Mark Rasmussen
Charles J. Luellen Professor of English, Emeritus
Education
BA and MA: Harvard
M.A. and PhD: The Johns Hopkins University
Expertise
Medieval and Renaissance literature - Chaucer -Spenser - Arthurian literature -Shakespeare; Teaching responsibilities in British literature, medieval and Renaissance periods especially, as well as the history of the English language, literary theory, museum studies, the music of Bob Dylan, and interdisciplinary Humanities; Special expertise in Chaucer, Spenser, Arthurian literature, Shakespeare, and Bob Dylan; Published essays on a variety of medieval and Renaissance topics, as well as two edited collections "Renaissance Literature and Its Formal Engagements” (2002) and “Life in Words” (2014). Most recent publication, “Tweaking the Tradition: Gawain as Perceval in David Lowery’s The Green Knight,” in the Summer 2024 issue of Arthuriana.
BIOGRAPHY
Mark Rasmussen is Charles J. Luellen Professor of English, Emeritus, at Centre College, where he taught from 1989 to 2024.
His teaching responsibilities at the College encompassed courses in medieval and Renaissance literature (including Chaucer, Arthurian literature, Spenser, and Shakespeare), literary criticism and theory, and the history of the English language, as well as the British literature survey and first-year humanities. He says that his greatest challenges, and greatest pleasures, as a teacher have come from encouraging students to connect with the literature of earlier periods, and helping them to become better writers.
During his career at Centre, Rasmussen directed the College’s study abroad program in Strasbourg four times, in 2001-02, 2005-06, 2014-15, and 2019-20, and he co-directed the London program in 2009, 2019, and 2024, developing new courses on museum history to be taught at both sites. His last course taught on campus was also a new one, on the music of Bob Dylan.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard, Rasmussen has published essays and given papers on a wide variety of medieval and Renaissance topics, and he has edited two landmark collections, Renaissance Literature and Its Formal Engagements (2002), which renewed attention to questions of form in Renaissance literature, and Life in Words (2014), the collected essays of the distinguished medievalist, Jill Mann. His most recent essay, “Tweaking the Tradition: Gawain as Perceval in David Lowery’s The Green Knight,” was published in the Summer 2024 issue of the journal Arthuriana.
In addition to his B.A. from Harvard, Rasmussen holds an M.A. from Harvard, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also on the faculty of the Sewanee School of Letters and the Bread Loaf School of English.