Medieval History Commons^™

Medieval Intersections: Gender And Status In Europe In The Middle Ages, Ebba Strutzenbladh

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Fighter, Player, Hunter: Queer Women And Female Agents On Secular Gothic Ivories, Emma Le Pouésard

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This essay shines a light on the previously ignored queer representations of women on Gothic secular ivories, taking as its case studies three popular iconographical themes: the Castle of Love, the game of chess, and the courtly hunt. Refusing to yield to compulsory heterosexuality when looking at the indeterminately gendered bodies that populate these objects reveals both the ivories’ inherent queerness and their potential to interrogate their own normativity. Like the romance literature that inspired the images on these objects, they represent and enforce idealized gender norms with remarkable reluctance. In particular, the author highlights overlooked depictions of female homosocial …

Stone Fidelity: Marriage And Emotion In Medieval Tomb Sculpture, Amy Danielle Juarez

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women’S Friendship In Medieval Literature, Skye Oliver

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Female Authorship, Patronage, And Translation In Late Medieval France: From Christine De Pizan To Louise Labé, Alani Hicks-Bartlett

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Acts Of Care: Recovering Women In Late Medieval Health, Tanya Stabler Miller

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women Religious Crossing Between The Cloister And The World: Nunneries In Europe And The Americas, Ca. 1200–1700, Alexandra Verini

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women, Writing And Religion In England And Beyond, 650–1100, Andrew Breeze

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Notes On Contributors

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women’S Public Language In The "Old English Apollonius Of Tyre", Sophia D'Ignazio

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This article argues that the Old English Apollonius is a deliberate, complete adaptation of the Apollonius story that centers women’s learning. Read as an integral narrative, rather than a fragment, the Old English Apollonius becomes a story about Princess Arcestrate’s education and governance. Following hagiographical models, Arcestrate’s learning and virtue take center stage, with Apollonius displaced into the supporting role of teacher. The adaptation celebrates female learning as the means of moral governance and dynastic success.

Lesbians Like Me, Judith M. Bennett

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

In 1973, I was a brand new lesbian and also a brand new medievalist. This essay explores how these two strands of my life diverged and intersected over the course of my career. It has sad bits but is mostly happy. I hope it will interest many of you today, and I also hope that its story of change-for-the-better continues for all of us.

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal Of Gender And Sexuality 59.1 (2023)

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Reading The Books Of Margery Kempe And Alice Pyett: Attachment And Feminist Restoration In Michelle Paver's "Wakenhyrst", Laura Varnam

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This article examines reading, attachment, and the restoration of female voices in Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst, a 2019 novel inspired by the fifteenth-century mystic and author, Margery Kempe. The article foregrounds and analyses the author’s own response to the novel and to Paver's comments about Kempe from the perspective of Rita Felski's work on art and attachment (2020) and in the context of Carolyn Dinshaw's reading of Hope Emily Allen's championing of Margery Kempe (2012). Underpinned by a framework that draws on medievalism studies (particularly Katherine Brown's concept of 'restoration'), the article explores the ways in which Paver's two readers …

Apostate Nuns In The Later Middle Ages, Morgan Mcminn

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

A Life Of Ill Repute: Public Prostitution In The Middle Ages, Amanda Scott

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

The Basque Seroras: Local Religion, Gender, And Power In Northern Iberia, 1550–1800, Phyllis Zagano

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women, Food, And Diet In The Middle Ages: Balancing The Humors, Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women Warriors And National Heroes: Global Histories, Misty Urban

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Cárcel De Amor / The Prison Of Love, Laura Francis, Álvaro Garrote Pascual

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

The Hidden History Of The Norseman And Celts, Amber Nicole Johnson

Whittier Scholars Program

When people hear the word Celts or Vikings there seems to be a common stigma or romanticization of them. This seems to stem from the early iron age and has shifted over to the 21st century with the production of movies and franchises. They are often depicted as being savage, barbaric, or warrior based (a term used to describe them) when there is a whole other side to these people. In the Spring of 2023, I took an independent study course that allowed me to examine the available archaeological and other evidence to understand the identities of the Germanic and …

The Third Horseman: Preventability Versus Apocalypse In The Great Famine Of 1315 And The Irish Potato Famine, Luke Ziegler

Honors Theses

Famine is a huge problem for societies, even in the modern world. Throughout history, famine has reared its ugly head and brought about demographic and societal collapse. The Great Famine of 1315 Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, despite their differences, had similar underlying factors of land management and overpopulation paired with an environmental catalyst, and also show that governmental response has the potential to both cause and prevent a famine, but only if the scale of the problem is limited. They both examine the question of national identity and create a multitude of debates in later historiography. Although these …

Æthelflæd, Lady Of The Mercians, And Women In Tenth-Century England, Rebecca Hardie

Richard Rawlinson Center Series

Æthelflæd (ca. 870–918), political leader, military strategist, and administrator of law, is one of the most important ruling women in English history. Despite her multifaceted roles and family legacy, however, her reign and relationship with other women in tenth-century England have never been the subject of a book-length study. This interdisciplinary collection of essays redresses a notable hiatus in scholarship of early medieval England. Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England argues for a reassessment of women’s political, military, literary, and domestic agency. It invites deeper reflection on the female kinships, networks, and communities that give meaning …

Material Culture In The Mediterranean: An Exploration And Examination Of Anti-Judaic And Antisemitic Spanish Medieval Cultural History, Madison Elizabeth Tarleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author Gavin Langmuir produced two monographs during his career, both published in 1990. Across both texts, one a proper monograph and one a compilation of essays, he offers a bifurcation of anti-Judaism and antisemitism. These texts illuminate his definitions of the terms and his differentiations on the basis of reason and rationality. Using the bones of these theories, I propose a different kind of bifurcation of these terms as it relates to Mediterranean (medieval) material culture using a cultural historical lens. By applying Gavin Langmuir's theoretical model of nonrational anti-Judaism and irrational antisemitism to material culture, I argue that visual …

Social Sanguinity: Communal Ties And The Pursuit Of Political Power In Saga Age Iceland, Sam Fearnside

History Theses

Prior to the Norwegian annexation, Icelandic society lacked a government with an executive branch. As a result their legal system evolved in a highly privatized fashion in which individuals and their families were expected to self-advocate in order to assert and defend their rights and interests. Icelandic law also privatized the prosecution of criminals and enforcement of legal verdicts. Such a legal system required individual Icelanders to forge and maintain an array of social connections in order to protect themselves from both legal actions brought against them and the violent feuds that resulted due to the system’s short comings.

This …

Historical Interpretations And Their Legacies: Dialectical Materialism And The Umayyad Conquest Of Morocco, Grayson Shaw

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The death of the Prophet in the 7th century paved the way for the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the largest empires by land to exist in human history. Most notably, the Umayyads controlled a territory that spanned from India across North Africa into Spain. Along this expansionary route, the Arab Umayyads interacted with, integrated, and fought local indigenous Amazigh people all along Northern Africa into Morocco. Historical records about the Umayyad influence in Morocco are widely varied, ranging from later Abbasaid records to 20th century European interpretations. At its core, the Umayyad conquest of Morocco has fallen victim to interpretations …

Up The Social Ladder: How Chinese Merchants Excelled Under The New Values Of Ming-Qing China, James B. Townsend

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Ming China was a socially volatile period of Chinese history. Social distinctions were blurred as the merchant class rose to power to challenge old Confucian ideals in a commerce-based society. This paper examines what paved the road for the merchant class to rise, and how the non-elite empowerment shifted China's attitudes towards consumption and commerce.

Remix The Manuscript: Transcription Tools Dataset 2.0, Michelle Warren, Arielle Feuerstein

Other Faculty Materials

The document posted here is an annotated dataset of digital tools for transcribing handwritten manuscripts. Release 2.0 was created in 2022-23 by Arielle Feuerstein as part of the ongoing project "Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments.” The file attached here contains the dataset as completed on June 28, 2023 along with credits for prior contributors.

A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson

Masters Theses

This body of work examines the involvement of association as it relates to our cultural interpretations of natural phenomena. Flowers and animals, both real and imagined, have been used as symbols for human morality since the beginning of human history. Two sources with which I drew inspiration from are medieval bestiaries and the Victorian practice of flower language. By combining elements from these references, I aim to pair this idea about the human need for classification with my own considerations about my identity. In combination, I also aim to highlight the responsibility that is intrinsic to curiosity. When faced with …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

Obscene Pedagogies: Transgressive Talk And Sexual Education In Late Medieval Britain, Jenny C. Bledsoe

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.