Alumni Spotlights
In this spotlight series, read more about the work our distinguished alumni are doing. You can also view the complete list of our alumni from 1946 to the present.
Alumni, do you have a new position or want to be on the alumni mailing list? Let us know through our alumni update form.
Michael Waddell (Ph.D. '00)
Professor at Saint Mary's College and Founding Director of the SMC Autism Studies program.
Michael Waddell (Ph.D. '00) is a Professor at Saint Mary's College, where he holds the Edna and George McMahon Aquinas Chair in Philosophy. He is also the founding director of the institution's Autism Studies program. Prof. Waddell completed his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at Notre Dame in 2000. His dissertation was titled “Truth Beloved: Thomas Aquinas and the Relational Transcendentals,” and was written under advisor Professor Ralph McInerny, beloved past director of the Medieval Institute.
"People often ask me whether I ever used my training as a medievalist in my work with autism studies, and I tell them that I use it every day: it's precisely in virtue of my training as an interdisciplinary scholar and my study of St. Thomas's writings about human nature that I am able to work with psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, behavioral therapists, and physicians to provide autism expertise to students today."
Julia Schneider (Ph.D. '11)
Subject Specialist for Medieval Studies; Scholarly Resources and Assessment Librarian for Arts, Humanities, and Architecture; Subject Liaison for German Language and Literature (Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame)
Julia Schneider is the Hesburgh Libraries' Subject Specialist for Medieval Studies as well as the Scholarly Resources and Assessment Librarian for Arts, Humanities, and Architecture. She also serves as the subject liaison for German Language and Literature. Dr. Schneider completed her Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at Notre Dame in 2011, concentrating on liturgy, theology, and intellectual history. Her dissertation was titled “Liturgy and Theology in De mysterio missae, a Thirteenth-Century Commentary on the Liturgy Attributed to Albertus Magnus,” and was completed under advisors Thomas Prügl and Calvin Bower. Most recently, Dr. Schneider received the Rev. Paul J. Foik, C.S.C., Award, which recognizes a Library faculty member who has advanced the profession through personal scholarship, leadership in an external organization, or other national service or academic distinction.
"We have so many resources here at the Medieval Institute library; it's fabulous. It's the best place for medieval studies, I would argue, in North America, and perhaps in the world, just because of the level of access that we have."
Christopher Kaczor (Ph.D. '96)
Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University
Christopher Kaczor is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, a Fulbright Scholar, and author of numerous books and articles on theology, philosophy, and medical ethics. Professor Kaczor completed his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at Notre Dame in 1996 with a dissertation titled, “Thomas Aquinas and Proportionalism: An Evaluation of Their Compatibility” under past institute director Professor Ralph McInerny, and during spring 2025 he returned to Notre Dame to work with the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture on a bioethics project.
"My work in Medieval Studies is always the horizon within which I approach concrete questions in bioethics. It may seem odd to some that medieval philosophy and bioethics go together, but there are actually a number of distinguished scholars who contribute to both the fields."
David Mengel (Ph.D. '04)
Provost of the University of Portland and Professor of History
David Mengel completed his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies here at the institute in 2004. His dissertation, directed by John van Engen, was entitled “Bones, Stones, and Brothels: Religion and Topography in Prague under Emperor Charles IV (1346-78)." His work now focuses on medieval Europe, especially on the city of Prague under the rule of Emperor Charles IV. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship and the Marshall Scholarship, among many other academic recognitions. His scholarship has appeared in several leading academic journals and has been presented at conferences around the world.
"I believe that the MI prepared me unusually well to become a scholar. Over my 8 (!) years in the MI, I received deep grounding in the languages, skills, and techniques that a medievalist needs for research based in manuscripts and a range of archival materials—including two years working in European libraries and archives while studying with Peter Moraw, František Šmahel, and other European scholars. I’d like to think that it also strengthened my ability to recognize (or construct) larger patterns, questions, and even meaning from painstakingly researched details—something that I practice daily as a provost!"
Sarah Davis-Secord (Ph.D. '07)
Associate Professor of History, The University of New Mexico
Sarah Davis-Secord completed her Ph.D. in History at Notre Dame in 2007 with a dissertation focused on the intercultural relationships between Greek Christians, Muslims, and Latin Christians in the central Mediterranean across the Middle Ages. She is the author of Three Worlds Met: Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean (Cornell, 2017) and Migration in the Medieval Mediterranean (Arc Humanities Press, 2021) and a co-editor of Interfaith Relationships and Perceptions of the Other in the Medieval Mediterranean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Her current research explores the exchanges between Muslims and Christians in the early medieval southern Italian peninsula.
"The fact that Notre Dame’s medievalist faculty, graduate students, and visiting speakers work across a broad spectrum of disciplines, fields, and periods has meant that I have a greater depth of knowledge and understanding of medieval worlds than if I had been more narrowly trained. I feel like there is nowhere else where students can be exposed to so much about the Middle Ages from so many different perspectives."
Catherine A. Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. '83)
Research Professor of Theology, Ukrainian Catholic University
Catherine A. Brown Tkacz (Ph.D. ’83), the first woman to earn her doctorate from the Medieval Institute, was recently appointed to a new papal commission to study women deacons. Her career shows how rigorous historical inquiry can promote the equal dignity of women and be of service to the church.
"What we may call pastoral concerns set the priorities of my work [...] An event took me into the Carpathian Mountains to the village of Kryvoryvnia, Ukraine to lecture to a parish. Teens, adults, and the elderly took part; farmers and a lawyer. Moving to me was that another pastor, from a neighboring village, walked twenty miles to hear my talk. I set forth the parallels between Susanna’s history and the Passion narrative, which the priests discussed with me. I understand that they now preach on this exegesis."
Robert J. Schneider (Ph.D. '65)
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of General Studies and Classical Languages at Berea College, Kentucky
This spotlight features one of the Medieval Institute’s earliest graduates, Robert J. Schneider, who taught courses in Latin and Greek languages and literatures, including Medieval Latin. His general studies courses courses explored topics in biblical literature, the history of Christian thought, the history of science, classical mythology, and contemporary fiction. We asked Dr. Schneider to share with us memories of the Medieval Institute.
"I was captivated by St. Thomas’s genius as a thinker and expositor, which led me into an interest in the culture and thought of the Middle Ages."
Stephen Metzger (Ph.D. '13)
Scriptor of Latin Manuscripts at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Following his graduation, Dr. Metzger was a 2014–2015 Mellon Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto, and the 2016–2017 Astrik L. Gabriel Fellow at the Medieval Institute. In 2017, Dr. Metzger published a two-volume study entitled Gerard of Abbeville, Secular Master, on Knowledge, Wisdom and Contemplation in the series Studien und Text zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters (Leiden: Brill, 2017).
"I am most excited about the work that I will get to do in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. It is still hard for me to fathom that I am going to have access to one of the greatest collections of Latin manuscripts in the world. [...] I cannot think of a better position from which to make a real contribution to the advancement of scholarly knowledge about the Middle Ages."
Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis (Ph.D. '15)
Assistant Professor, Program of Liberal Studies at Notre Dame
Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis is a specialist in the history of medieval religious women and liturgical practices and received her Ph.D. from the Medieval Institute in 2015 with a dissertation entitled "Ministers of Christ: Benedictine Women Religious in Central Medieval England," under the direction of esteemed scholars Margot Fassler and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton. Bugyis has been a prolific author since her graduation, in addition to holding two prestigious fellowships at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and Harvard's Radcliffe Institute.
"[T]here is no other program in Medieval Studies in the world that prepares its graduate students as rigorously [...] as Notre Dame's Medieval Institute does. My confidence in the training I received at the MI has only become stronger since graduating from the program and interacting with other scholars in the field. I know that I can do more than simply hold my own wherever I go."
Rachel Koopmans (Ph.D. '01)
Associate Professor of History at York University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Award-winning scholar Rachel M. Koopmans studied at the Medieval Institute under the tutelage of John Van Engen, a twice past director. In 2001 she earned her Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled, “Dispute, Control and Individual Voice: The Making of Miracles at Christ Church, Canterbury, 1080-1220.” This dissertation formed the foundation of her first book, Wonderful to Relate: Miracle Stories and Miracle Collecting in High Medieval England, published with the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2011. Koopmans is currently Associate Professor of History at the University of York in Toronto as well as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and her recent work on the stain glass of Canterbury cathedral has earned her national attention in the United Kingdom and beyond. We asked Prof. Koopmans about her work after the MI and her fascinating work on medieval stained glass.
"I find it especially gratifying that my research, started on the Hesburgh Library's seventh floor, is beginning to have an impact on the experience of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who tour Canterbury Cathedral every year."
Leslie Lockett (Ph.D. '04)
Associate Professor of English and Associate Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Ohio State University
Lockett is the author of Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions (University of Toronto Press, 2011) and several articles and book chapters on topics ranging from Anglo-Saxon Latinity, medieval mind-body theory, the history of the emotions, and the well-known Junius 11 manuscript, one of only four surviving codices of poetry from the Anglo-Saxon period (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11). She is currently preparing an edition and translation of the Old English Soliloquies and Augustine’s Soliloquia that will appear in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series, and she was most recently a 2016-2017 fellow of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. We sat down with Professor Lockett to learn about her experience as a medievalist and university professor.
“I’m both very nostalgic for Notre Dame and very grateful for what I got here as a graduate student. I got such good training while I was here that has equipped me to do work that I find really interesting and stimulating.”
Louis Jordan (Ph.D. '80)
Associate University Librarian, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Jordan graduated from the Medieval Institute in 1980 with a dissertation on the iconography of death personified in western medieval art under the direction of the renowned scholar Bernard McGinn. In recent years, he has focused on integrating library services and collections into the teaching and research missions of Notre Dame. He is also an elected member of the Comité international de paléographie latine and a fellow of the American Numismatic Society. We asked him to share with us his journey from MI grad to veteran library administrator at one of the top twenty-five research universities in the United States.
“Many libraries are now looking for individuals with advanced degrees and specialized skills. Candidates who also demonstrate interdisciplinary subject expertise have a distinct advantage. Language skills are also useful, particularly for those looking to work in cataloging or seeking a position as a collections curator in Rare Books and Special Collections.”
Nicole Eddy (Ph.D. '12)
Managing Editor for the Medieval Library series at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Nicole Eddy has quickly blazed her own path since graduating from the Medieval Institute, finding her home in academic publishing. We asked Dr. Eddy to share the experience that has taken her from Ph.D. student writing on marginal annotation in medieval Romance manuscripts to Managing Editor of a prestigious series.
“That is the best part of my job, getting to work with books I am interested in and with people who are passionate about the same things I care about.”
Garrett R. Smith (Ph.D. '14)
Lifetime appointment as Akademischer Rat (Associate Professor), University of Bonn
Garrett R. Smith has expertise in Latin text editing and the philosophy of Duns Scotus, and of Scholasticism more broadly. In 2014, he accepted a prestigious permanent appointment as Akademischer Rat at the Institut für Philosophie of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Germany.
"This is the job the MI trained me for, and it's pretty rare that this kind of thing comes along. It's the dream job.”