Rachel Kessler graduated from Kenyon College in 2004, majoring in English and philosophy. After college, Rachel moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she earned her Master's of Divinity from Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, in 2011. Rachel was ordained a deacon in 2011 and a priest in 2012 within the Anglican Church of Canada. She was appointed priest-in-charge of Harcourt Parish and chaplain at Kenyon College in the fall of 2015.

Before attending seminary, Rachel earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the Centre for Medieval Studies in the University of Toronto, specializing in Old English and Anglo-Latin literature. In her free time, Rachel enjoys baking, books and movies, obscure board games and hanging out with her border collie/lab/beagle mix Bilbo.

Courses Recently Taught

This course is a seminar in the general field of Old and Middle English literature. Class meetings are conducted in a combination seminar and workshop fashion. The primary work of the course is reading and translating Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry, supplemented by readings in Anglo-Saxon culture and history. First-year and sophomore students with an interest in medieval literature are particularly welcome, but this course is open to all without regard for major or class year. This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major.