Patricia Bart
English

Patricia R. Bart

Professor of English

The above personal links are controlled by the individual and are not any form of representation of statement by Hillsdale College. They are provided as a convenience and views expressed on the sites may not reflect the views or opinions of the College.

Our habits of reading and interpretation develop our moral life and reflect its quality. The commandments to have no other gods before the One God, to honor father and mother, and to refrain from bearing false witness all bear upon the valid interpretation of texts; those to love one another and to do to others as we would have them do to us further bears upon our relationship with authors, whether or not they are still in the flesh.

Show me how you treat a text, and I will show you how you treat other people, the hard-won fruits of their labor, and the gifts of their contemplation.

Ibi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt..

Faculty Information

Additional Faculty Information for Patricia R. Bart

Education

Ph.D., English Literature, University of Virginia, 2007

M.A., English Literature, University of Virginia, 1994

B.A., English Literature, University of Pittsburgh, 1986

Dissertation: The Whole Book: Textual, Codicological, Paleographical and Linguistic Artifacts in Huntington Library Manuscript Hm114 (Ht) of Piers Plowman

Certifications

NRA-Certified Firearms Safety and Skills Instructor for Women (2016–present, by appointment)

NRA-Certified Range Safety Officer, Halter Shooting Sports Center Pistol Range (on-call, 2014–present)

NRA-Certified Basic Pistol and Rifle Instructor (Fall 2011–present)

Memberships

National Association of Scholars

Fellowship of Catholic Scholars

National Rifle Association (Life)

Phi Beta Kappa; Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership and service); Lambda Sigma (leadership and service)

Awards

Fellowship: Center for Hellenic Studies / Council of Independent Colleges, co-sponsored seminar on Ancient Greek Tragedy (Respondent; Washington, D.C.; July 20–26, 2015)

Emily Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence: Junior Faculty (Fall 2011)

Fellowship: Center for Hellenic Studies / Council of Independent Colleges, co-sponsored seminar on Homer and Hesiod (Respondent; Washington, D.C.; July 2008)

Hillsdale College Summer Leave Research Grants (2008, 2015, 2020—canceled)

University of Virginia (English) Departmental Travel Fellowship (International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2004); University of Virginia Huskey Travel Fellowship (London, 2003)

University of Virginia Seven Society Superb Teaching Honoree (2000)

University of Pittsburgh Emma Locke Award (1986)

Publications

Forthcoming: (with Michael Calabrese) The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 9: San Marino, Huntington Library Hm143 (X). SEENET, Series A.15. Text. Analysis.

Piers Plowman Passus 6 & 7 [voice performance], The Chaucer Studio, 2016

“Intellect, Influence and Evidence: The Elusive Allure of the Scribe of Ht,” in “Ye? baw for bokes”: Essays in Honor of Hoyt N. Duggan, Tsehai Publishers for Marymount University Press, 2013

“The Hidden Life of the Friars: The Mendicant Orders in the Work of Walter Hilton, William Langland, and Geoffrey Chaucer,” in The Origin, Development, and Refinement of Medieval Religious Mendicancies, Brill, 2011

“Experimental Markup in a TEI-Conformant Setting,” The Digital Medievalist 2.1 (Spring 2006)

Electronic Archive

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive Editions (Associate Editor):

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 7: London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 398 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Poetry 38 (R). SEENET, Series A.8. Boydell and Brewer, 2011

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 6: San Marino, Huntington Library, MS Hm128 (Hm and Hm2). SEENET, Series A.9. Boydell and Brewer, 2008

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 5: London, British Library, MS Additional 35287 (M). SEENET, Series A.7. Boydell and Brewer, 2005

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. 4: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 581 (L). SEENET, Series A.6. Boydell and Brewer, 2004

In Progress

Editor, The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, vol. [t.b.d.]: San Marino, Huntington Library Hm114 (Ht). SEENET, Series A. [t.b.d.]

Writing the Life of the Mind: undergraduate to early graduate school research-writing handbook

Under Development

Prolegomena to the History of the English Language: linguistic neurology, theoretical linguistics, LLMs, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, HEL internal history, HEL literary history (the evidence for HEL), HEL external history, world English

Learning the Life of the Mind (grades 6–12; possibly K–12): reading, discussion, notetaking, research, writing exercises, and paper-writing specifications for college preparation, concorded with Writing the Life of the Mind

Review of Work

Knowles, Jim and Timothy Stinson, “The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive on the Web: An Introduction,” Yearbook of Langland Studies 28 (2014), 225–238 [esp. 229–230]

Conferences

“Introducing Piers Plowman Electronic Archive MsX” (with Michael Calabrese), International Piers Plowman Society Online Colloquium (July 26, 2025)

“Pedagogy and the Medieval in the Digital Age: The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive” (with Michael Calabrese), International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 9, 2025)

“The History of Germanistik in Comparison to Anglistik,” Hillsdale College German Department Colloquium (March 26, 2021)

“Documenting Piers Plowman …,” International Piers Plowman Society (IPPS), Miami (April 4–6, 2019)

Session chair, “Editing Scribal Texts I,” IPPS Conference, Miami (April 4–6, 2019)

Co-chair (with Michael Calabrese), “Medieval Texts & Digital Editions: Obstacles and Opportunities,” International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 11, 2014)

“The History of Markup Standards Since 1994 …,” Medieval Academy of America (April 4–5, 2013)

Board Meeting of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, presentation on best practices and preservation of data (March 8–10, 2013)

(Additional academic-conference/workshop items continuing 2009–2003, including ICMS, IPPS, TEI Consortium meetings, and PPEA workshops.)

Lectures

Moderator/lecturer, public roundtable on gun control: “Sticking to Our Guns?: The Gun Control Debate in the Wake of Las Vegas” (October 11, 2017)

“Driving the Technology: How to Find the Right Technological Vehicle for Your Academic Needs …,” AppChat Conference (March 28, 2017)

“We of Good Cheer: The Virtue of Hospitality in American Life,” Hillsdale College National Symposia (2015; additional locations/dates in 2016)

Hillsdale Faculty After Hours Lecture Series: “Guns ‘n’ Young’uns: The Unexpected Faces of ‘Gun Culture’” (Spring 2015)

Our Faculty’s Ongoing Research Lecture Series: “The Marriage of Mercury & Philology: Developments in the Electronic Analysis of Medieval Texts” (March 2010)

Kappa Kappa Gamma Program Night: Lecture and Q&A on the virtue of hospitality (April 6, 2014)

“How to Save Western Civilization One Day at a Time,” The Men of Koon Dorm (April 22, 2013)

Lectura Dantis Collevallensis inaugural lecture—Inferno XV (March 19, 2013)

Tolkien Society Lecture: “J.R.R. Tolkien’s WWI Military Service in the Making of The Lord of the Rings” (March 9, 2012)

“Libertà va cercando: An Anthropology of Man and Text in the West,” Honors Dinner Lecture (January 18, 2012)

“Oxford in the History of the Book,” Oxford Study Abroad Program (Summer 2009)

Honors Lecture: “The Rationale for Cervantes’ Satire in Don Quixote” (Spring 2009)

Biography

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a longtime resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, Dr. Bart’s career has run a gamut from radio production (WQED-FM 89.3, Pittsburgh) and institutional development (Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh) to humanities computing (University of Pittsburgh and University of Virginia) and the teaching of Western Civilization from a base in a Tuscan villa with its own winery and olive groves (Villa Gugliaie, San Casciano in Val di Pesa).
Dr. Bart’s scholarship has focused on the examination of the textual history of the medieval dream vision poem, Piers Plowman, and on the role of the Dominicans and Franciscans in the rise of vernacular literature.
If there is one lesson to be gleaned from Dr. Bart’s life, it is that nothing done in earnest, whether in concerted study or for sheer enjoyment with no foreseen aim, is ever wasted. Her computing, gardening, and cooking avocations have led to public scholarly work, for example, and her broadcasting experience has helped her to shape classroom presentation.
Dr. Bart regularly teaches the works of T. S. Eliot, the literature of the Arthurian chivalric tradition, and the history of the English language in addition to the three Great Books courses and the art of research writing.