Before coming to the University of Mississippi, where she founded and now directs the medieval studies minor and graduate certificate, Mary Hayes received her A. B. from Dartmouth College (cum laude and with honors in English), her A. M. from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While completing her education, she also spent a year at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, where she was drawn because of her great love for a "modern medieval" writer, James Joyce, who was the subject of her master's thesis. Dr. Hayes's work on medieval English literature and language introduced her to her other great passion: the History of the English Language. She is the sole author of the third edition of the late Celia M. Millward's classic text, A Biography of the English Language (2011) and its accompanying workbook. She co-edited and contributed to Approaches to Teaching the History of the English Language: Pedagogy in Practice (Oxford University Press, 2017). Her textbook, The History of English from Anglo-Saxon England to the World Wide Web, is under contract with Cambridge University Press. Joining historical linguistics with literary studies, this text innovates on traditional philological approaches to the subject as well as conventional ways of teaching it. Dr. Hayes has published in venues such as Exemplaria, the Chaucer Review, Church History, and American Speech, and she has received awards from the Medieval Academy of America and the Newberry Library (as well as many internal grants and recognitions). Her academic hobbies include the study of magic and esotericism as well as popular medievalisms (such as "The Game of Thrones" franchise).