Carl Sell
- Part-Time Instructor
Dr. Carl B. Sell's Affiliations: The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, International Society for the Study of Medievalism (ISSM), TRIO McNair Scholars Program
Dr. Carl B. Sell (he/him/his) is the Assistant Director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Pittsburgh. His research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of journal articles and book chapters on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.
Courses Taught
ENGLIT 0645 - Fantasy
Education & Training
- PhD, EnglishLiterature and Criticism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- MA, English Literature, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- BA, English, History Minor, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College
Representative Publications
- “Aquaman Rex: The Arthurian Associations of a DC Superhero.” The DC Comics Universe: Critical Essays, edited by Douglas Brode, McFarland Books, Aug. 2022, pp. 158-69.
- “Camelot 3000 and Dracula vs. King Arthur: The Uses of Limited-run Comics as Updates of the Arthurian Legend.” Arthurian Legend in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, edited by Susan Austin, Vernon Press, Sept. 2021, pp. 25-34.
- “‘My Honor is My Life’: Sturm Brightblade of the Dragonlance Saga and Middle English Arthurian Knighthood.” Reception, special issue of Romanica Silesiana, edited by Anna Czarnowus, vol. 20, no. 2, Dec. 2021, pp. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.31261/RS.2021.20.04
- “The Duality of a Monster: The Human-Wolf Dynamic of the Sympathetic Werewolf in Marie de France’s Bisclavret.” International Review of Literary Studies (IRLS), vol. 2, no. 1, Nov. 2020, pp. 1-10.
- “The Once and Future King of Atlantis: The Arthurian Figure in Geoff Johns’s Aquaman: Death of a King.” Arthurian Literature XXXV, Jun. 2020, pp. 192-99. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvktrxsh
- “Crafting Identity Through Oral Tradition: English Football Chants and Anglo-Saxon Poetry.” The Vault of Culture, edited by Shawn Gilmore. 21 Feb. 2024, https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/sell/identityoraltradition
- “Warhammer 40,000 and King Arthur: The Shields of Avalon and ‘Space Merlin.’” The Vault of Culture, edited by Shawn Gilmore. 18 Jan. 2023, https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/ongames/warhammer40kkingarthur
- “Round Table Revival: The Order: 1886.” The Vault of Culture, edited by Shawn Gilmore. 8 June 2022, https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/sell/theorder1886
Research Interests
Arthurian Legend, Adaptation and Appropriation, Fantasy, Tolkien Studies, Science Fiction, Comics Studies
