Krista Twu

Background & Expertise

Krista Sue-Lo Twu, PhD is the University of Minnesota Imagine Chair for Arts, Humanities & Design (2025-2027) and associate professor of medieval studies at University of Minnesota, Duluth, Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies, where they teach courses on medieval & renaissance studies, historical linguistics, and nature writing, and they run the Book Lab. They received their PhD from the University of California, Irvine, with training in paleography and codicology from the University of Notre Dame. They are currently working on "The Book of the North," a handmade book using late medieval book arts techniques, and lead the Liberal Artisan research and creative collaborative at the University of Minnesota. They have served on the governing board of the Medieval Academy, published extensively on Geoffrey Chaucer, and have delivered workshops on medieval calligraphy and fiber arts at the Medieval Academy, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the New Chaucer Society, the Modern Language Association, and the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Georgetown University, University of Maryland, and University of Wisconsin. They also offer community facing workshops through "The Book of the North" and Liberal Artisan projects at the University of Minnesota Family Weekend programs for the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses, along with programming for area high school students. In 2026, they received the Medieval Academy Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies. They also won a second place ribbon in the knitting competition at the 2026 Minnesota State Fair.