His fields of research include Anglo-Saxon literature and culture; late antique, medieval, and early modern literature; poetry, historiography, and exegesis. His first book, The Footsteps of Israel: Understanding Jews in Anglo-Saxon England (Michigan 2004) won the 2005 Best First Book Prize of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists and the 2008 John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America. He has published articles on Anglo-Saxon topics in journals such as Anglo-Saxon England, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Exemplaria, Literary Imagination, and Neophilologus. His current project was funded in 2007-2008 by a NEH Fellowship for University Teachers. Scheil was educated at Rutgers University (BA) and the University of Toronto (MA and PhD).