Profile

Sister Lucia Treanor, FSE has been a lecturer in the First Year Experience Program since the 2021 academic year. She previously taught at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Eldoret, Kenya, where she was chair of the Department of Language, Literature and Communication. She taught in the Honors College, the English Department and the Writing Department of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan for many years.

Sister's research and writing includes both popular and academic subjects. Her book, Elwood: The Story of a Catholic Military Hero (OSV Press, 2021) was selected as a finalist in the category of biography by the Association of Catholic Publishers, and she was interviewed about the book on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" in 2023. The book has been reviewed in several publications. She has also written short radio pieces on prayer, abortion, and religious vocations, for EWTN global Catholic network.

Sister specializes in literary aesthetics with a theological bent, in particular the integration of structure and meaning in medieval literature. Her book, The Symmetrical Patterning in Franciscan Writings of the Late Middle Ages (Mellen Press, 2011) was nominated for the MLA prize for "Best First Book" in 2012, and is in 673 library collections throughout the world. She has published articles and book reviews. Her essay "Palindromic Structure in the Pardoner's Tale" in the Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters XLI.1 (2012) has been downloaded more than 500 times and received 50 references, according to Scholar Works. A book chapter in Dante and The Franciscans (Brill, 2006), is entitled "The Cross as te in ‘The Canticle of Creatures,’ Dante’s ‘Virgin Mother,’ and Chaucer’s ‘Invocation to Mary.” She has published reviews of James Shapiro's A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 in Early Theatre, 10.1 (Spring 2007) and Mary Douglas's Thinking in Circles: An Essay in Ring Composition in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 67.2 (Spring 2009). She has presented conference papers at Columbia University, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, Georgetown University, Franciscan University (Steubenville), The University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University. She has received numerous awards including both the "Excellence in Teaching" and the "Student Life" awards from Grand Valley State University, and three author recognition awards from Steelcase Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Sister Lucia graduated from Manhattanville College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and received a Master of Arts in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She earned both a Master of Philosophy (1998) and a Doctorate in Comparative Literature (2000) from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.