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
Hebrew Scriptures in Medieval Contexts
The Medieval Institute Working Group on “Hebrew Scriptures in Medieval Contexts” (HSMC) facilitates advanced scholarly exchange on the topic the Hebrew Scriptures as a dynamic source for the development of diverse domains of learning during the Middle Ages, focusing especially on the medieval history of Tanakh exegesis. It promotes historically and philologically rigorous research on medieval modes of biblical study, interpretation, paraphrase, and translation that helped to construct scientific, philosophical, theological, legal, historical, geographical, homiletical, exegetical, polemical, and liturgical bodies of knowledge.
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Lorenzo Colombo
- Jeremy Brown
- Tzvi Novick
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Lorenzo Colombo.
The Materiality of Medieval Texts
The working group studies all aspects of the materiality of medieval texts, e.g., their presentation on the page, the paratexts accompanying them, their scripts, language, and variance, and the physical characteristics of manuscripts and early print. We focus particularly on the dynamic relationship between a text and its material form to investigate how written texts engaged and challenged the book form and, in turn, how the material form shaped transmission, interpretation, and the role of texts in social practices. Through guest lectures, a reading group, and a works-inprogress forum, our working group explores the interdisciplinary approaches that have emerged around “textual objects.” Faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students are all welcome
Faculty and Graduate Student Organizers
- Camilla Canonico
- CJ Jones
- Ann Killian, OP
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Camilla Canonico.
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
- Olivia Geraci
- Innocent Smith
- Rebecca Maloy
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Rebecca Maloy.
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
- Alexander Beihammer
- John Mulhall
- Jessalynn Bird
- Emilie Bowerman
For more information or to join this working group, please contact Thomas Burman.
Submitting a Proposal
The Working Group application deadline is April 1. 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.