedictine Review 50 (1999), 397-422.
  • “No Bishop, No Queen: Queens Regnant and the Ordination of Women,” Anglican and Episcopal  History 47 (1998), 2-25.
  • “Bede and His World” (review), Libraries and Culture 32 (1997), 132-133.
  • “Bede," ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies, 1996
  • Encyclopedia of Catholicism (72 entries), (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995).
  • “Augustine and the Ainulindale,” Mythlore 79 (1995), 4-8.
  • “The Old English Benedictine Office and its Audience,” American Benedictine Review 45 (1994), 431-445.
  • “(Re)Sounding Brass: Alcuin's New Castings in the Questions and Answers on Genesis,” Proceedings of the PMR Conference 16/17 (1992-1993), 149-161.
  • “Mirabile dictu: The Medieval Text behind a Modern Window at Canterbury,” Scintilla 8 (1991), 70-86.
  • “Commedia as Fairy-Story: Eucatastrophe in the Loss of Virgil," Mythlore 64 (1990), 29-34.
  • “Rochester the Renewer: The Byronic Hero and the Messiah as Elements in the King Elessar,” Mythlore 39 (1984), 13-16.
  • “The Augustinian Tradition: A Different Voice,” Religious Education 79 (1984), 184-191.

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Conference Presentations:

  • “Maldon, Gettysburg and the Somme: Tolkien’s ‘Homecoming’ and the Idea of Chivalry,” Beowulf Comes to Edoras: Tolkien as a Gateway to Medieval Studies, 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2004 (Session organizer on behalf of TEAMS and Tolkien at Kalamazoo)
  • “Tolkien, King Alfred and Boethius: Platonist Views of Evil in The Lord of the Rings,” with Neal K. Keesee, Ph.D., 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2003
  • “Web Site Review Boards for Secondary School Teachers,” Keeping Medieval Studies Alive and Well in K-12: A Roundtable Discussion for Educators, 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2002
  • ORB Roundtable on “The I-Search Paper,” 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2001
  • “Twice-Told Tales: Teaching Medievalisms to High School Seniors,” Teaching the Middle Ages Conference, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, September, 1998
  • “Augustine and the Ainulindalë,” 25th Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, Washington, DC, August, 1994
  • “(Re)Sounding Brass: Alcuin’s New Castings in the Questions and Answers on Genesis,” 17th Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Conference, Augustinian Historical Institute, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, 1992
  • “Science, Creation, and their -isms” and “Using Moral Reasoning in the Classroom,” Mt. Vernon Teaching Conference, Mt. Vernon, IL, October, 1985
  • “Using Moral Reasoning in the Classroom,” Teaching Critical Issues Conference, Fontbonne College / St. Louis Public Schools, Clayton, MO, February, 1985
  • “Rochester the Renewer: The Byronic Hero and the Messiah as Elements in the King Elessar,” 15th Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, 1984
  • “Tolkien’s Use of the Calendar,” 11th Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, 1980

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Academic Service:

  • Executive Committee, The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, Inc.
  • The University of Notre Dame:
    • Graduate Student Representative, The Medieval Institute
    • President pro tempore, Graduate Student Union Council
    • Graduate School Council
    • English Department Search Committee
    • President's Committee on the Bookstore
    • University Library Award Committee
  • Yale Divinity School / Berkeley Divinity School at Yale:
    • Convenor, Lutheran-Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue
    • St. Luke's Committee

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Awards and Fellowships:

  • Nelson Burr Prize, The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, 1998 (for “No Bishop, No Queen”)
  • Burlington Teaching Fellowship, University of Notre Dame, 1993- 1994
  • Dorothy A. Given Fellowship, The Episcopal Church Foundation, 1990- 1993
  • Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of Notre Dame, 1992- 1993
  • Riley Prize in Art History and Criticism, University of Notre Dame: First Prize, 1991; Honorable Mention, 1992
  • Graduate Assistantships, University of Notre Dame, 1989-1992
  • Hooker Graduate Fellowship, Yale Divinity School, 1989-1990
  • Lansing Hicks Service Prize, Berkeley Divinity School, 1989
  • Walker Scholarship Prize, Yale Divinity School, 1988

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Other Employment:

  • 2002, 2003 Dean of Students
    The Oxford Tradition, Oxbridge Academic Programs, New York, NY / Oxford, England
  • 1991-1994: Lecturer in Theology and Church History
    Diocesan School for Faith and Ministry, South Bend, IN
  • 1989-1994, 1996: Reader, Advanced Placement Test in English
    Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ
  • 1975, 1977-1983, 1988-1994: Counselor, Third Naval Company; Supervising Counselor, Specialty Camps; Assistant Program Director, Woodcraft Camp; Commander, Woodcraft Division Three; Assistant Chaplain; Woodcraft Cabin Counselor
    Culver Summer Camps, Culver, IN

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Fiction and Poems:

  • Rough Magicke (Bloomington: Unlimited Publishing, 2005)
  • Falconry and Other Poems (Bloomington: Unlimited Publishing, 2003)
  • "Ave Verum Corpus," The Living Church 199:12 (13 September 1989), 9.
  • "Focal Point," The Living Church 199: 7 (13 August 1989), 12.
  • "To My Father," The Classical Outlook 64 (1987), 110.
  • "The Hart and the Hunter," The Living Church 180:9 (2 March 1980), 2.
  • "Solomon's Song," The Living Church 180:3 (20 January 1980), 2.
  • "In My Father's House," The Living Church 179:1 (1 July 1979), 11.

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Professional Organizations:

  • The Medieval Academy of America
  • The North American Patristic Society
  • American Academy of Religion
  • Society of Biblical Literature
  • The Mythopoeic Society

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Languages Read: Latin, French, German, Old English.


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This page last revised on March 12, 2005.