About
Dr. LaRiviere is an Associate Professor in the department of Literature and Associate Dean of the Propaedeutic Stage at Mount Angel Seminary. She teaches a full literature and writing curriculum, as well as interdisciplinary courses in philosophy and religious studies. Her current book project, The Medieval Person: Theological Self and Personhood in Late Medieval English Literature, engages the question of selfhood in medieval culture through the interdisciplinary study of literature, theology, and philosophy. In conversation with Early Modern texts and their critics, her research focuses on the concept of self and personhood as it develops into the Reformation period.
As a Dissertation Fellow with the Oregon Humanities Center, LaRiviere completed her doctoral study in medieval literature in the department of English at the University of Oregon in 2019.
LaRiviere has scholarly publications in literature, writing pedagogy, and disability studies. She has presented research at several conferences, including the annual gatherings of the Medieval Association of the Pacific, The International Medieval Congress and the International Congress on Medieval Studies, where she will return in 2024. LaRiviere was invited to present her research on composition pedagogy and assessment practices at CUALHE 2018. She has also contributed invited interviews for AuTeach and the Victorian Scribblers Podcast.
LaRiviere’s teaching includes prior appointments as English faculty at Eastside Preparatory School, and as a Graduate Teaching Fellow at both the University of Oregon (Ph.D) and, previously, at Montana State University (MA). Katie Jo also holds a Certificate in College Teaching from the department of educational leadership at MSU.
Dr. LaRiviere’s service to the university and wider community includes committee work in curricular development, teacher mentorship, honors thesis directorship, advising, and diversity and inclusion advocacy, particularly in the areas of anti-racism and disability. She co-founded the Stein-Bowman Society, a reading group that brings together scholars and lay readers to discuss philosophy and literature by and about women. She also serves as the Associate Dean and Intellectual Advisor for the first-year program at Mount Angel Seminary.
Dr. LaRiviere’s excellence in teaching has been recognized by four different institutions, with awards from Montana State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Chicago, and Mount Angel Seminary.
“LaRiviere models self-discipline and intellectual achievement. She consistently demonstrates thoughtful and rigorous ways of engaging ideas.”
— Colleague and supervisor, c. Anne Laskaya
Current Research
In a debate significant for both its stakes and longevity, medievalists and early modernists have engaged the question of selfhood and argued about its ostensible “beginning.” Scholars on both sides have imagined the medieval concept of selfhood as fundamentally shaped by political systems of national violence or various programs of social control. Within this imagination, the critical concept of selfhood has assumed its modern definition, which equates selfhood to “agency” and associates the self with choice, mobility, and power. Such assumptions perpetuate the notion that medieval selfhood was underdeveloped for those with limited social power and implicitly value white, male, and classed subjects as “selves.” In this way, our criticism has reinforced modern biases via scholarship, and have imposed these values upon the past. Additionally, these critical assumptions have led to problematic views about medieval conceptions of the “person” in conjunction with race, gender, and key medieval social institutions, especially the church.
My current project, The Medieval Person: Theological Self and Personhood in Late Medieval English Literature, confronts these assumptions and shows how these texts instead define selfhood and identity in accordance with the Christian concept of a relational and Trinitarian God: for them, relationship with God and neighbor is the basic frame of the self. In readings of several late medieval texts, including the morality play of Wisdom, The Book of Margery Kempe, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I show how medieval writers are concerned with the evolution of the self toward perfection through their conceptions of charity, “transcendent autonomy,” and conversion.
Teaching Feedback
"Katie Jo is so passionate about what she is teaching and that makes me really excited to learn."
—Student in ENG 106, Introduction to Poetry
"This was one of the most competent and focused class sessions that I have so far observed."
—Faculty Observer in Writing 121
“Dr. LaRiviere’s approach, style, and demeanor fostered a classroom atmosphere where students felt comfortable and safe to engage with the professor and with one another. Her enthusiasm for the subject matter was not just felt, it was contagious. Her concern that students truly understand the material, its implications, and its application to their lives and growth in virtue were clearly evident.”
—Fr. Steven Clovis, Director of Human Formation and Professor, Mount Angel Seminary
"Katie Jo made this class one of the best I have experienced. She was excellent at encouraging dialogue and critical thinking and was always accessible. The class was organized and she was very helpful, caring, and clearly wanted all of her students to succeed."
—Student in ENG 301, Foundations of the English Major
Teaching
Alongside over a decade of teaching experience, my pedagogical practice is shaped by my extensive training and research in the fields of literature and post-secondary education. Together, these provide the concrete and evidenced methods behind my teaching, and they form the three principles of my pedagogy: first, teaching is a scholarly endeavor worthy of the same kind of theory-based research as my scholarly work in literature; second, truly student-centered teaching requires a constant critical-reflective approach on the part of the teacher; and finally, that the most effective and enduring teaching provides opportunity for students to practice metacognition and self-regulated learning. As a result of this practice, in 2018, I received the University of Oregon English department’s single nomination for a university-wide Graduate Teaching Excellence Award out of more than 65 eligible teachers. I was awarded the Outstanding Teacher of Composition Award in 2019. In 2020 I was nominated by a student and selected by the University of Chicago for their Outstanding Educator Award, and in 2022 and 2024 I was recognized at Mount Angel Seminary for the St. Bonaventure Excellence in Teaching Award.
More about Teaching and Consulting
Service
I am wholly committed to serving the needs of my students, colleagues, and the broader community and am an earnest collaborator. I enthusiastically take leadership roles in my community and serve where I am needed. In the past this service has included co-teaching a series of sacramental preparation classes for confirmandi at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle, leading an after-school reading club at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School, and volunteering at Seattle’s St. James Cathedral and in the Seattle L’Arche community. I also recently served in the neonatal intensive care unit at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, OR.
At work, I serve on committees and serve annually as a director of honors theses at Mount Angel Seminary. I was a founding member of the University of Oregon’s Center for Study of Women in Society's Inclusive Pedagogies Research Interest Group and have since co-founded a Pedagogy Research Group for faculty at Mount Angel Seminary. I also serve as the Associate Dean for the first-year program at MAS.