Daniel Hobbins joins the University of Notre Dame

Associate Professor Daniel Hobbins’s arrival at the University of Notre Dame this fall is a homecoming of sorts.

 A cultural and intellectual historian of the late middle ages, Hobbins received his Ph.D. in medieval history from Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute in 2002 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University in 2004.

 Most recently an associate professor of history at The Ohio State University, Hobbins says his reasons for wanting to return to Notre Dame were both personal and professional. One of the most important factors, he says, is the University’s commitment to medieval studies.

 “Notre Dame has a very, very strong program,” Hobbins says. “It’s a great place to be a medievalist.”

Click here to read this article from the University of Notre Dame

Margot Fassler wins 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize

Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, was awarded the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize for her book The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts.

The prize was announced on Friday at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. Her book examines the history of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, drawing on local histories, letters, obituaries, chants, liturgical sources, and reports of miracles to explore the cult of the Virgin of Chartres and its development in the 11th and 12th centuries. The book explores how the past was made in the central Middle Ages and argues for an understanding of the liturgical framework of time.

“It was especially meaningful to win this prestigious award in 2012,” Fassler says, “because I am the third Notre Dame faculty member in a row to win, joining my colleagues John Van Engen and Thomas Noble— all three of us fellows of Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute.”

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Notre Dame: Grad students study ancient texts

Over Spring Break, 10 Notre Dame graduate students enrolled in a classics seminar taught by Professor Martin Bloomer gained hands-on experience with ancient texts and manuscripts at the Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy.

The class, composed of students from the classics, literature and history departments as well as the Medieval Institute, joined students from Loyola University Chicago and the University of Wisconsin to tour the world-renowned library and examine the texts.

Bloomer said the seminar examines how ancient texts are transmitted.“When we study classical texts in introductory classes, we study them as if they had been printed once by someone in, say, the 4th century,” Bloomer said. “The fact is, however, that we are actually reading copies of copies of copies of the original texts.”

By focusing on the editorial process, Bloomer said scholars can gain insight into interpreting the manuscripts. “Any editor of these texts is making decisions about what to include, which is shown in the text’s physical properties, like commentary notes in the margin,” he said. “In my seminar, we were looking at all these processes by which a text is reprocessed and interpreted.”

Click here to read this article from The Observer

Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame Expands Research Resources

In preserving and developing the intellectual and literary traditions of the Greco-Roman world, in fashioning eastern orthodox Christianity, and in defining the notion of a Christian empire that was a center of intellectual and commercial trade, the Byzantine Empire was one of the great formative cultures in European history.

Although its rule ended in 1453 C.E., Byzantium’s influence was far from over, and the University’s Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame initiative continues to explore this influential period in medieval history.

Faculty and student research into this area of inquiry will also now benefit from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Reading Room for Byzantine Studies, located on the seventh floor of the University’s Hesburgh Libraries. The February 2012 dedication was attended by Greek Orthodox Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos from Chicago, Consul of Greece Ioanna Efthymiadou, and Stelios Vasilakis, a representative of the Niarchos Foundation.

“The inauguration of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Reading Room not only provides an appropriate home for one of the great research collections in this field of study, it also firmly embeds Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame within the Medieval Institute, the crown jewel of humanities research here at the University,” says Charles Barber, professor of medieval art history and Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame scholar.

Click here to read this article from the University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame announces first chair in Byzantine Studies

The University of Notre Dame has established an endowed chair in Byzantine Theology. The position, which will focus on the theology of the medieval Greek-speaking church, will be named in honor of Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of America.

The Archbishop Demetrios Professorship in Byzantine Theology is a central component of the University’s efforts to expand the scope of its renowned Medieval Institute — which was the first of its kind in the United States — to include teaching and research on the Eastern Roman Empire. The chairholder will be a member of the Department of Theology, as well as of the Medieval Institute. The Department, which includes more than 50 full-time faculty members, is known throughout the English-speaking world for its strength in a variety of fields, especially patristic and medieval theology.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Book – Richard Rolle and His Readers: Defining the Literary in the Fifteenth Century – receives fellowship

Katherine Zieman, an assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, has been awarded a National Humanities Center Fellowship for work on her next book, “Richard Rolle and His Readers: Defining the Literary in the Fifteenth Century.” She is one of just 36 fellows selected to spend the 2010-11 academic year working at the North Carolina-based center.

“My year at the center allows me to devote my full attention to this project—and offers the opportunity to converse with other scholars in the humanities in different periods and disciplines who share my interests,” Zieman says.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Conference aims to bring medieval, early modern and Latin American historians together

An interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Notre Dame this fall is making a final call for papers to explore the issue surrounding similarities between late-medieval Iberia and its colonies in the New World. “From Iberian Kingdoms to Atlantic Empires: Spain, Portugal, and the New World, 1250-1700” is being hosted by the university's Nanovic Institute for European Studies and will take place on September 17-18, 2010.

The conference organizers hope that their interdisciplinary theme will lead to better co-operation and research between historians of different periods. John Moscatiello, chair of the conference planning committee, said, “The committee settled on this topic right away because we feel strongly that medievalists, early modernists, and Latin Americanists must coordinate their teaching and research programs.  Right now, these groups tend to conduct their research in relative isolation from one another, even though scholars have long suggested important links between late medieval Spain and the New World.  Part of the problem is built into the structure of universities themselves because graduate students are trained in either medieval studies or Latin American studies with little reference to the other field.  The result is that the current historiography has not provided the specific contours of what a comparative, global history of late medieval and early modern Iberia might look like.  What are the methodological pitfalls of integrating medieval and Latin American historical research?  What are the best sources for deeply comparative work?  How do we periodize Iberian history in a global context?  Or, conversely, are such comparisons overdrawn and not worthwhile? This conference hopes to be one step in the direction of answering these questions and bringing these disparate fields into a meaningful dialogue.

“Here at Notre Dame, there has been a dramatic series of transformations in both our medieval Iberian and Latin American programs. For the first time ever, the Medieval Institute is under the leadership a specialist in medieval Iberian history, Remie Constable, who is busy overseeing the expansion of our programs in Byzantine and Islamic studies. Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez, a professor of medieval Spanish literature, now serves as a dean in the College of Arts and Letters and Sabine MacCormack has been a tireless and highly effective advocate of developing the program in Latin American studies.  Our undergraduate students are enrolled in Quechua courses and have drawn from the resources of the Nanovic and Kellogg Institutes to conduct original research in Europe and Latin America.”

The conference organizers also have announced that the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies will be publishing a special issue of the conference proceedings in 2012 which will include six to eight articles that originate from this conference. John Moscatiello adds that the journal's editors “have been enthusiastic about the conference from the outset because they are committed to bringing medievalists, early modernists, and Latin Americanists into meaningful dialogue with one another.  In fact, the recent obituaries for convivencia and Reconquista that have appeared in the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies (and other journals) have further underscored how unreliable these categories have become for our research programs.  The future of medieval Iberian history, like the future of medieval studies in general, will have to be comparative and global in its orientation and will have to push medievalists out of their comfort zones”

The final day to submit a proposal for a paper is May 1st. You are asked to email an abstract of 250 words, a cover letter, and a curriculum vitae to Iberia.conference@gmail.com. For more information about the conference, please go to http://iberiaconference.eventbrite.com/

See also our earlier article: From Iberian Kingdoms to Atlantic Empires: Spain, Portugal, and the New World, 1250-1700

See also our Interview with Olivia Remie Constable

The Newberry Library and the University of Notre Dame acquire rare fourteenth-century book

Chicago's Newberry Library and the University of Notre Dame recently jointly acquired an unusual early fourteenth-century codex originating in southern France that contains a collection of 38 scholastic texts, only two of which have been edited in modern critical editions and the rest of which have never been printed. All those that have been identified to date are Franciscan. The most noteworthy author included is Peter John Olivi, represented by two elements of his Principia in sacram scripturam, a text subsequently condemned by the Inquisition.

Olivi, born near Béziers and trained at the University of Paris, was a leader of the Spiritual Franciscans, whose absolute belief in apostolic poverty led Olivi’s writings to be condemned a year after his death in 1298. In 1299, a Chapter General of the Franciscan Order ordered his writings to be burned.

“More than 100 manuscripts containing his works are reported to have been destroyed, and consequently surviving manuscripts are exceedingly rare,” said Paul Saenger, the Newberry Library’s George A. Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Collection Development Librarian. “This is the sole known codex originating from Languedoc, where Olivi taught at the University of Montpellier and at Nîmes. Ultimately, however, the value to scholarship of this manuscript may lie in its unidentified and unedited content.

The codex complements the Newberry Library’s rich collections of Hebrew, Greek and Latin bibles, which is the most comprehensive assemblage of manuscript and printed biblical texts in the Midwest. This copy appears to have been preserved in a Dominican library.

“Because the Dominicans often administered the Inquisition, it was necessary for them to have copies of condemned texts so that they could refute them,” Saenger explained.

Since 1995, the Newberry Library has partnered with Midwestern universities and colleges to purchase more than 25 rare medieval manuscripts and printed books that otherwise would not be available to local scholars and residents. The Newberry Library created the joint-ownership program in order to bring more original source material to the Midwest.

The materials typically spend eight months of the year at the Newberry and up to four months of the year with the participating institution. In addition to Notre Dame, seven other universities or colleges in the region participate in the program, including DePaul University; Loyola University Chicago; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; University of Minnesota; Spertus College; Tulane University; and Western Michigan University.

Other examples of joint acquisitions include:

- A processional from Portugal, ca. 1300 (Newberry Library and Western Michigan University);

- A 15th century code of regulations for monks attributed to Saint Jerome (Newberry Library and DePaul University);

- A bilingual English-Hebrew psalter printed in Utrecht in the 17th century (Newberry Library and Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies); and

- A Burgundian roll dating from about 1467 containing a major genealogical diagram (Newberry Library and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Source: Newberry Library

Notre Dame promotes its London Program

The University of Notre Dame is promoting its London Program as a hub of international scholarship, with much of the work taking place there related to medieval studies. As well as being a home for undergraduate students studying abroad, the London Centre, located in Trafalgar Square, will be hosting several conferences that will be of interest to medievalists.

This year, the center is launching a seminar series on global history in collaboration with the University of London’s renowned Institute for Historical Research, planning the first of three conferences sponsored by the Medieval Institute, and co-sponsoring a conference with the University of Cambridge, the University of Paris-Diderot and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on “Shakespeare and the Middle Ages.” That conference in late June—one day at the center, one at the Globe—brings scholars together to hear papers across the fields of Shakespeare and medieval studies, explains Peter Holland, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre.

Other events this year include the first annual lecture co-sponsored with Chawton House Library of British Women Writers with Anne Mellor speaking on “The Female Elegy,” a conference organized by Notre Dame faculty on “Renaissance Visions of Christian Origins,” and a conference co-sponsored with Edinburgh University Press on Virginia Woolf. Next year’s schedule includes a conference co-sponsored with Birbeck College, University of London, on “Religious Martyrdom and Terrorism” and a conference organized by Notre Dame faculty on “Religion and Literature.”

Along with regular poetry readings, concerts and book launches, the center has also in the last two years hosted a conference on “European Identities” sponsored by the Nanovic Institute, co-hosted a conference with the London-based University of the Arts on artist Meredith Monk, co-sponsored a seminar with St. John’s University on English poetry, and hosted a conference, organized by Notre Dame faculty member Dennis Doordan and linked with the Victoria & Albert Museum, on British architect Eric Gill.

“In our new global era, first-rate universities must develop and establish a vibrant global presence,” says Greg Kucich, who became director of the London undergraduate program nearly two years ago. “Notre Dame’s goal to rank among elite universities as a premier Catholic research and teaching institution involves positioning itself as a distinguished global university. The London Program plays a leading role in this mission as an outstanding center that promotes Notre Dame’s international prestige, particularly through its rapidly developing scholarly dimension.”

Kucich also launched a new symposium last year, titled the University of Notre Dame London Symposium, that brings together Notre Dame faculty with European scholars. The last two symposia have focused on “Cosmopolitanism and Religious Diversity” and “Irish London: Print, Politics and Performance in the Long Nineteenth Century.” A Notre Dame alumni-student lecture series has featured James Turk on “Gold and the Collapse of the Dollar” and Stryker McGuire on “The Crisis in International Journalism.”

Each event, Kucich says, draws another wave of interest from scholars interested in collaborating with Notre Dame, as European universities push to strengthen their international connections. Kucich also is working to raise the profile on the Notre Dame campus for the scholarly side of the London Program, which has been known for decades as a premier study-abroad program for undergraduates.

“The significant overall benefit of these combined priorities,” he says, “is to give Notre Dame—on undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels—a markedly heightened standing in the world of international academic life.”

Source: University of Notre Dame

From Iberian Kingdoms to Atlantic Empires: Spain, Portugal, and the New World, 1250-1700

Call for Papers: The Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame announces an interdisciplinary, international conference on the history and literature of the Iberian empires from the High Middle Ages through the conquest of the New World. Although many scholars have acknowledged similarities between late-medieval Iberia and its colonies in the New World, few have offered precise answers to the questions that arise from these similarities. What is the relationship, for example, between “inquisition” in a medieval context and in the New World? Is it meaningful to compare minority Muslim communities in fifteenth-century Spain to indigenous peoples in the New World? How were the legal and political instruments of late medieval kings foundational for early modern Europe and Latin America? This conference encourages new ways of approaching the topic, based on the conviction that medievalists, early modernists, and Latin Americanists can make meaningful contributions to each other’s fields.

Panels will likely include the following topics:

• Medieval and early modern Inquisition
• Global exploration and conquest
• Law, politics, and administration
• Language, literature, and translation
• Race, minority populations, and identity
• Evangelization, “Christianization,” and conversion

The conference will take place at McKenna Hall at the University of Notre Dame on Friday, September 17 and Saturday, September 18, 2010. Papers from history and literature departments are welcome. Contributions from graduate students are especially welcomed and a prize of $200 will be awarded to the best graduate student paper as determined by a faculty panel. The authors of all accepted papers will be fully compensated for one night’s lodging and will be provided with a travel subvention of up to $100. All contributions should be sent to John Moscatiello, Chair of the Conference Committee, at Iberia.conference@gmail.com by May 1, 2010 and include an abstract of 250 words (for a twenty-minute presentation), a cover letter, and a curriculum vitae.

Featured speakers:

• Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame
• Paul Freedman, Yale University
• Michael Gerli, University of Virginia
• Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto
• João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, New University of Lisbon

On Friday, September 17, the Medieval Institute will host a dinner and reception in honor of Jocelyn Hillgarth, Professor Emeritus of History, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto in celebration of the acquisition of his personal collection by the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame.

To register for this event, visit http://iberiaconference.eventbrite.com.

Ralph McInerny, medieval philosophy professor, passes away at the age of 80

Ralph McInerny, the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, passed away on Friday after a long illness. He was 80 years old.

A native of Minneapolis, McInerny served in the Marine Corps before studying at St. Paul Seminary, the University of Minnesota, and earning a doctoral degree from Laval University in Quebec. After teaching one year at Creighton University, he joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1955, becoming one of its most affectionately regarded and respected members for the subsequent 53 years before his retirement in 2009.

“I love it here,” he once said of the campus on which he had never set foot until he was hired by Notre Dame’s then-new president Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

McInerny was an internationally renowned scholar, author and lecturer who specialized in the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, but who also wrote and lectured extensively on ethics, philosophy of religion, and medieval philosophy. He directed the University’s Medieval Institute from 1978 to 1985 and its Jacques Maritain Center from 1979 to 2006. At Notre Dame and other universities, he also served as a mentor for a new generation of Thomist scholars.

A man whose playful wit and easygoing and amiable manner belied herculean energies, McInerny, in addition to writing some two dozen scholarly books and hundreds of essays on medieval philosophy, ethics and the philosophy of religion, edited a widely praised series of translations of Thomas Aquinas for Penguin Classics. He delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures in Glasgow in 1999-2000, served as president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the Metaphysical Society, the American Maritain Society and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and was a fellow of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. He also was a member of President George W. Bush’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

When away from the library stacks and the lecture podium, McInerny wrote poetry and more than 80 novels, including the Father Dowling mystery series, which were adopted in 1989 for a popular television series the author steadfastly refused to watch. Many of his murder mysteries were set on the Notre Dame campus and teasingly featured his friends, colleagues and acquaintances in minor roles.

Interview with Olivia Remie Constable, Director of Notre Dame's Medieval Institute

Olivia Remie Constable, Professor of History, has been appointed to a five-year term as the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Constable has been serving as the acting Director of the Medieval Institute since July 2008, while continuing her work on the economic, social, and urban history of the medieval Mediterranean world, especially contacts among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in this region.

We interviewed Professor Constable to ask her about her goals for improving the Medieval Institute:

1. You have been the acting director for close to a year now. Is it relief to drop the 'acting' from the title and now be secure in the knowledge that you have this role for the next 5 years?

In many ways, the shift from acting director to full director does not actually mark a big shift. In fact, it was helpful to have a full year to learn the job and to decide whether I liked it, before being given the opportunity to take it on for a longer term. On the other hand, much of the work of being director involves long term plans, such as inviting speakers and organizing future conferences. So it is nice, as full director, to be able to foresee guiding our current plans to fruition over the next few years. Also, since the director of the Medieval Institute is also the director of our graduate program in Medieval Studies, it is rewarding to know that I have several years to oversee the progress and successes of our students.

2. What will be your priorities in developing and growing the Medieval Institute over the next five years?

We currently have an initiative to build our program in Byzantine studies, with the hire of new faculty members in History and Theology, and the creation of a graduate program in that area. We also have new strength in medieval musicology, with Notre Dame's recent hire of Margot Fassler and Peter Jeffrey, and we plan to create a new graduate track in medieval music.

3. A challenge of any academic program is maintaining and increasing its financial resources. Do you have any concerns that the current economic downturn in the United States could affect the Medieval Institute?

Obviously, any academic program needs to maintain and hopes to increase its funding. However, we have been lucky that during the current economic downturn, Notre Dame has been somewhat less badly hit than some universities because of a very prudent policies for the endowment and careful investing. We will certainly feel the tighter economy, but I do not foresee any serious long-term impact on our medieval programs. Because Medieval Studies is so prominent at Notre Dame, and fits so well with the mission of the university, I do not think that our programs are in danger of major budget cuts. Also, as well as funding from the university, the Medieval Institute has its own endowment, through the generosity of Robert M. Conway, one of the trustees of the university, and this provides significant assistance to our programing.

4. What do you think are the strengths of your institute and Notre Dame University in doing research and teaching about the Middle Ages?

Our primary strengths are in our faculty (we have over sixty medievalists drawn from a dozen different departments), our excellent library resources, and our solid financial support from the university. Our greatest strength focuses on medieval Latin Europe, but we are growing stronger in coverage of the Islamic World and the Greek East.

5. Finally, you are also working on your own project "Muslims in Medieval Europe". Could you tell us a little bit about what this entails?

This project looks at issues in the daily life of Muslims (both free people and slaves) living under Christian rule in Spain, Italy, and France in the period 1100-1400. I am especially interested in the different ways in which Christians perceived and even facilitated Muslim identity, and the ways in which attitudes shifted over the period of three centuries.