Faculty by Field

below, Medieval Institute faculty are grouped according to their areas of scholarly interest. Fields of study are listed alphabetically with brief descriptions of faculty research within those fields. Some faculty are listed in more than one area. Prospective students may wish to contact members of the faculty directly regarding their specialties and the potential for study at Notre Dame in those areas. Links below lead to faculty web pages that offer contact information and more biographical details.

Choose a research category for a list of Medieval Institute faculty or librarians in that area:
Ambrosiana Drawings • Arabic and Syriac • Archaeology • Art History • Celtic Studies • Drama • England and British Studies • France and French Studies • Germany and the Empire • Greek and Byzantine Studies • History • History of Science • Islam • Italy and Italian Studies • Late Antiquity • Latin • Law • Literature • Liturgy • Manuscript Studies • Music • Philosophy • Political Thought • Spain and Iberian Studies • Theology

The Medieval Institute faculty and students have access to library collection specialists who can assist them in their research. These librarians are key individuals in the scholarly activities of the Institute through the research help they provide, their skills in collection development, and their availability for classroom presentations. They each have personal areas of scholarly expertise as well: Marina Smyth, medieval studies librarian (Irish cosmology, manuscript studies); David T. Gura, manuscripts curator (the transmission of Ovid in the Middle Ages, manuscript studies); Louis Jordan, head of Rare Books and Special Collections (Ambrosiana collection, manuscript studies); and David Sullivan, classics and Byzantine studies librarian. Julia Schneider, reference specialist, manages the Reading Room and can assist in locating books or using library resources.

Ambrosiana Drawings 

· Robert Randolf Coleman: Project director for inventory-catalogue of Ambrosiana Library drawings collection

Arabic and Syriac

· Joseph Amar: Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic literary culture and in early interactions between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

· Li Guo: Arabic language and literature, medieval Arabic historiography, paleography, and popular culture

· Tala Jarjour: Syriac Orthodox chant

· Robin Darling Young: History of late ancient Christianity in the east: Greek, Syriac, Armenian cultures; fourth-century monastic philosophy

Archaeology

· Ian Kuijt: Ritual landscapes, early Medieval Ireland, anthropological-archaeology

· Susan Guise Sheridan: Biocultural reconstruction of urban Byzantine monastic life; director of St. Stephen's Jerusalem project

Art History

· Charles Barber: Byzantine art, aesthetics, and intellectual history

· Robert Randolf Coleman: Italian art from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries

· Danielle Joyner: Medieval manuscript illumination

· Charles Rosenberg: Art and patronage in fifteenth-century Italy and Northern Europe; Renaissance numismatics

Celtic Studies

· Ian Kuijt: Ritual landscapes, early Medieval Ireland, anthropological-archaeology

· Peter McQuillan: Old Irish

· Rory Rapple: Medieval and early modern Irish history

· Marina Smyth: Early Irish culture, cosmology

Drama

· Mark C. Pilkinton: Theater history, early English drama, theater and society

· Peter Holland: Shakespeare and performance

· Katherine Zieman: Performance

England and British Studies

· Chris Abram: Anglo-Saxon literature, transition from pagan to Christian culture

· Ann W. Astell: Medieval spiritual theology, hagiography, Biblical interpretation, Mariology, religion and literature

· D’A. Jonathan D. Boulton: Latin Europe 1100-1600; comparative social and cultural history of nobilities; sigillography; heraldic emblematics

· Dolores Warwick Frese: Chaucer-early poetry and Canterbury Tales; works of the Pearl Poet; medieval allegory

· Kathryn Kerby-Fulton: Middle English manuscripts

· Julia Marvin: Historical writing, particularly late-medieval historical writing and the “Brut” tradition in England; Anglo-Norman studies; manuscript studies

· Rory Rapple: Political history of early-modern Britain and Ireland, late-medieval and early-modern political thinking

· Katherine Zieman: Late medieval English literature and culture, religious writing, liturgy, literacy, performance, literary theory

France and French Studies

· D’A. Jonathan D. Boulton: Latin Europe 1100-1600; comparative social and cultural history of nobilities; sigillography; heraldic emblematics

· Maureen Boulton: Vernacular paleography

· JoAnn DellaNeva: French and Italian literature, lyric poetry, imitation theory and practice, Petrarch and Petrarchism

· Daniel Hobbins: Late medieval French history; Joan of Arc; book culture

· Thomas F. X. Noble: Rome, the papacy, and the Carolingians; controversies over religious art

Germany and the Empire

· Claire Jones: German language and literature, medieval and early modern Christian spirituality and mysticism

· Danielle Joyner: Medieval manuscript illumination

· Thomas F. X. Noble: Rome, the papacy, and the Carolingians; controversies over religious art

· John Van Engen: Religious and intellectual history, Low Countries, Germany, women religious writers, canon law

Greek and Byzantine Studies

· Yury Avvakumov: Latin-Byzantine relations; Eastern Christianity in communion with Rome; ecclesiology, sacraments and canon law

· Charles Barber: Byzantine art, aesthetics, and intellectual history

· Brian E. Daley: Cappadocian Fathers, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus Confessor, and John of Damascus

· Blake Leyerle: Social and cultural history of early Christianity

· Robin Darling Young; Greek patristic theology

History

· D’A. Jonathan D. Boulton: Latin Europe 1100-1600; comparative social and cultural history of nobilities; sigillography; heraldic emblematics

· Olivia Remie Constable: Social and economic history, Mediterranean, Spain, Christian-Muslim relations, cities

· Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Medieval colonizations; Columbus; Vespucci

· Karen B. Graubart: Race, ethnicity, gender, medieval Spain, Muslims and Jews, Spanish America, cities

· Brad Gregory: Late medieval and early modern Christianity, Reformation, intellectual history, secularization

· Daniel Hobbins: Late medieval intellectual history; book culture

· Margaret Meserve: Intellectual and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance

· Thomas F. X. Noble: Rome, the papacy, and the Carolingians; controversies over religious art

· Rory Rapple: Political history of early-modern Britain and Ireland, late-medieval and early-modern political thinking

· Dennis Robichaud: 15th-century Italian humanism; premodern intellectual history

· Deborah Tor: Central and Eastern Islamic lands in the 'Abbasid period; Persianate dynasties; political and religious authority and institutions; Turkic invasions

· John Van Engen: Religious and intellectual history, Low Countries, Germany, women religious writers, canon law

History of Science

· Robert Goulding: History of science and mathematics; Renaissance humanism; history of magic

Islam

· Olivia Remie Constable: Christian-Muslim relations, Mediterranean, al-Andalus

· Li Guo: Arabic language and literature, medieval Arabic historiography, paleography, and popular culture

· Gabriel Said Reynolds: Qurʾānic Studies, Muslim-Christian Relations, Islamic Studies

· Deborah Tor: Central and Eastern Islamic lands in the 'Abbasid period; Persianate dynasties; political and religious authority and institutions; Turkic invasions

Italy and Italian Studies

· Zygmunt G. Baranski: Dante, medieval Italian literature, medieval poetics, history of ideas

· Theodore J. Cachey, Jr.: Italian medieval and early modern literature and culture, cartography and literature, travel literature, history of the Italian language

· Robert Randolf Coleman: Italian art from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries

· JoAnn DellaNeva: French and Italian literature, lyric poetry, imitation theory and practice, Petrarch and Petrarchism

· Margaret Meserve: intellectual and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance

· Christian Moevs: Dante, medieval Italian literature, poetry, (medieval) philosophy and literature

· Vittorio Montemaggi: Religion and literature, Italian studies, Dante, Primo Levi, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky

· Thomas F. X. Noble: Rome, the papacy, and the Carolingians; controversies over religious art

· Denis Robichaud: Renaissance humanism; history of philosophy and philology; Ficino, Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola

· Charles Rosenberg: Art and patronage in fifteenth-century Italy and Northern Europe; Renaissance numismatics

Late Antiquity

· Keith Bradley: Religion and society

· John C. Cavadini: Religion and society, patristic theology, patristic exegesis, Augustine, Origen

· Brian E. Daley: Early Christian theology (2nd – 8th centuries), especially the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine

· Blake Leyerle: Social and cultural history of early Christianity

· Thomas F. X. Noble: Religion and society, history of the city of Rome

· Robin Darling Young: History of late ancient Christianity in the east: Greek, Syriac, Armenian cultures; fourth-century monastic philosophy

Latin

· W. Martin Bloomer: Latin literature, ancient and medieval education, rhetoric, reception of classical culture

· Brian Krostenko: Roman rhetoric, Latin prose style, historical linguistics

· Hildegund Müller: Latin patristics (Augustine’s sermons); late and medieval Latin poetry

Law

· John Van Engen: Canon law

Literature

· Chris Abram: Anglo-Saxon literature, transition from pagan to Christian culture, Icelandic sagas, Old Norse eddic and skaldic poetry, mythology

· Joseph Amar: Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic literary culture

· Ann W. Astell: Late medieval English literature, literature and religion

· Zygmunt G. Baranski: Dante, medieval Italian literature, medieval poetics, history of ideas

· Maureen Boulton: Anglo-Norman, medieval French literature, especially lyric & narrative and religious literature

· Theodore J. Cachey, Jr.: Italian medieval and early modern literature and culture, cartography and literature, travel literature, history of the Italian language

· JoAnn DellaNeva: French and Italian literature, lyric poetry, imitation theory and practice, Petrarch and Petrarchism

· Dolores Warwick Frese: Chaucer-early poetry and Canterbury Tales; works of the Pearl Poet; medieval allegory

· Li Guo: Arabic language and literature, medieval Arabic historiography, paleography, and popular culture

· Claire Jones: German language and literature, medieval and early modern Christian spirituality and mysticism

· Encarnación Juárez-Almendros: Spanish: early modern disability studies, literature and medicine, identity and clothing, picaresque novels, early modern autobiographies

· Kathryn Kerby-Fulton: Middle English literature, manuscript studies, Latin religious traditions, visionary and apocalyptic texts, historical approaches to literature, book censorship

· Julia Marvin: Historical writing, particularly late-medieval historical writing and the “Brut” tradition in England; Anglo-Norman studies; manuscript studies

· Christian Moevs: Dante, medieval Italian literature, poetry, (medieval) philosophy and literature

· Vittorio Montemaggi: Religion and literature, Italian studies, Dante, Primo Levi, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky

· Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez: Medieval Spanish literature and culture; fifteenth-century studies; converso literature, Christian-Jewish relations

· Katherine Zieman: Late medieval English literature and culture, religious writing, liturgy, literacy, performance, literary theory

Liturgy

· Michael S. Driscoll: Rapport of liturgy to sacred arts, e.g., music, architecture, visual arts, especially in Carolingian period

· Margot Fassler: Musicology, Middle Ages, 800-1300, England, Germany, France

Manuscript Studies

· W. Martin Bloomer: Textual editing

· D’A. Jonathan D. Boulton: Diplomatics

· Maureen Boulton: Vernacular paleography

· Kent Emery, Jr.: Textual editing, codicology

· David T. Gura: Notre Dame library manuscript collection

· Kathryn Kerby-Fulton: Middle English manuscripts

· Marina Smyth: Notre Dame library manuscript collection

Music

· Alexander Blachly: Chant; performance; Pythagorean ideas in medieval and Renaissance music

· Michael S. Driscoll: Liturgy and sacred music

· Margot Fassler: Musicology, liturgy, documentary film making; Middle Ages, 800-1300, England, Germany, France; sacred music in the U.S.A.

· Tala Jarjour: Musicology, Syrian Orthodox chant

· Peter Jeffery: Musicology, history of liturgical music, history of chant

Philosophy

· Richard Cross: Medieval philosophy and theology, especially Duns Scotus

· Stephen Dumont: High scholastic period of thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially Duns Scotus; theory of the will

· Kent Emery, Jr.: History of Latin philosophy and theology, manuscript studies (paleography, codicology, textual editing)

· Alfred Freddoso: High and later medieval philosophy; Aquinas

· Stephen Gersh: History of philosophy: ancient, medieval, and Renaissance; Platonism and Neoplatonism

· Bernd Goehring: Medieval philosophy, especially medieval theories of mind and cognition

· John I. Jenkins: High and later medieval philosophy

· David O’Connor: Ancient philosophy, philosophical aesthetics

· Gretchen Reydams-Schils: Ancient philosophy, Plato’s Timaeus, Stoicism, Platonism, early Christianity, late antiquity

· Denis Robichaud: Renaissance humanism; history of philosophy and philology; Ficino, Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola

Political Thought

· Mary M. Keys: Virtue and law in the history of political philosophy, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, medieval and early modern political thought

· Jean Porter: Early scholastic theology, jurisprudence and legal practices (Western Europe), reception of medieval thought

· Rory Rapple: Political history of early-modern Britain and Ireland, late-medieval and early-modern political thinking

Spain and Iberian Studies

· Olivia Remie Constable: Social and economic history, Mediterranean, Spain, Christian-Muslim relations, cities

· Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Medieval colonizations; Columbus; Vespucci

· Karen B. Graubart: Race, ethnicity, gender, medieval Spain, Muslims and Jews, Spanish America, cities

· Encarnación Juárez-Almendros: Spanish: early modern disability studies, literature and medicine, identity and clothing, picaresque novels, early modern autobiographies

· Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez: Medieval Spanish literature and culture; fifteenth-century studies; converso literature, Christian-Jewish relations

Theology

· Ann W. Astell: Medieval spiritual theology, hagiography, Biblical interpretation, Mariology, religion and literature 

· Yury Avvakumov: Latin-Byzantine relations; Eastern Christianity in communion with Rome; ecclesiology, sacraments and canon law

· John C. Cavadini: Patristic theology, patristic exegesis, Augustine, Origen, Carolingian reception, Alcuin, 9th century

· Richard Cross: Medieval philosophy and theology, especially Duns Scotus

· Brian E. Daley: Early Christian theology (2nd – 8th centuries), especially the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus Confessor, and John of Damascus

· Michael S. Driscoll: Early medieval theology, liturgy, sacred music

· Blake Leyerle: Early Christianity

· Candida Moss: Religious and social history, Christian martyrdom, historiography, Mediterranean

· Jean Porter: Early scholastic theology, jurisprudence and legal practices (Western Europe), reception of medieval thought

· Gabriel Said Reynolds: Qur'anic studies and Muslim-Christian relations

· Joseph Wawrykow: High medieval theology (scholastic, spiritual); central doctrines (e.g., Eucharist, Christ) and their articulation; Aquinas

· Robin Darling Young: History of late ancient Christianity in the east: Greek, Syriac, Armenian cultures; fourth-century monastic philosophy