Academic Background:

Allen C. Rice was born at a very early age (in fact, he had just been born at that time). He was born in the exotic and far-away town of Edmond, Oklahoma, above the movie theater on Broadway (later Garfield's Restaurant and now the London House Restaurant) where the dinky second-floor hospital accommodated the spare needs of a small town of 5,000 people.

Allen, springing from hale and hardy working class Okies (one grandfather was a cattle rancher, the other a rough-neck oil field worker), attended Edmond Public Schools all his life until he went to college at U.C.O. (then Central State U.) for his Freshman and Sophomore years.

Then he loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly -- the University of Oklahoma in Norman, that is -- where he got a double degree in English and History and watched some of the glory years of Sooner Football.

He stayed at O.U. for his Master's degree in English, but then moved to Indiana University (in Bloomington, Indiana) where he got his Ph.D. in 1993 (getting a major in English Renaissance Literature and also getting a full Certificate in Medieval Studies) and developed a mild taste for Hoosier basketball, and a comic aversion to Bobby Knight, the Hoosiers' coach.

Allen's dissertation focused upon the ways in which John Milton considered himself a Prophet as he composed his great epic, Paradise Lost. Then Allen tried to make a Profit himself, by entering the job market.

Teaching Background and Interest:

Allen began his teaching career in 1980 as Graduate Assistant at O.U., serving there for two years (and janitoring in the summers). Since then he has been an Adjunct Instructor for one year at Oklahoma State University in Oklahoma City, a Teaching Assistant for four years at Indiana University, a Professional Writer for two years at the Indiana University Foundation, and an Assistant Professor in the English Department for one year at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee.

He came to U.C.O. in 1991 and has been a permanent fixture here ever since. He is currently a tenured Professor of English. Allen enjoys teaching literature written by extremely old dead white guys. These include Milton, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and other Medieval and Renaissance writers.

He also teaches genre courses on Greco-Roman Epic and on Medieval (that is, King Arthur-type) Romance, because despite middle age and a pot belly, Allen often fantasizes that he is a sword-wielding hero of legend. This is very sad, of course.

Allen sponsors the English Society and Sigma Tau Delta (comprised of lots of fun, hip, cool, groovy students who like reading books and watching movies) and is also the unofficial (meaning uncompensated) Undergraduate Director.

Conferences, Publications, and other interests:

Allen can often be found chairing sessions or presenting papers at conferences, including the SCMLA (South Central Modern Language Association), the SCCCL (South Central Conference on Christianity in Literature), and the SCRC (South Central Renaissance Conference).

He also attends conferences without bizarre acronyms; his favorite was the Fifth International Milton Symposium which was held the Summer of 1995 in Bangor, Wales.

He had a wonderful time there, befriending some of the world's great Miltonists, entering scholarly debates with them, presenting a paper before these great minds, and generally licking their feet like a brown-nosing lap dog.

Allen will publish an "amusing" article on the identity of Milton's muse in a forthcoming issue of Modern Language Review and has published a book review in Milton Quarterly.

He is currently working on several writing projects, including an epic (so far an 18 year disaster written in iambic pentameter and heroic couplets), an adventure\comedy\horror screenplay (about vampires in Norman, Oklahoma), a science  fiction\fantasy\historical novel, and a collection of children's stories. In other words, he can't finish a project once he has begun it.

Allen is a Southern Baptist Deacon(inactive and lazy), and a Sunday School Teacher of a class of 110 married adults; he loves supporting Sooner Football, watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, playing racquetball, and reading bad Science Fiction stories.