Dr. Karen Youmans studies medieval hagiography and rhetoric with a particular interest in Middle English and Chaucerian studies. She has also presented and published on Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry. In addition to teaching courses in the university's core curriculum and courses on early British literature for the English major, she also directs the university's Honors program.

Dr. Youmans has spent several years as an active member in the Conference on Christianity and Literature, an allied society of the Modern Language Association, and currently serves on the organization's board of directors. She is also involved with the National Collegiate Honors Council, serving on the Council's Small Colleges Committee. She is a member of First Baptist Church in Shawnee where she enjoys singing in the choir and helping to lead the college Sunday school class. She lives in Shawnee with her husband, Tim and their son, Noah.

Review of Velma Bourgeois Richmond. Chaucer as Children's Literature: Retellings from the Victorian and Edwardian Periods. Christianity and Literature 55 (2006): 592-95.

"Chaucer's Staged Readings of Exemplary Literature." Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature. Abilene Christian University, September 2006.

"Chaucer and the Uses of Hagiographic Discourse." New Chaucer Society Biennial Congress, University of Glasgow, UK, July 2004.

"Asser's Life of Alfred and the Rhetoric of Hagiography." Medievalia 22.2 (1999): 291-305.