Christopher M Berard

An alumnus of Providence College (BA, History, 2007), Christopher earned his MA (2008) and PhD (2015) at the University of Toronto's Centre for Medieval Studies. He specializes in Arthurian literature, medieval political culture, and Latin, Old French, and Middle English historiography (c. 1100–1400). 

Christopher's most significant publications to date are his two scholarly monographs. Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England: from Henry II to Edward I (Boydell, 2019) is an interdisciplinary study of how five successive post-Conquest kings of England (1154–1307) emulated and otherwise used the legendary King Arthur of Britain for political gain and how this activity in turn impacted depictions of King Arthur in literature. The Alliterative Morte Arthure as Christian Epic Poetry (Boydell, forthcoming 2026) is an extended literary interpretation of the Middle English Morte Arthure (c. 1400) as Virgilian in form and Augustinian in meaning that uses epic conventions as categories of analysis. 

At Providence College, Christopher teaches in the Development of Western Civilization Program and in the Humanities Program, where he offers special topics courses on Arthurian legend, Jewish and Christian romance, medieval ghost stories, and kingship and knighthood. His Humanities reading course, King Arthur: Monarch of the Medieval Imagination, was featured in Providence College News, and he is the recipient of the 2025 Recognition for Teaching Excellence by Adjunct Faculty Award.