Working Groups
Each year the Medieval Institute sponsors Working Groups, an opportunity for faculty fellows and graduate students to investigate a topic relating to shared research interests.
Current Working Groups
The Digital Schoolbook
The DSB Working Group has two primary goals: scholarly production on medieval literacy education, especially on the school text The Distichs of Cato, and the development and deployment of the DSB web app (in alpha version). The web app includes two digital humanities components, namely 1) a digital edition of The Distichs of Cato, and 2) a more public facing DH component: a web app for Latin learners that revivifies the pedagogical methods of The Distichs of Cato and makes them relevant for present-day students. The WG meetings include the collaboration of seasoned digital humanists who will contribute participants with foundational training in concrete design and technological skills – namely, basic database and web design, the lifecycle of educational software design and development, and how to collaborate with external designers and developers. In short, the main purpose of this expanding multidisciplinary project is to create a space where scholars and traditional digital humanists can collaborate with software technologies and developers to create a deliverable that is able to reach a wider audience than traditional DH projects.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- W. Martin Bloomer
- David Gura
- Julia Schneider
- Hannah VanSyckel
- Valerie Liang
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Hannah VanSyckel.
Earthly Treasures: The Natural World in the Art and Literature of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
This working group plans to examine the inclusion of elements of the natural environment in the art and literature of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Subjects of study may include domestic and wild animals (e.g., deer, lambs, camels, wolvers, and lions), fish and other sea life, birds (e.g., phoenix, doves, peacocks, guinea fowl, eagles, and ibis), plants (grapevines, grains, and flowers of various types), trees (palms, fruit-bearing, cedars), even insects (e.g., butterflies, cicadas, spiders, and bees). The group will also consider landscape more broadly, considering the contrasts between wilderness and cultivated spaces, or the distinct environments of deserts, forests, or meadows, study sacred waterways (rivers, oceans, and seas), holy mountains, caves, and heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars). Natural phenomena such as rainstorms, snow, lightning, the winds, or the four seasons are also potential subjects for exploration, as are natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, and earthquakes. Topographic maps, healing waters, and pilgrimage routes are also possible topics.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Robin Jensen
- Blake Leyerle
- Jeff Wickes
- Ann Astell
- Lucas Lynn Christensen
- Alice Hyun
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Alice Hyun.
The Materiality of Medieval Texts
The working group on the materiality of medieval texts is dedicated to all physical aspects of medieval texts, from their presentation on the page, the paratexts accompanying them, and scripts, language, and variance, to the codicology of the manuscript books conveying texts of various genres. We are particularly keen to investigate the dynamic relationship between a text and its material form in order to reflect on the ways in which written texts engaged and challenged the book form and, in turn, the ways in which the material form shaped their transmission and interpretation. Through guest lectures and a reading group, our working group aims to explore the interdisciplinary approaches that have emerged around “textual objects.” Faculty, researchers, and graduate students are all welcome.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Laura Banella
- CJ Jones
- Johannes Junge Ruhland
- Elisa Bisson
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Elisa Bisson.
Medieval Liturgy
The Medieval Liturgy Working Group is dedicated to interdisciplinary scholarship on liturgy across the long Middle Ages, in diverse traditions of both East and West. Notre Dame has one of the largest representations of scholars dedicated to research on medieval liturgy, spread across at least six different departments and programs at the university. This Medieval Institute working group brings faculty, researchers, and graduate students together to share work in progress, advance methodological reflections on the discipline, and increase visibility and interdisciplinarity for liturgical studies at Notre Dame and in the broader academy.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Katie Bugyis
- Sean Griffin
- CJ Jones
- Rebecca Maloy
- Julia Schneider
- Kristina Kummerer
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Rebeca Maloy.
New Currents in Syriac Studies
This working group aims to take stock of Syriac Studies as a field by highlighting the work of scholars sitting at the boundaries of the field. Through discussion of scholarly publications in conversation with their authors, the group aims to investigate new archives, place Syriac in conversation with overlooked disciplines, explore new methodologies, and ask questions about the discipline as it currently exists.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Jeff Wickes
- Rachel Edney
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Jeff Wickes.
The Papacy and Eastern Christian Traditions
The working group on the Papacy and Eastern Christian traditions aspires to promote discussions among students and faculty on topics along the spectrum of this multifaceted research area, with particular attention to its interdisciplinary and ecumenical aspects. The term “papacy” in the title of the working group stands not only for the institution but also for medieval Latin Christianity, of which the papacy was the main driving force. Chronologically, the period of 1100–1500 will be our primary focus as the time of the classical emergence of this problematic; but we would be open to include connected topics related to earlier centuries as well as the issue’s resonances in the early modern period. Thus, we hope to welcome scholars and conversations regarding the sources of these questions in the patristic period and their continuing relevance for the various Eastern Christian Churches and traditions until today. In terms of geographic and cultural diversity, along with papers/discussions on Latin-Byzantine Greek relations we would welcome contributions from Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic, and Slavic perspectives. We hope that the WG thus becomes a site for discussion of ongoing research projects and for reflection upon methodology and conceptual frameworks.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Yury P. Avvakumov
- Alexander Beihammer
- Margaret Meserve
- Alexis Torrance
- Andrij Hlabse
- Edith Lagarde Babich
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Andrij Hlabse.
Philosophy and Science of the Islamic Golden Age
One of the most fascinating and still obscure periods in the history of philosophy and the history of science is the flowering of learning during the Islamic Golden Age (c. 8th–13th centuries), when scholars from across the Arabic-speaking world gathered in intellectual centers like Baghdad to study the heritage of Greek philosophy and science and made lasting contributions of their own. On the one hand, philosophy and science in Arabic had roots in the Greek philosophical tradition, often mediated through Syriac translations and translators, and on the other hand it developed its own rich tradition, elements of which were eventually bequeathed to medieval Europe. The purpose of this working group is to bring together students and faculty at Notre Dame with an interest in Arabic science and philosophy and to read these works together, either in the original or in translation. For the 24–25 academic year, we plan to read some texts of the great Islamic philosopher and polymath Avicenna, complementing our reading with talks by working group members and visiting scholars.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Therese Cory
- Stephen Ogden
- Atefeh Esmaeili
- John Reilly
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Atefeh Esmaeili.
Religious Pluralism in the Medieval Mediterranean
The working group will explore questions pertaining to the study of religions, religious interactions, the formation of identity and community, and the state of the fields of religion, literature, and history in the medieval Mediterranean. Our group will continue to invite participants to consider the ways in which the medieval Mediterranean world was shaped by religious pluralism and the interaction of religions (principally Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and how that reality is reflected in contemporary scholarship. Through this working group, participants will continue to appreciate contemporary scholarship on various aspects of the medieval Mediterranean across a wide range of disciplines.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Thomas Burman
- Jessalynn Bird
- Jeremy Brown
- John Mulhall
- Ian Storey
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Ian Storey.
Submitting a Proposal
The Working Group application deadline is April 15. Review the Proposal Instructions to prepare and submit an application.
The MI Faculty Committee will review applications and the MI will inform groups of decisions.
Guidelines for Working Groups
Approved groups will want to review the Guidelines for Working Groups so they are familiar with the necessary steps for planning their events and running their groups.