The Medieval Institute Graduates 14 Distinguished Students in its Annual Ceremony

Each year the Medieval Institute conducts an intimate, all-Latin graduation ceremony in the atmospheric Alumni Hall Chapel. This year’s ceremony took place on May 20th; in it the Institute admitted to the Medieval Studies Minor three undergraduates (Luke Andrew Donahue, Conor J. Flynn, and Nathaniel Marti), to the Supplementary Major five (Thomas James Gordon, John J. Kennedy, Stephen Gilbert Santos, Whitney Ann Spiegel, and Kevin Cristopher Wilkins), and to the Major three (Joshua Eli Gluch, Kelly Horan Koerwer, and Jacob Benjamin Lindle). Ms. Spiegel was also awarded the Robert M. Conway Prize, an annual award presented to a graduating senior for an outstanding project on a medieval topic, for her essay entitled “Myths Retold: Old Norse and Old English Origins of The Hobbit.”

Two doctoral students, Jacob Coen and Rebecca Marie West, were admitted to the Magisteriate of Medieval Studies. Doctoral candidate Anna Catherine Siebach-Larsen was admitted to the Doctorate of Philosophy in Medieval Studies.

Faculty presiding over the ceremony were Thomas E. Burman, Director of the Institute, as Officiant; Rev. Michael S. Driscoll as Proctor and Chaplain; Alexander Blachly as Proctor and Director of Music; Daniel Hobbins, Medieval Institute Director of Graduate Studies, as Beadle; and Hildegund G. Müller as Praelectrix.

Due to the wet weather, friends, family, and graduates enjoyed a reception afterward of cookies and punch in the Oak Room of South Dining Hall. The Institute congratulates all of these fine scholars on their hard work and achievements and wishes them every success.