Alpha Iota Beta Chapter Faculty Advisor
Dr. Barbara Zimbalist
Associate Professor of Medieval Literature and Culture, UT-El Paso Department of English.
Dr. Zimbalist became the faculty advisor of the UTEP Alpha Iota Beta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta in 2019. She is a medievalist specializing in the women’s religious literature from England, France, and the Low Countries. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California-Davis in 2013, and has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, and a Research Associate at Harvard Divinity School. In 2018, Dr. Zimbalist received the Department of English Excellence in Teaching Award.
Dr. Zimbalist has published articles and book chapters on Middle English devotional literature, medieval Flemish mysticism, and Anglo-Norman hagiography. Her forthcoming book, Translating Christ in the Middle Ages: Gender, Authorship, and the Visionary Text in England, France, and the Low Countries, compares the translation and textual production of women’s visionary texts by authors such as Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Hadewijch of Brabant. In addition to her primary research interest in medieval religious cultures, she also pursues research in manuscript studies and book history and in the intersection of critical theory and medieval studies. She has taught courses in Chaucer, critical theory, and early British literature. Dr. Zimbalist serves on the executive committee of the International Hagiography Society and is the co-editor of The Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures.