We are sad to report the passing of Jo Ann McNamara, professor emirita of State University of New York. Her son Edmund Clingan wrote an email that she fell ill earlier this month, and was removed from life support on May 20th.
Born in 1931, Professor McNamara was highly regarded as a medieval scholar specializing in medieval women and the monastic community. Her works include:
Sisters in arms: Catholic nuns through two millennia
The ordeal of community
Sainted Women of the Dark Ages
A new song : celibate women in the first three Christian centuries
The life of Yvette of Huy - translation
Theresa Earenfight, President of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship commented that "her life and work were so important to all medievalists and feminists and she will be very much mourned and missed by us all."
The Department of History at Hunter College plans to have a memorial service for their former colleague in the fall.
