Peter Dendle is an Associate Professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on Old and Middle English (language and literature), folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and society). Dendle has written books and articles on a number of topics, including cryptozoology, philology, the demonic in literature, zombie movies, and Medieval plants and medicine. His work on zombies reached perhaps its largest popular audience through his commentary on NPR.[1]
His education includes a B.A. in English and Philosophy (1990) and an M.A. in Philosophy (1993), both from the University of Kentucky, as well as an M.A. in English from Yale (1991) and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto (1998).
In 2007, National Geographic featured some of the research results from Dendle's forthcoming monograph called The Devil in Anglo-Saxon England (Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University).[2] Other recent works include peer-reviewed articles on medieval charms, demon possession, and a translation and analysis of The Old English Life of Malchus and Two Vernacular Tales from the Vitas Patrum in MS Cotton Otho C.i: which appeared in English Studies, 2010.
He is also the co-editor of three collections of academic essays, one having appeared in 2008 (Boydell). His two forthcoming essay collections look at other ideas of the preternatural as well. The first essay collection, forthcoming through Ashgate Press, is co-edited with Asa Mittman (California State University, Chico) and looks at the construction of the monstrous. The second collection, forthcoming through Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto, is co-edited with Richard Raiswell (University of Prince Edward Island), and looks at the construction of the Devil.