The Medieval Academy Blog

The 2015-16 Rome Prizes in Medieval Studies were recently awarded by the American Academy in Rome to two members of the Medieval Academy:

Eric Knibbs (Assistant Professor, Department of History, Williams College) was awarded the Millicent Mercer Johnsen Post-Doctoral Rome Prize, for a project titled “The Forging of Pseudo-Isidore.”

John Lansdowne (Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University) was awarded the Marian and Andrew Heiskell/Samuel H. Kress Foundation Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize, the first of a two-year Fellowship for dissertation research. His thesis is titled “Image Made Flesh: The Mosaic Man of Sorrows at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.”

Golden Haggadah, Spain. c. 1320, British Library, Add. MS 27210, f. 15r, detail.

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2015 Dissertation Grants and the 2015 Schallek Awards.

Dissertation Grants:

The nine endowed and named Medieval Academy Dissertation Grants support advanced graduate students in medieval studies.

Hannah Elmer (Columbia University), “Sites of Life: Resuscitating and Baptizing Dead Infants in Central Europe, 1400-1600” (John Boswell Dissertation Grant)

Elizabeth Fischer (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), “The Representation of Space in Early Carolingian Gospel Books” (Grace Frank Dissertation Grant)

Bibiana Gattozzi (Princeton University), “The Hymns of Medieval Southern Italy: Music, Politics, and the Transformation of Local Liturgical Song” (E. K. Rand Dissertation Grant)

Justin Hastings (Loyola University Chicago), “‘Englishing’ Horace: the Influence of the Horatian Tradition on Old and Middle English Poetry” (Robert and Janet Lumiansky Dissertation Grant)

Alexandra M. Locking (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), “From Humble Handmaiden to Ruling Lady: Aristocratic Women in Ecclesiastical Reform and the Evolution of Female Lordship, 1049-1122 CE” (Helen Maud Cam Dissertation Grant)

Phillip Mazero (St. Louis University), “Frontier Politics: Veneto-Byzantine Relations, Civic Identity, and Imperial Hegemony, 697-1126” (Frederic C. Lane Dissertation Grant)

Christopher Mielke (Central European University), “Every Hyacinth the Garden Wears: The Archaeology of Medieval Queenship in Hungary (1000-1395)” (Charles T. Wood Dissertation Grant)

Sharon Rhodes (University of Rochester), “Turning the Tide: Fathoming the Flood in Old English Literature” (Hope Emily Allen Dissertation Grant)

Michelle Urberg (University of Chicago), “The New Vineyard: Origins, Development, and Flourishing of Birgittine Musico-Devotional Practices (c. 1350-1545)” (Etienne Gilson Dissertation Grant)

Schallek Awards:

The five Schallek Awards, given in collaboration with the Richard III Society – American Branch, support graduate students conducting doctoral research in any relevant discipline dealing with late-medieval Britain (ca. 1350-1500).

Taylor Joseph Aucoin (University of Bristol), “Shrovetide: Festival in Medieval and Early Modern Britain”

Gavin Fort (Northwestern University), “The Vicarious Middle Ages: Proxy Pilgrimage in Late-Medieval England, 1250-1550”

Jon-Mark Grussenmeyer (University of Kent), “Cardinal Kemp: The Last Lancastrian Statesman”

Lori Jones (University of Ottawa), “Changing Perceptions of the Origin (Geographical and Historical) of the Plague”

Sarah Elizabeth Wilson (Northwestern University), “Regenerative Mourning: Sorrow’s Social Uses in Late Medieval England”

The Medieval Academy of America, in collaboration with the Richard III Society – American Branch, is pleased to announce that the 2015 Schallek Fellowship has been awarded to Samuel Rostad (University of Notre Dame) for research on his dissertation, “Benedictine Popular Preaching in Late Medieval England, c. 1350-1500.” Sam will spend his Fellowship year in England studying manuscripts of Benedictine sermons.

In summarizing his dissertation, Sam writes: “For a group of regulars normally bound to silence, the Benedictines of late medieval England were a surprisingly vocal bunch. Although popular preaching from the thirteenth century on is generally associated with friars and seculars, a large body evidence – including surviving sermons, preaching licenses, and pastoral handbooks owned by monasteries – points to the active part Benedictines played in preaching to the laity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. My dissertation will draw on this wide range of evidence to provide a thorough study of Benedictine popular preaching in late medieval England, a subject which has received some scholarly attention but has yet to be explored fully. A large part of the dissertation will focus on the surviving sermons themselves and what the Benedictines actually preached to the laity, the emphases and themes of their preaching. But I am also interested in a number of related questions which will provide a fuller discussion of the topic, for instance Benedictine use of pastoral aides in their sermons and their own views on preaching and their place in the pastoral life of medieval English society. In broadest terms, I hope this study will contribute to the discussion of the place of the Benedictines in late medieval religious life. As one of the most direct lines of contact between clergy and laity, as well as its increasing prominence from the thirteenth century on, preaching offers an excellent avenue into the study of Benedictine-lay religious interaction.”

Cod. Pal. germ. 848, Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse), Zürich, c.1300-c.1340, fol. 82v.

As always, the Medieval Academy will have a strong presence at Kalamazoo next week, sponsoring a Plenary lecture, two related sessions, and, through CARA and the GSC, three roundtables:

Plenary lecture: Friday, 8:30 AM, East Ballroom, Bernhard Center

Cary J. Nederman (Texas A&M University), “Modern Toleration through a Medieval Lens: A ‘Judgmental’ View”

Related sessions: Toleration of the Religious “Other” (Fri. 1:30 PM, Session 231, Valley II, LeFevre Lounge); Toleration and Council (Fri. 3:30 PM, Session 285, Valley II, LeFevre Lounge)

Graduate Student Committee session: The Public Medievalist: A Roundtable on Engaging the Public with the Middle Ages (Thurs. 3:30 PM, Session 115, Schneider 1140), followed by the GSC reception with cash bar (5:30 PM, Fetzer 2030)

CARA sessions: What’s New in Digital Humanities (A Roundtable) (Sat. 10 AM,Session 375, Schneider 1340); Medievalists in the Media (A Roundtable) (Sat. 1:30 PM, Session 433, Schneider 1340)

Further information is available on the IMC website http://wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html.

In addition, the Medieval Academy exhibit table will be staffed in shifts by Speculum editor Sallie Spence, Executive Director Lisa Fagin Davis, and Editorial Assistant Erin Pomeroy. We hope you will stop by to say hello.