Jay Ruud teaches courses in literature and linguistics in the University of Central Arkansas' English Department. He received his Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1981, and taught at Northern State University for eighteen years before coming to UCA. He also serves as Chair of the department. He has published a number of scholarly works, especially on Chaucer and on the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, first woman writer in the English language. He has also directed a number of teacher institutes, two of which (one on the Canterbury Tales and one on Literature of the Plains Indians) were supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For more information about Dr. Ruud, please see his curriculum vitae.