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News and Announcements

This page lists the Institute's recent and upcoming activities. Visit here often to keep abreast of Medieval Institute news and program information. See below for details on:

*Prof. Ralph McInerny (1929-2010)

*the MI Film Festival: October 30, 31, November 1

*the 2009 Conway Lectures

*Constable appointed Director of MI for five-year term

*Book published by MI grad student, Marcela Perett

*Grants go to three MI students

*ND Office of Research grant for microfilms

*new book on the Devotio Moderna by Prof. John Van Engen

*ISLA grants to MI graduate students

*Kaneb Fellowship to MI graduate student, Courtney Luckhardt

*AHA book award to Prof. Margaret Meserve

*Snite exhibit curated by Prof. Robert Randolf Coleman

*Sorin Fellowship to MI graduate student, Marcela Perett

*the appointment of Olivia Remie Constable as Acting Director of the Medieval Institute

*the new Medieval Institute blog

*our 2008-09 Mellon Fellow

*recent visitors to the Institute

*annual reports of MI activities (2006-07, 2005-06, 2004-05, 2003-04, 2002-03, 2001-02)


Current News

Prof. Ralph McInerny (1929-2010)

With great sadness, the Medieval Institute notes the death of Ralph McInerny, professor emeritus of philosophy, emeritus director of the Jacques Maritain Center and emeritus director of the Medieval Institute.

Prof. McInerny mentored many students during his years as director of the Medieval Institute and continued to do so even during his retirement.  He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and students.

The South Bend Tribune carried an obituary for Prof. McInerny, which is viewable on-line at:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/southbendtribune/obituary.aspx?n=ralph-m-mcinerny&pid=139157716.

The University of Notre Dame's formal announcement of his passing appears at: http://al.nd.edu/news/14528-notre-dame-philosopher-ralph-mcinerny-dies.

Posted February 3, 2010.


The MI Film Festival

The Medieval Institute's first Film Festival (Medievalism on Film: Those Were the Days) will take place on Halloween weekend. Co-sponsored by the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC), three films with medieval settings take a lighter look at the Middle Ages on Friday (October 30) and Saturday (October 31) and the series culminates with a cinematic masterpiece on Sunday (November 1). Each film will be introduced by a faculty member. All performances will take place at DPAC's Browning Family Cinema. Ticket information is available from DPAC.

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Friday, October 30 at 6:30 p.m.
Directed by Michael Curtiz; starring Errol Flynn

The Court Jester
Friday, October 30 at 9:30 p.m.
Directed by Melvin Frank; starring Danny Kaye

Jabberwocky
Saturday, October 31 at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Directed by Terry Gilliam

Alexander Nevsky
Sunday, November 1 at 3:00 p.m.
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Posted September 22, 2009; updated October 5, 2009.


The Conway Lectures

In 2002, the Medieval Institute inaugurated a lecture series in honor of Robert M. Conway, a 1966 graduate of Notre Dame, trustee of the University, and long-time friend and supporter of the Medieval Institute. The annual lectures brings senior scholars of international distinction to Notre Dame each fall to speak on topics across a variety of disciplines. The lectures are then published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Past speakers included Fr. Ulrich Horst (2002), Paul Strohm (2003), Rosamond McKitterick (2004), Calvin Bower (2005), Beat Brenk (2006), A. C. Spearing, and Jonathan Riley-Smith.

John Marenbon will deliver the 2009 Conway lectures on November 12, 17, and 19. Roberta Frank will be the Conway Lecturer in 2010, followed by Barbara Newman in 2011, Sylvia Huot in 2012, and Jeffrey Hamburger in 2013.

John Marenbon, Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, has written extensively about Peter Abelard and has produced survey volumes on medieval philosophy as well. He is interested in considering methodological issues about the history of philosophy and his most recent research projects focus on Boethius and the medieval concept of good pagans. The title of his Conway series is "Abelard in Four Dimensions."

For more details on the 2009 Conway lectures, see the list of upcoming lectures. Posted August 25, 2009.

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Constable Appointed Robert M. Conway Director of Medieval Institute

On May 1, 2009, Dean of Arts and Letters John T. McGreevy made the following announcement:

Olivia Remie Constable, Professor of History, has been appointed to a five-year term as the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute, effective July 1, 2009. Remie is an accomplished scholar, teacher and university citizen. Her scholarly work focuses on the economic, social, and urban history of the medieval Mediterranean World, especially contacts between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in this region. Her publications include more than twenty-five articles and book chapters as well as Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula 900-1500 (1994) which won the John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of America; Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (1997); and Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (2003). She has also served as the editor for the series, The Medieval Mediterranean, and Medieval Encounters, as well on the editorial board of Journal of Early Modern History. A forthcoming project entitled "Muslims in Medieval Europe: will examine relations between Christians and Muslims in thirteenth century southern Europe and is funded by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1992, before coming to the University of Notre Dame, Remie won the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Teaching Award for Junior Faculty at Columbia University. She received a fellowship to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1999 and was awarded the Presidential Award at the University of Notre Dame in 2006. In 2009, she was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Remie has served in a number of University, College, department, and external administrative positions, including senator to the Faculty Senate, search committee member and chair, internal reviewer, the Advisory Committee of the Medieval Institute, the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History from 2000 to 2006, and member of the executive board of the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. Posted May 1, 2009

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MI Student Publishes Book

Marcela K. Perett, a Medieval Institute graduate student completing her dissertation, published Vzestup křesťanství: prvních pět století církve [The Rise of Christianity: First Five Centuries of the Church]. The publisher is Návrat, located in Prague. The book was published in Czech and aimed at both scholarly readers and a wider audience. Posted February 26, 2009

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Grants Go to Three MI Students

Medieval Institute students Lesley-Anne Dyer and Garrett Smith received awards through the Notre Dame Summer Intensive Language Training Program for Graduate Students. Dyer will study Italian in Siena, Italy at the Dante Alighieri program for 6 weeks. Smith will travel to Germany for his language study. Andrew Rosato, an MI student working on his dissertation, won a graduate student professional development grant from the Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA). Posted February 2, 2009

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Office of Research Grant for Microfilm

The Medieval Institute has been awarded an Equipment Restoration and Renewal program grant by the ND Office of Research for the proposal: "Acquisition of Medieval Manuscript Microfilm Sets." Drafted by Marina Smyth (Medieval Studies Librarian) and Olivia Remie Constable (Acting Director of the Medieval Institute and Professor of History), the proposal made the case for the purchase of microfilm sets of manuscripts in the Colleges of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Uppsala; Trinity College; and in several British Cathedral Libraries. Posted January 2009

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New Book by Van Engen

Professor of History John Van Engen's new book, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages has just been published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Posted January 2009

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ISLA Grants for Students

MI Ph.D. candidates John Hall, Marcela K. Perett, and Andrew Irving were awarded graduate student professional development grants by the Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA). ISLA operates on behalf of scholars in the College of Arts and Letters. Posted January 2009

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Kaneb Fellowship to MI Graduate Student

The Notre Dame Graduate School and College of Letters have awarded Courtney Luckhardt a Kaneb Pre-doctoral Fellowship for 2009-10. The fellowship award provides a stipend for the recipient and an honorarium for a faculty mentor at a host institution. Luckhardt is a Ph.D. candidate in the Medieval Institute and a previous winner of the Kaneb Center Outstanding Teacher Award for graduate students. She will be going to the University of Glasgow to do teaching and research under the direction of Prof. Julia M.H. Smith, Edwards Chair in Medieval History. Luckhardt’s dissertation, "The Sea and the Saints: Travel and Hagiography in the Northwestern Atlantic in the Ninth Century," is being completed under the direction of History Department Chair Prof. Thomas F.X. Noble. Posted December 2008

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AHA’s Marraro Prize to Meserve

Margaret Meserve, Carl E. Koch Assistant Professor of History, has won the American Historical Association's Helen & Howard R. Marraro Prize, which recognizes the best book or article on Italy, for Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought.

The book, recently released by Harvard University Press, surveys how fifteenth-century historians and political commentators tried to explain the rise and fall of Islamic empires. Drawing on political oratory, diplomatic correspondence, crusade propaganda, and historical treatises, Meserve demonstrates how research into the origins of Islamic empires arose from and contributed to debates over the threat of Islamic expansion in the Mediterranean. Her book offers insights into Renaissance humanist scholarship and the long-standing European debates about the relationship between Islam and Christianity.

Meserve, a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 2003, specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance. She earned her bachelor's degree in classics from Harvard and both her master's and doctoral degrees from the Warburg Institute of the University of London. She has published articles on anti-Turkish polemics in the Renaissance, European knowledge of Asia in the centuries after Marco Polo, and the printing of crusade propaganda and news reports from the Orient. Two volumes of her translation of the crusading Pope Pius II's autobiographical commentaries have been published by Harvard University Press. Posted December 2008

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Coleman Curates Italian Art Exhibit

Associate Professor of Art History and Director of the Ambrosiana Drawings Project for the Medieval Institute, Robert Randolf Coleman, is the co-curator of The Art of the Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art, an exhibition on display at the Notre Dame Snite Museum of Art from January 11 until March 1, 2009. These prints and drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art and the Giuliano Ceseri Collection provide rare insight into the training, working habits, and creative process of artists. For Italian artists of this era, the art of drawing was regarded as an intellectual as well as a practical activity, and the images found in this exhibition represent examples of the most fertile and inspired artistic creations found on paper during this period resent examples of the most fertile and inspired artistic creations found on paper during this period. The exhibition includes prints by some of the finest Italian printmakers, such as Parmigianino and Marcantonio Raimondi, and later examples by major figures such as Pietro Testa and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Babette Bohn, Professor of Art History at Texas Christian University, is co-curating the exhibition with Prof. Coleman, and the in-house coordinator is Giancarlo Fiorenza, former Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the Georgia Museum of Art. Posted December 2008

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MI Graduate Student Awarded Fellowship

Marcela K. Perett, a Ph.D. candidate in the Medieval Institute, is the winner of an Edward Sorin Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Notre Dame, beginning July 1, 2009. The Graduate School and the College of Arts and Letters jointly sponsor the program for Notre Dame Ph.D. graduates. This program provides two years of support for new scholars to demonstrate research productivity and develop teaching experience before they compete in the academic job market. Perett's dissertation, entitled "John Hus, Hussite Communities and the Rhetoric of Reform," is being completed under the direction of Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History John Van Engen. Posted December 2008

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Constable Appointed Acting Director; Noble New History Chairperson

Olivia Remie Constable, Professor of History, was appointed as Acting Director of the Medieval Institute on July 1. She focuses on the economic, social, and urban history of the medieval Mediterranean world, especially contacts among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in this region. Her publications include Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500 (Cambridge University Press, 1994) which won the John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of America; Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997); and Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2003). A forthcoming project entitled "Muslims in Medieval Europe" will examine relations between Christians and Muslims in thirteenth-century southern Europe and is funded by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1992, before coming to the University of Notre Dame, Remie won the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Teaching Award for Junior Faculty at Columbia University. She has served as director of graduate studies in the History Department and on the Advisory Committee of the Medieval Institute.

Thomas F. X. Noble, Professor of History, became chairperson of the Department of History on July 1. He is a recognized scholar of the Carolingian world and of early medieval Rome and the papacy. His most recent book Images and the Carolingians: Tradition, Order, and Worship is forthcoming from the University of Pennsylvania Press; his coedited volume, Early Medieval Christianities, 600-1100, Volume 3 of the Cambridge History of Christianity, will appear later this year; and his volume of translations, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Five Lives, will appear next year from Penn State University Press. The 5th edition of his coauthored textbook, Western Civilization, appeared last year. Noble is on the editorial board of Speculum, the leading journal in medieval history, and he is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. He has received two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships. This past year he received Notre Dame's Joyce Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. As the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute for the past eight years, Noble has worked closely with graduate students and advanced the intellectual program of the Institute, particularly its expansion into the Arabic and Byzantine worlds. He also led dramatic changes in the undergraduate program in medieval studies, increasing its size over the past three years from 5 undergraduate minors to 22 majors, 5 supplementary majors, and 29 minors.

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We're Blogging!

The Medieval Institute started a blog at the end of May 2008 for current and past students, faculty, and visitors. To read the posts and comments, go to: http://ndmedinst.blogspot.com/.

An important feature of life at the Medieval Institute is the social network of on-campus medievalists, approximately 50 faculty engaged in research or teaching on the Middle Ages and 80 to 90 graduate students in the Medieval Institute and scattered through other academic departments. The blog is our on-line effort to make our community available to others and stay in contact with the hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of medievalists throughout the world who have come to Notre Dame to study, teach, or do research.

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A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Medieval Studies 2008-09

We are pleased to announce Susan J. Dudash as our A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Medieval Studies for the 2008-09 academic year.

Dr. Dudash comes to us from Fordham University where she is Assistant Professor of French and Medieval Studies.

She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh as a student of Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. Dudash studies medieval French literature and politics; social and religious conflict; women; and the art of war. A brief list of her publications include: "Christine de Pizan and the 'menu peuple'," Speculum (2003); "Eustache Deschamps: poète et commentateur politique," in Les "Dictez vertueulx " d'Eustache Deschamps: Forme poétique et discours engagé à la fin du Moyen Age, eds. M. Lacassagne and T. Lassabatère (2005); "Christinian Politics, the Tavern, and Urban Revolt in Late Medieval France," in Healing the Body Politic: The Political Thought of Christine de Pizan, eds. K. Green and C. J. Mews (2005). Her primary research project at Notre Dame will be a book-length study, Giving Voice to the People: Poetic and Theological Responses to Social Class Conflict in Medieval France, 1270-1422. She is also working on articles on the politics of commemoration in the works of Eustache Deschamps and Christine de Pizan and the vices and social class in late medieval France.

On April 4, 2009, Prof. Dudash will hold a seminar presenting her work-in-progress along with critical responses from three senior scholars.

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Visiting Scholars at the Medieval Institute

Each year, the Medieval Institute hosts scholars from around the world who wish to use the resources of its library collection and participate in the activities of its academic community. We welcome these individuals to participate in the life of the Institute and make every effort to connect them with local scholars who share their interests.

In 2008-09, two Fulbright Scholars will be part of the Medieval Institute. They are:

Robert Bubczyk, Maria Curie Sklodowska University (Poland), fall semester
Rubén Peretó Rivas, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina), spring semester

Roberto Vinco, will be in residence as a Visiting Scholar from the University of Tübingen (Germany) on a Fritz-Thyssen Foundation fellowship for four months in the fall and winter.

In academic year 2007-08, we hosted a number of research visitors, visiting scholars, visiting professors, and postdoctoral fellows. Some held appointments within the Institute and others had informal affiliations. We seek opportunities to encourage research in the field of medieval studies by facilitating the work of visiting students and faculty.

The Medieval Institute welcomed the following visitors in 2007-08:

Sander de Boer, SIEPM Fellow, Radboud University (Netherlands), Research Visitor
Aaron Canty, Saint Xavier University, Visiting Scholar
Cristina Maria Cervone, 2007-08 Medieval Institute Mellon Fellow, Villanova University, Visiting Scholar
William Courteney, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Visiting Scholar
Michael Eisenberg, Ambrosiana Research Visitor
Rev. James Farge, Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Tooronto, Visiting Scholar
Rev. John Fortin, Saint Anselm College, Visiting Scholar
Fr. Saad Sirop Hanna, Babel University (Iraq) and Pontificio Collegio Russicum (Rome), Research Visitor
Eldbjørg Haug, University of Bergen (Norway), Visiting Scholar
Thierry Kouamé, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Visiting Scholar
Warren Lewis, Martin University, Visiting Scholar
Frank A.C. Mantello, Catholic University of American, Visiting Professor
Robert Meyer-Lee, Goshen College, Visiting Scholar
Owen Phelan, Mt. Saint Mary’s University and Seminary, Visiting Scholar
Riccardo Quinto, University of Padua (Italy), Visiting Scholar
Bro. Thomas Sullivan, Conception Seminary College, Visiting Scholar
E. Gordon Whatley, Queens College, CUNY, Ambrosiana Researcher Scholar

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Summary of the 2006-07 Academic Year

During the academic year 2006-07, the Medieval Institute concentrated on continued expansion of and quality within its undergraduate program. In Spring 2005, the Institute graduated 5 minors and 2 supplementary majors. At the conclusion of Spring 2007 the Institute has 3 honors majors, 13 first majors, 3 supplementary majors, and 28 minors declared in its medieval studies program. The new introductory course for majors and minors, "The World of the Middle Ages," was fully subscribed in both the fall and spring semesters. Social/academic functions offered for undergraduates ranged from declamations of Old English poetry to displays of Medieval Institute facsimiles and manuscripts--accompanied by refreshments.

The graduate student body remains stable with about 25 individuals in any given year. Our students were active in presenting conference papers and either published, or had accepted for publication, 5 articles in a variety of venues including 2 top-line journals. Several of our students also won external prizes and fellowship awards to assist their research. Five of our graduate students completed foreign research this year and about 25% of our undergraduates studied abroad or will do so this year. Both of the year's Ph.D. graduates found tenure track positions.

The Institute hosted a major conference on the twelfth century in Fall 2006 and brought together 20 eminent scholars from around the world for 3 days of papers and discussion. The proceedings are to be published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Other lectures and seminars during the year were delivered by an internationally diverse group of visiting researchers. Most of these visitors conducted follow-up seminars for our graduate students and we encouraged participation in these events from student medievalists in other departments.

Faculty made good use of our new seminar room for their classes and visiting scholars found the newly established research area with its computers, scanner, and microfilm reader a welcome addition to the library and Institute resources available to them.

The Milton Anastos Collection in Byzantine Studies was moved to the seventh floor of the library and now shares close proximity to our holdings on the Latin West and the reference materials in the reading room. The entire seventh floor collection of medieval studies materials has been successfully pruned of duplicates and outdated editions and physically resituated to allow for growth in the coming years.

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Summary of the 2005-06 Academic Year

In 2005-06, the Medieval Institute hosted three symposia. The first was held July 22-23, 2005 on "Umayyad Legacies" and organized by Prof. Paul Cobb as the American counterpart to a topical dialogue begun by an interdisciplinary group of international scholars in Damascus. On February 3-4, 2006, Prof. Charles Barber and Dr. David Jenkins of the University Libraries presented the Second Biennial Workshop in Byzantine Intellectual History on the topic: "The Medieval Greek Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics," and attracted scholars from Greece, Germany, Denmark, England, and the U.S. On April 29, 2006, the Medieval Institute hosted a symposium organized by this year's Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Susanne Hafner, Assistant Professor for Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The symposium discussed Prof. Hafner's research on "Vergilian Masculinities: Medieval Readings of the Aeneid." The three invited panelists were senior scholars from various subdisciplines in medieval studies: Prof. Ingrid Bennewitz from the University of Bamberg, Germany; Prof. Simon Gaunt from King's College, London, and UCLA Prof. Christopher Baswell.

On September 26, 29 and October 3 Prof. Calvin Bower delivered the 2005 Conway Lectures. The topic was "Grasping the Wind: Words for Melodies in South-German Liturgical Music, 800-1200." As part of our on-going lecture series, in the Fall semester, we invited Prof. Nicholas Howe (University of California, Berkeley) and Fr. Gilles Mongeau, SJ (Regis College, Canada) as speakers. In the Spring Dr. Isabelle Moulin (Paris-Chicago), Fr. Gilles Emery, OP (Fribourg University, Switzerland), and Prof. em. Otto-Hermann Pesch (University of Hamburg-München) presented their research. Each of these scholars gave a lecture and most met for a seminar with our graduate students.

The strength of the graduate program at the Medieval Institute was evidenced by the success of our doctoral students. James Kriesel won a Fulbright Fellowship and an Albert Ravino Italian Studies Travel Scholarship, which will allow him to study for one year in Italy. Andrew Irving won an Exchange Fellowship from the Newberry Library in Chicago, cooperating with the École des Chartes in Paris; he was also awarded an Albert Ravino Italian Studies Travel Scholarship and a Mellon Fellowship from the Vatican Film Library at St. Louis. Courtney Luckhardt earned the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Kaneb Center. Miranda Wilcox won a Sorin Teaching Fellowship from Notre Dame for 2006-2007. She has also accepted a tenure track position at Brigham Young University, which will start in the Fall of 2007.

Our newly appointed Director of Undergraduate Studies, Linda Major, oversaw the revamping of our undergraduate curriculum and the addition of an honors track. New marketing materials were created and distributed through one-on-one contacts and new outreach channels used to make students aware of our program. The size of the undergraduate population interested in medieval studies is growing and the number of majors is increasing as well. A new course, "The World of the Middle Ages," will be offered in Fall 2006 as an introduction to medieval studies and an incentive for further study in the area.

A critical shortage of shelf space for the Institute's library collection was resolved by redistributing general works not specific to the Middle Ages to more appropriate locations. This restructuring will make it possible to house the Miltos Anastos Collection in Byzantine Studies on the 7th floor of the library, along with the rest of the MI collection.

Thanks to a generous bequest from Canon Astrik Gabriel, former director of the Medieval Institute, who passed away on May 16, 2005, the Institute will be able to offer a postdoctoral fellowship devoted to the study of medieval education and university life. With help from the Canon's estate and from the Graduate School, Prof. Gabriel's former office suite has been converted into a new seminar room, while the old seminar room has been converted into a study area for researchers using the various micro-format resources of the Medieval Institute and the scholarly "Nachlass" (personal papers) of the Canon. The new research room will allow scholars to work in close proximity to the reference materials kept in the paleography room and the main reading room of the Medieval Institute Library, as well as within easy reach of the Ambrosiana manuscript and photo archive.

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Summary of the 2004-05 Academic Year

On the weekend of September 16-19, 2004, twenty-five scholars from the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Israel gathered for a conference on "Early Medieval Christianity, 600-1000." The papers will be published by the Cambridge University Press in 2006 as Vol. 3 of the Cambridge History of Christianity. Institute Director Thomas Noble is coeditor of the volume, along with Julia M.H. Smith of the University of St. Andrews.

The fall semester continued with another distinguished visitor, Rosamond McKitterick of Cambridge University. "Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages" was the theme for her 2004 Conway Lectures on September 21, 23, and 28.

The year's regular lecture-seminars brought us Andy Orchard (Old English, Toronto), Brian Shanley, O.P. (Philosophy, Catholic University), Ruth Karras (History, Minnesota), Danuta Shanzer (Classics, Illinois), and Paul Saenger (Manuscript Studies, Newberry Library).

On March 3-5, 2005 more than sixty graduate students in medieval studies gathered at Notre Dame for the annual Vagantes conference. This is a prestigious and highly selective graduate student conference, originally begun through a collaboration among students at Cornell, Harvard, Toronto, and Yale. In 2003, Notre Dame's students joined their peers in this organization and hosted the conference for the first time in 2005 with great success.

Three distinguished senior scholars, Caroline Bruzelius, Barbara Newman, and Martha Newman, joined Notre Dame's fourth Mellon Fellow Anne Lester (Assistant Professor of History at the University of Colorado and a Princeton Ph.D. graduate) for a discussion of women's religious communities in high medieval France.

The Medieval Institute hosted its second Skaggs Fellow in Medieval Architectural History. Caroline Goodson, a recent Columbia Ph.D., worked on the Ambrosiana drawing project and taught a course in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. In collaboration with three European centers, the Institute created a one-semester postdoctoral fellowship through the Société internationale des études de philosophie médiévale and welcomed the first recipient of this honor, Alessandro Palazzo. During the year, the intellectual life of the Institute was much enriched by the presence of a bevy of young international scholars representing the University of Amsterdam, the University of Siena, Central European University, and the University of Gröningen.

Three of our graduate students won prestigious awards: a D.A.A.D. Fellowship for dissertation research in Germany, the Leonard Boyle Dissertation Prize offered by the Canadian Society of Medievalists, and the Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award of the American Library Association.

Together with generous support from the Graduate School, the Department of History, the University Library, and Professor Sabine MacCormack, the Medieval Institute purchased ten facsimiles of the spectacular illuminated manuscripts of the Apocalypse Commentary of Beatus of Liebaña. We believe this to be the largest collection of Beatus materials in the world.

Thanks to the generosity of Trustee and long-time supporter of the Institute, Robert Conway, Notre Dame will send three faculty medievalists to Oxford each summer for the next three years for an all-expense-paid research visit of one week's duration.

The strength of the Medieval Institute's program was acknowledged in the external review conducted in October. Plans for increasing the visibility and presence of our undergraduate program have been encouraged by the College of Arts and Letters in the practical form of a staff appointment as half-time director of undergraduate studies, which will begin in Fall 2005.

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Summary of the 2003-04 Academic Year

The year 2003-04 began with the Conway Lectures delivered by Professor Paul Strohm of Columbia University. The book arising from those lectures is now in press. The year continued with the lecture-graduate seminar series, which brought to campus Drew Jones, Maureen Miller, Margaret Mullett, Michael Allen, David Luscombe, and James Hankins. The second biennial Byzantine Intellectual History Seminar brought togther scholars who discussed the writings of Michael Psellus.

The MI's Mellon Symposium addressed gift-exchange in the early Middle Ages. The 2003-04 Mellon Fellow Florin Curta (University of Florida) shared his work on the subject with panelists Gerd Althoff, Richard Hodges, and Piotr Gorecki, who offered detailed responses and consultation on the manuscript.

The Institute's first Skaggs Fellow in Medieval Architecture, Paolo Sanvito, spent his year-in-residence working on the catalogue of drawings that form a significant portion of the Ambrosiana Collection held by Notre Dame. The Skaggs Fellowship, supplemented by the Department of Art History, covered a research/teaching appointment for the academic year. Eleven scholars visited the Institute on Ambrosiana Stipends to work in the microfilm collections.

The Institute's 2004 summer program in Latin and paleography brought two CARA scholarship students to Notre Dame. The revived "Publications in Medieval Studies" series sent two books, by David Foote and Felice Lifshitz, to press.

Internally, the MI completed a review and revision of its graduate curriculum. The administrative functions of the office were revamped with the creation of the new position of assistant director, in order to support the increase in visiting scholars, special events, and overall academic activities of the Institute.

Not least among its achievements, the Institute placed five students in tenure-track jobs (at Ohio State, St. Thomas-New Brunswick, Texas-Arlington, Louisiana-Monroe, and Hillsdale College) and two students in post-doctoral fellowships (at Trinity College-Dublin and the University of British Columbia). One of the Institute's students published an article in Speculum and another in the American Historical Review. Another student won a Liebmann Fellowship to support three years of dissertation work.

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Summary of the 2002-03 Academic Year

The Institute inaugurated the Conway Lectures in 2002-03 with three lectures by Rev. Prof. Dr. Ulrich Horst, O.P. in September 2002. As usual, the Institute welcomed a distinguished roster of guest lecturers, among them: Anthony Spearing, Roy Liuzza, Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Bernard McGinn, Lawrence Nees, C. Stephen Jaeger, Richard Pfaff, Pere Pierre-Marie Gy, Wout van Bekkum, and John Williams.

The Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale moved to the University of Notre Dame under the Institute's sponsorship and with assistance from the College of Arts and Letters.

The Institute co-hosted a conference on "Manuscripts and Libraries in the Carolingian World" at the Villa Barberini in Rome and convened its second Mellon Symposium in May 2003, highlighting the work of its Mellon Fellow, Professor Deborah McGrady of Tulane University.

The Dutch Exchange Program allowed scholars from the University of Groningen to visit Notre Dame, use the Medieval Institute's library collection and confer with faculty here on collaborative projects. Likewise, one of our doctoral candidates travelled to Utrecht to examine manuscripts and consult with scholars in Holland.

The visit of Msgr. Cesare Pasini, Vice-Prefect of the Ambrosiana Library, Milan, furthered the planning process for a cataloguing project that will involve ND students and faculty as well as faculty from the Sacro Cuore University in Milan. As part of its ongoing Ambrosiana fellowship program, the Institute provided one-time stipends to five scholars who came to South Bend in order to consult our Ambrosiana microfilm collection of manuscripts.

Graduate students received university-wide teaching (two Kaneb Outstanding TA Awards) and research awards (Best Dissertation in History and an article prize from the ND history department) and had articles accepted for publication in major journals (Speculum and Anglo-Saxon England). Seven students delivered a total of ten papers at four different conferences. Another was awarded a Dissertation Fellowship by the Medieval Academy of America. Recent graduates received tenure-track positions at Xavier University and the University of Alabama.

Six new doctoral students were accepted into the program, bringing the total to twenty-five. The Institute graduated 2 Ph.D., 7 M.M.S., and 3 B.A. students.

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Summary of the 2001-02 Academic Year

The Institute's affiliated faculty continued their tradition of award-winning teaching and research. The Institute's director, Thomas Noble, was elected to the Board of S.I.S.M.E.L (theSocieta Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino) in Italy. Maureen Boulton, Professor of French, shared with Ruth J. Dean the Prix Chavée, awarded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of France, for their recent bookAnglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts (Anglo-Norman Texts Society, 1999). Calvin Bower, Professor of Music and Medieval Studies, a specialist in medieval musicology, has been elected to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. John Van Engen of the History department was appointed a visiting professor of history at Harvard University for Fall, 2002, while Paul Cobb and Kathleen Biddick, also of the History department, each won major grants: Cobb an NEH grant and a Fulbright fellowship in support of a project entitled "The Lords of Shayzar: An Arab Family in the Age of Crusades," Biddick a Fulbright to Ireland for a project entitled "Thinking About History in a Digital World."

Our graduate students and recent Ph.D.s also continued to play their customary role in the Institute's success. Four Institute students defended dissertations in the 2001-02 academic year under the direction of Institute faculty, and among the Institute's recent graduates are now the winners of postdoctoral scholarships and tenure-track faculty positions at major universities, as well as the winner of Notre Dame's Shaheen award for excellence in teaching and research, the winner of the Medieval Academy of America's Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize, and the winner of an ACLS fellowship. The current graduate students can also point to a similar record of success -- among their number are the winner of an ACLS dissertation fellowship and the winner of both a Fulbright and a D.A.A.D scholarship. For more information, see the Graduate Students and Alumni/ae page.

The Institute also hosted a large family of visitors from the U.S. and around the world who pursued their research interests across a wide range of disciplines. Alice J. Sheppard (BA, Oxford; MA, Oxford; MA, Cornell; PhD, Cornell), joined us from Pennsylvania State University, where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, as our Mellon Visiting Fellow in Medieval Studies. During her fellowship year, Dr. Sheppard completed a book-length study of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle,Families of the King: Authority and Power in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Other visitors included Sister Francis J. Legrand, a member of the Augustinian Canonesses of the Congregation of Windesheim in Belgium, who pursued her research on late medieval devotional texts and led an extracurricular seminar for graduate students in the literature of theDevotio Moderna; Michael Bailey, a recent Ph.D. from Northwestern University who completed the manuscript ofBattling Demons: Witchcraft Heresy, and Reform in the Later Middle Ages(forthcoming from Penn State Press), and David S. Bachrach, a Notre Dame Ph.D. who worked at the Institute on revising for publication his dissertation, "Priests at War and Soldiers at Prayer: A History of Military Religion from theConcilium Germanicum(742) to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215)," now under contract from Boydell Press.

This community of faculty, students and guests of the Institute enjoyed a year of lively participation in our lectures and conferences. In November, the late Donald Bullough of the University of St. Andrews gave us his reflections of "Twenty Five Years of Alcuin," while Robert Rodes of the Notre Dame Law School lectured on "Medieval English Legal Materials." Fall conferences sponsored by the Institute included a discussion of "Medieval Manuscripts at Notre Dame," a symposium on medieval Arabic historiography, and a conference on "The Law of Nature." Notre Dame also hosted in November the 27th annual Byzantine Studies Conference. In February, the Institute graduate students brought to us David Nirenberg, Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of the Humanities in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Nirenberg gave a series of seminars and a lecture entitled "From Mass Conversion to Inquisition in Medieval Spain." In April, the Institute co-sponsored with Romance Languages a lecture by Michel Zink, Chair in the Literatures of Medieval France at the Collège de France, entitled "Le Poète et le prophète dans la littérature médiévale." In the Spring Notre Dame also hosted the annual conference of the Celtic Studies association of North America, and co-sponsored a conference on "Eriugena, Berkeley and the Idealist Tradition" at the Keough-University of Notre Dame center in Dublin, Ireland.

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