PhD Student

Medieval Studies

Research Area/s

Old English, Old Norse, and Middle High German Literature; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Animal Studies.

Contact Information

Email: cbaalke@unm.edu
Office Location: Humanities 232

Biography

Claire-Elise Baalke is a PhD student in Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico. She graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a BA in English minoring in Philosophy and a MA in English. Her MA thesis was titled “If Women Were Dragons: A Study of the Conquest of Women and Dragons in Ragnar’s Saga, The Volsunga Sagas, and The Nibelungenlied,” which outlines the argument that women and dragons in Old Norse and Old Germanic texts hold similar roles and characteristics in literature and can commonly be utilized interchangeably. Some of her other areas of research interest include pop culture, ecocriticism, and medievalism.