Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, English/Literature

This thesis puts into conversation the work of four influential late medieval writers whose lives or writings skirted the fringes of Christian orthodoxy - Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, John of Morigny, and Marguerite Porete - in order to explore the way "autobiographical" theological and/or mystical writers asserted spiritual authority and subjectivity under the constraints of both the threat of condemnation for heresy and the inherent inexpressibility of mystical or visionary experiences. Beginning with Marguerite Porete and reverberating out, the performance-based rhetorical strategies in storytelling, in self-narrativization, in discernment, and in revision employed by writers in response to the dynamic, complex, and in many ways increasingly hostile social and religious environments of the long fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in France and England provide an important window into the relationship between these writers' ideas and the environment which shaped them. Each of these writers struggles with the limitations of the written word to express the truth of their spiritual experiences, and each engages in an experiential and bodily performative, rhetorical, and/or apophatic discourse in order to understand, assert, or make real their encounters with and understanding of themselves, the divine, and the relationship between the two.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis essays to study and interpret a small body of poems from Southern Gaul which respond to the breach of the Rhine frontier and subsequent crises from 406-418 AD. After demonstrating contemporary literary conventions in both secular and Christian discourses, the paper will survey how the poems in question came to terms with recent catastrophe and thereby rearticulated differing ideas of empire and meta-history which drew upon the Latin Epic tradition but deployed them in a context that was increasingly Christian and destabilized. While this will shed limited light on the political events, it will primarily serve to situate the beginnings of the Fall of the Western Empire in their intellectual context and indicate how they served as agents of the transformation of the Classical World and the draining of the secular.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Dance Studies

This dissertation examines how late medieval dance serves as a medium for creating and performing communal belonging in Augsburg, Germany and the surrounding region in southern Germany. I analyze how the regulation and practice of dance in Augsburg between 1300 and 1550 C.E. helped define the city's urban communities in the late medieval period, and how the ongoing remembrance of premodern dance today in southern Germany helps reaffirm or redefine Germanness in the cultural imaginary. Employing methods from dance, performance, history, and critical race studies and building upon recent work on racialization in medieval studies, this dissertation challenges predominant narratives of late medieval dance that centers elite Christians as the main agents of dance and other movement practices. By plumbing the legacies of medieval dance—in archival traces, reenactments, and popular imaginings—my work further examines how the memory and practice of medieval dance continues to transmit the multi-layered embodied politics of medieval southern Germany. Through archival methods and discourse analysis, I examine city laws, chronicles, and pictorial sources to ascertain how people in the medieval era approached, practiced, and regulated dance. Municipal records evidence that elite, Christian city leaders legislated dancing to construct and enforce a patriarchal and hierarchical social order within the city. Examining Jewish archives, the spatial landscapes of medieval cities, and depictions of the moresca dance in Jewish and Christian sources, I trace how Jewish and Christian residents used dance to form their own communities and how dance fostered Jewish-Christian relations. Finally, by working through these archival tracings of medieval dance, I consider how the reception and interpretation of medieval dance archives shape understandings of historical and contemporary community in the Bavarian region. In particular, I examine how medievalist narratives, built partially from t (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Art History (Fine Arts)

This thesis examines the cultural and religious contexts behind the production of the Girona Apocalypse [Museu de la Catedral de Girona, Num. Inv. 7(11)], a tenth-century copy of Beatus of Liebana's eighth-century Commentary on the Apocalypse. It delves into the ways in which medieval society, guided by the gendered perceptions of the Latin Church, played a pivotal role in categorizing women within a binary framework: either as pure or immoral. The focus is on the portrayal of femininity in the Apocalypse of St. John, where the contrasting figures of the Great Harlot and the Woman Clothed with the Sun are juxtaposed, and how this imagery and symbolism are transformed into feminine archetypes in the Girona manuscript, resulting in a pictorial conflict and shedding light on the nuanced dynamics of gender in medieval Iberia. The Girona Apocalypse was created at the dual monastery at San Salvador de Tabara, and apparently was illuminated by a woman, Ende. Her contribution provides a subtle layer to the understanding of womanhood in medieval Iberia, highlighting the importance of the role she played in a society where women received limited validation and recognition. The Girona Beatus not only offers a unique perspective on the conception of womanhood in the Middle Ages, but also provides valuable insights into how a woman artisan painter navigated her identity within the constraints of a malecentric Christian narrative.

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, History

Medieval Europe was a period of development and change, none of which is more evident than through the transition of medical authority from women and magic to solely men and medicine. At the start of the Middle Ages, magic and medicine held an interwoven relationship, where women could freely practice and function as medical authorities within their communities alongside men. Their presence as healers provided them with a rare opportunity to escape from the traditional confines of the patriarchal society of the Middle Ages. However, the creation of medical universities, which excluded women from enrolling, sought to eliminate the role which magic held within the medical field. With its usefulness in through medicine relegated, an opposition towards magic begun developing and the connection between magic and witchcraft to the nature of women was solidified. Women's already vulnerable status within society added onto the perceived threat of witchcraft opened the door for direct persecution women. Medical practitioners, ecclesiastical writers, the Christian church, governing bodies, and local authorities all contributed to the curation of stereotypes surrounding witchcraft practitioners. As a result, the Inquisition and larger witch hunt movement developed, specifically targeting women. The witchcraft trials were the final deadly product of this movement and were overwhelmingly disproportionate in their indictment and execution of women.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

This dissertation examines the role of the kinship network in late medieval politics. It argues that these networks were often built and maintained by women, along the lines of modern sociological research into kinkeeping. This refutes earlier readings of the medieval family as patrilineal and progressively nuclear. As the chronicles, state papers, letters, conduct texts, and romances all revealed, medieval families were extensive, often held together by the mothers, daughters, and wives who cultivated connections across their natal and marital courts. We cannot assume that these women's loyalty was inevitable, but instead must pay attention to the process by which they were courted, and how the networks were fostered in each new generation. Marriage treaties were investments in future connection and a belief that the daughters who left home would be able to establish secure political alliances for their families. Royal women's use of these extended kinship networks made them powerful friends and foes. More specifically, this dissertation focuses on the way in which royal women's kinship networks impacted the politics of fourteenth-century England. Kings who abused these connections learned that there were dire consequences, including the loss of the crown. On the other hand, when kings and queens operated in partnership, queens could mobilize their networks to support war efforts, recruit allies, or intercede for peace. Edward III's appreciation for not only his wife's relations abroad but also the kinswomen he had within the English dominions were major factors in his success as a king. When Edward III and Philippa then made plans for their children, they considered the entirety of the family network and the prospects for both their sons and daughters to be part of the continued English royal family system. Conversely, Edward II and Richard II learned all too late that their mismanagement of kinship networks, and their subsequent alienation of their kinswomen, (open full item for complete abstract)

Artium Baccalaureus (AB), Ohio University, 2023, History

This thesis examines the career of Ebroin, Frankish mayor of the palace from 664- 673 and 675-680 CE. His career as mayor was controversial: his enemies called him an unjust tyrant for acting against the interests of the Frankish aristocracy, and he became infamous for ordering the blinding and murder of Bishop Leudegar of Autun. After his assassination in 680, Ebroin's legacy fell into the hands of his enemies, who used it to further their own agendas. Although a study of Ebroin can make use of a multitude of sources, their accounts of the mayor are often contradictory and biased. This thesis seeks to uncover the successes of Ebroin's career hidden in contemporary sources and trace how his legacy changed soon after his death, during the Carolingian period, and beyond. A thorough investigation of the differing accounts of near-contemporary sources and later sources reveals that Ebroin's career was more successful than authors made it out to be and that the influence of his enemies transformed his legacy into a simplified and misunderstood shadow of itself centuries after his death.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, English (Arts and Sciences)

Saracens served as stock villains in many of the romances of the Middle Ages and informed representations of Ottoman alterity on the early modern stage. As the contrarians of the East v. West binary, Saracens are often viewed as a monolithic entity. The present study does not seek to abolish the binary but instead to nuance it. Each chapter analyzes a different type of Saracen or role that Saracens played in medieval and early modern English literature. In doing so, the study is more concerned with the function of anti-Saracenic representations than with their historical or anthropological inaccuracies.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans with four subbranches: cultural, biological, linguistic, and archaeological. Bioarchaeology is a subfield of biological anthropology and studies human skeletal remains in order to understand people's lives in the past. This is very similar to forensic anthropology, but forensics tries to interpret skeletal remains to aid law enforcement in finding their identity and possible cause of death. Bioarchaeologists study human skeletons to understand their osteological health and quality of life based on bone lesions and pathologies. Skeletons are also studied to interpret significant historical periods and events, such as famines. The goal for this project is to attempt to assess if there are bone remodeling patterns consistent with specific time periods and associated economic changes such as those that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. To answer this question, this project drew skeletal data from Ohio State University's European Module Skeletal Database (Steckel et al. 2019). The European Module project focused on health in the past and aggregated a large number of previously excavated and analyzed skeletal datasets. This large bioarcheology project resulted in a freely downloadable database with over 15,000 human skeletons ranging from Anglo-Saxon to modern time periods (0 CE to roughly 1850 CE) from 6 continents. The sample population chosen for this project is a dataset containing 621 female skeletons who were buried within the geographic area of modern United Kingdom. The researcher hypothesizes the changes in occurrence of degenerative joint disease (DJD) and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in the female skeletons could indicate a major shift in socio-economic patterns, specifically during United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution.

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, History

In the medieval era, Scandinavian settlers and raiders (now commonly thought of as “Vikings”) had an influential presence in Ireland, particularly Dublin. While one trend of historical thought views Vikings solely as aggressors in Ireland, newer perspectives have begun to dissect the role of Scandinavians within Ireland under a more neutral lens—one which involves studying the cultural influences and exchanges held between the native and foreign populations. This thesis first describes the ways in which historians have characterized the Viking presence in Ireland, and then examines how the Scandinavians are described in primary sources such as the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Inisfallen, and the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh. The manner in which the Vikings interact with these populations, the exact names that are being used to describe them (e.g. “Norsemen,” “Danes,” “dark foreigners,” “fair foreigners”), and the examination of how that contributes to the idea of different Scandinavian groups will be considered. Particularly with the sources from the Irish Sea zone, special attention will be paid to how the Scandinavians are being described in order to examine the apparent differentiation in groups of Vikings. Once that is established, it is then necessary to examine ethnicity within a medieval context, as well as looking at specific cultural interactions between the Irish and Scandinavians. Ethnicity was not the motivator or defining factor within society. Rather, kinship, alliances, and overarching lordship held more weight in determining the cohesion of people. Thus, while raiding and more violent interactions did occur, so did a variety of cultural exchanges and developments that allowed for a multi-cultural society to progress throughout the Viking Age. Through broadening the scope of perspective throughout the Irish Sea zone to observe the different units of Scandinavians, the ethnic perceptions and corroborations occurring between the native Irish population (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), University of Dayton, 2021, International Marian Research Institute

DENIS the Carthusian affirms Mary as the summa contemplatrix, interpreting the plenitude of grace of Luke 1:28 to include the theological gift of wisdom. In Dionysian thought, the gift of wisdom equates to mystical theology, unitive wisdom, or contemplation by negation, the highest form of prayer possible in this life to a wayfarer. Denis the Carthusian makes an original contribution to Marian studies by positing the exemplarity of Mary's prayer, in accord with Denis's notion of contemplation, suggesting that Mary enjoyed a singular perfection in Her intellectual knowledge of God before the Incarnation; was later instructed in mystical theology by Her Divine Son, the God-Man; and attained to the contemplative vision of God while still on earth as a foreshadowing of the beatific vision Mary now possesses in heaven. This doctoral dissertation, written by a cloistered monk not unlike Denis the Carthusian, seeks to penetrate the silence and solitude of contemplative monastic life lived by one of Christianity's most prolific authors and popularly hailed "the last of the schoolmen" to explore the notion of Marian contemplation and the incomparability of Mary's prayer for twenty-first century imitation and pastoral application.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, English

This dissertation examines three case studies of occupational folklore in early medieval England. Each of these cases reveal how medieval patterns of work could be disrupted in different ways. The first explores the language of solidarity in Rogation traditions by showing that ecclesiastics presented a Church-centered view of community through the festival. Because “community” is an abstract, vague concept, this case study argues that scholars can more clearly define the types of relationships that hold a community together. The second examines an emerging genre of estate management tracts between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Although scientific management is thought to begin under later capitalist industrial systems, this chapter argues that early medieval aristocrats were already experimenting with management science. Texts like Gerefa and Walter of Henley's agricultural treatises attempted to codify the knowledge and techniques needed to run an estate by removing it from the realm of orality and experiential learning. The third case investigates the hidden labor of medical practitioners. This chapter argues that medieval medicine depended on labor that is invisible in the textual record. Each case study draws on contemporary theories about labor to show how scholars can broaden the language through which we present the past to students in university classrooms.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, English

My dissertation offers a complete prospectus of medicine for women and for sexual and reproductive health that survives in manuscripts produced in England, c. 850-1100 CE. I demonstrate that the understudied manuscripts belonging to a medical tradition called the Herbarium complex were in fact better suited to the needs of child-bearing communities than either the earlier medical books (e.g., the tenth-century Bald's Leechbook) or the new galenic medical texts arriving in England in the late eleventh century. Of all surviving medical books of the period, only the Herbarium complex was woman-oriented and treatment-oriented, as opposed to the infant- and knowledge-oriented medicine found in competing medical traditions. I also show that the Herbarium complex was the only medical book that was continuously used to treat patients from c. 950-1300; all other contemporary medical books were quickly displaced by the influx of new Arabic medicine c. 1070. Further, this research reveals which communities used which medical books: with its high proportion of medicine for conception and contraception, the Herbarium was uniquely suited to treat sexually active communities of lay women, where other medical books were reserved for celibate communities of monks and nuns. Thus, this dissertation establishes for the first time that the Herbarium complex should be accorded a central position in our understanding of early and high medieval English medicine in general, and the treatment of woman patients in particular.

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2019, Humanities

The following thesis presents new perspectives on the representation of Byzantine generals during the eleventh century, focusing specifically on parallel representations of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder. I will argue that Byzantine chroniclers routinely employed the language of Byzantine military manuals as a template to describe the generals who populate the pages of their works. This tendency created a shared language of praise and censure which chroniclers applied to the generals whose reputation they sought either to exalt or to tarnish. The career of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder as it is presented in the History of Michael Attaleiates and the Materials for a History of Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger vividly demonstrates this tendency as Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger attempts to salvage the reputation of his grandfather.

BA, Oberlin College, 2019, History

Echo epidemics would sweep through Europe well into the eighteenth century, yet none would parallel the terror and drama particular to the Black Death (1348-1351), nor would they inflict as violent an injury upon paradigms of historical writing. This thesis explores and evaluates how the Black Death affected medieval historical narrative.

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This thesis examines queer identity in the twelfth-century theological treatise Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx, and the anonymous thirteenth-century Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that these texts queer medieval and contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality, both spiritually and narratively. In Part One of this project, I focus on Rievaulx Abbey in the North of England as a space for free expression from strict social binaries of sex and gender. Here I focus on Aelred, an abbot who promoted close, intimate bonds with others as a means of understanding theological notions of God in his text, Spiritual Friendship. Rather than contributing to the exploration of Aelred sexuality as a gay man, my aim in this chapter is to offer a shift in focus towards Aelred's gender expression and performance. Ultimately, I argue, Aelred queers traditional notions of love, God, and Cistercian theology through his emphasis on community and shared love in Spiritual Friendship. In Part Two, I move from English mysticism to French chantefable, or “song-story,” in Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that the text engenders in its two main characters queer identity through the inversion of traditional gender roles. Further, I argue that the performative aspect of the text allows for a dispersal of transgressive, queer identity via performance. In doing so, I push the definition of queer further than the tale's characters, arguing that the text itself becomes queer in its interaction with the reader. In expanding the genre and scope of this project from twelfth-century England to thirteenth-century France, I illustrate how expansive queer identity was in the Middle Ages.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Spanish

Mediante este ensayo, se discute y se destaca la manera en que la comida ha influenciado la cultura, la sociedad y la politica a lo largo de la historia hispanica y como la comida ha existido como un arma de poder y una herramienta de control por parte de la clase hegemonica del pasado y hoy en dia, al enfocarse en cuatro periodos generales: el mundo prehispanico, la Edad Media, el Renaciminto y el colonialismo y la epoca contemporanea. Primero, se establecen los contextos de la comida tanto en el mundo prehispanico como en la Espana antigua hasta la Reconquista, para demostrar las raices de la estrecha relacion entre la comida y la cultura en los contextos andinos y mesoamericanos ademas de los contextos romanos, arabes y catolicos. Enseguida, se analiza el Renacimiento, especialmente el renacimiento oscuro de Walter Mignolo y la formacion de la Otredad teorizada por Edward Said que ocurrian en Espana durante la colonizacion en America, y los efectos del intercambio colombino en la estratificacion social. Aqui se observa claramente el choque cultural desde la comida y como manipularla o quitarla era una manera de destruir y oprimir a la gente indigena que Europa se proponia vencer. Finalmente, se discute como los patrones del pasado continuan hoy en dia mediante la idea de la colonialidad de Anibal Quijano y se plantea la interconexion de problemas mundiales y asuntos trasnacionales neoliberales. A lo largo de la historia hispanica, los desarrollos respeto a las culturas y civilizaciones demuestran una coevolucion de la comida con la humanidad, ademas de un ciclo de opresion y resistencia a traves de la cocina. Considerando estas realidades, se encuentra frente al dilema del omnivoro propuesta por Michael Pollan y la pregunta central: “¿Que se debe comer?”

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2018, History

Through the analysis of the primary sources of Saint Patrick, Gildas, and Bede I will show how the different communities living within the British Isles utilized Christianity, as well as their Roman pasts, to formulate ethnic and cultural identities during the early Middle Ages for the purposes of differentiation and unification.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Greek and Latin

This dissertation offers an analytical history of Roman imperial accessions from the first century through the early years of the seventh century AD. It examines three phases of accessions: a `Roman-senatorial' phase, a `provincial-military' phase, and an initial `Constantinoplitan' phase. I distinguish each of these phases with reference to the typical site of accession, the central audience of the accession speech, and the predominate persona assumed by new emperors who successfully projected legitimate imperial authority. I argue that in less than 600 years, the prerogative to make new emperors changed hands three times. After the foundation of monarchical empire (27 BC-AD 14), the Roman populace (and the relatively few communities of citizens living in the provinces) delegated its right to make heads of state to the Roman Senate. They enjoyed this privilege for the first two centuries of the empire's existence (14-193 AD). In the second phase (212-383 AD), Roman frontier armies stripped the privilege of emperor-making from Rome and its Senate. A century after a major overhaul of the empire's administrative system, emperors decided to permanently settle in the eastern city of Constantinople. There, the circus-factions and populace in the hippodrome of Constantine's `New Rome on the Bosporos' would distinguish themselves as the electoral base of new emperors. While surveying each phase of accession, this history identifies and analyzes the communicative acts and political dynamics that defined successful imperial accession and restored anew the emperorship of the Romans. The dissertation closes with a hypothetical treatise instructing future emperors-elect on the essential tasks that they must perform in an accession speech in order to enact new emperorship.

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2018, English

As a recurring figure representative of the institution of kingship, King Arthur presents a unique rhetorical opportunity to examine sociopolitical anxieties of the Middle Ages. Because of his unique position, I propose Arthur himself is a text to be analyzed. With Arthur established as a text, specifically one of rhetorical significance, I analyze his subsequent iterations (historical and literary) as paratexts. Traditionally, paratextual analysis has involved an investigation of the literal and physical artifacts surrounding a text; however, by examining Arthur-the-figure as a text, I apply paratextual analysis theoretically. Rather than examining book bindings or author's notes, I argue Arthur's paratexts involve genre and the sociopolitical rhetoric of his authors. Through this method, I argue that Arthur is a transcendent text onto which sociopolitical anxieties are imposed, making him more than a literary figure but rather a rhetorical device of cultural memory and anxiety, particularly an anxiety of belonging. The works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Geoffrey Chaucer, Marie de France, and Sir Thomas Malory afford both an illustration of Arthur's transcendent temporality and insights into attempts at self-actualization. Reading Arthur-the-figure as a text provides not only significant opportunities to recover marginalized narratives of medieval England, but also insight into present sociopolitical anxieties.