Maj-Britt Frenze, PhD

My passions for literature, history, and mythology have guided my academic journey for as long as I can remember, from my interests in the historical American Girl characters and the Dear America series as an elementary schooler to my full-fledged obsession with The Lord of the Rings as a middle school student and beyond. My early experiences as a reader no doubt contributed to my later pursuit of a doctorate in Medieval Studies (University of Notre Dame), where I focused on medieval England, France, and Scandinavia. I attended the University of Virginia for my undergraduate work, earning a B.A. in Religious Studies and in the Political & Social Thought program. I love learning languages and reading the texts of the distant past, texts that offer us glimpses of the lives of people who lived before us and insights into how their lives differ from and resemble our own.

Since earning my doctorate, I have worked as an editor and translator (primarily of French) and taught high school-level mythology classes at UVA’s Summer Enrichment Program. I continue to publish peer-reviewed journal articles in my field. As a doctoral student at Notre Dame, I taught several undergraduate Medieval Studies courses, and I join WTMA eager to return to the classroom and share my love for primary texts.

I live in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. with my lively family. When I’m not reading a good book, I spend as much time as possible in the garden, walking my labrador, or painting landscapes.

On teaching: I love stories, and I teach history as a devotee of story and myth. One of my main goals as an instructor is to help my students see lines of continuity between the distant past and the present, illuminating how old stories reverberate in our times. My courses combine lectures with active participation in the forms of regular group discussions and Q&A. I build our class conversations around the careful reading of primary source texts, highlighting the intellectually rich and diverse voices of pre-modern thinkers. In my courses, students hone their critical thinking skills through writing and revising thesis-driven papers. They learn how to focus on small, but important, details through close readings of passages from primary texts. They develop leadership and communication skills by composing their own questions to kick off class discussion. In addition, my courses take an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating material culture, the visual arts, the musical arts, literature, and scientific innovation into our study of pre-modern history.