Biography
Dr. Emerson Richards earned her M.A. in Anthropology with a concentration in Historical Archaeology from the University of Central Florida, where she specialized in Historical Archaeology and ArcGIS applications under the advisement of John Walker.
Prior to joining UCF, she earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 2020, focusing on medieval manuscripts. She also received an M.A. (2013) and bachelor’s degrees in English, Medieval Studies, and Geography from the University of Florida.
Dr. Richards previously worked as a Rare Books Cataloguer at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and has experience in Special Collections librarianship, environmental inspection, and the rare book trade. Her interdisciplinary background centers on the conservation of resources and the presentation of information to diverse audiences through objective data analysis.
Her M.A. thesis applied historical archaeology methodologies to the 1575 Spanish edition of Peter Apian’s Cosmographia, examining historical coordinates and toponyms associated with European accounts of the New World through GIS analysis.
While at UCF, Dr. Richards received the Dean’s Fellowship (2024) and the Indiana University Lilly Library Mendel Fellowship (2025) in support of her research. She also participated in Season 9 of the Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project (CCAMP) as a Crew Chief.
Research Interests/Specializations
- Historical Archaeology
- ArcGIS
- Cultural Heritage Management/ Cultural Resource Management
Publications
| (forthcoming in Fall 2025). “Looking for Na Ah Ch’ul Hun(She of the Holy Books): Potential of Crossdisciplinary Methodological Approaches from Medieval European Manuscript Studies to Better Understand the Maya Codices as Objects”, Manuscript Studies: A Schoenburg Journal for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Press. |
| 2022. “Christus homo factus Wm Cleue prosperet actus”: Examining a Provenance Mark with Suggestions about the Later Ownership of the Paris Apocalypse,” Manuscript Studies: A Schoenburg Journal for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania Press, 7(2), 360-369. |
| 2020. “An Investigation of a Printer’s Block (Manchester, John Rylands Library, 17252): The Earliest Extant Woodblock Printing Apparatus or an Eighteenth-Century Creation”, Perspectives Médiévales: revue d’épistémologie des langues et littératures du Moyen Âge, 41, 1-25. |
| 2017. “It is mainly just that they are Irish: Anglo/Irish tensions in T. H. White’s The Once and Future King”, Arthuriana. 27(4), 40-60. |
| 2014. “Seeking That Which Cannot Be Found”: T.H. White’s Use of Precursor Texts to Comment on Pre- and Post- WWII England. Can These Bones Come to Life, Vol. 2. Freelance Press. |
| 2012. “I sort of get carried away, being so normal and everything”: The Oscillating Sexuality of Clare Quilty and Humbert Humbert in the works of Nabokov, Kubrick and Lyne. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 4. Web. |
| 2010. “An Unhappy Knight: The Bastardization and Diffusion of Mordred in Medieval Texts.” Alpata Journal of History. 7, 22-32. |
Teaching
Indiana University
Instructor of Record
- CMLT-C155 (Spring 2016), Culture & the Modern Experience: The American 1960s
- CMLT-C 155 (Spring 2018), Culture & the Modern Experience: Medieval in the Modern
Emerson has also taught university-level courses in the US, UK, and France in subjects ranging from public speaking, technical writing for engineers, modern literature, cultural studies, book history, and ESL.