Medieval Studies Commons^™

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Cultural Memory And The Search For Identity In Victorian Fantasy Fiction, Sadie Boggs

Honors College Theses

Fantasy literature's origins can be traced through myths and folktales, medieval romances, enlightenment fairy tale fantasy, and Romanticism, before finally taking firmer root in the Victorian period and blooming into its own genre in 20th century modern fantasy. Victorian thinkers reacted to the Enlightenment’s realism and technological innovation by “rediscovering” the Middle Ages as a time of beauty, simplicity, and moral virtue. Simultaneously, Psychology developed as a recognized field of study, and theories emerged about the psychological process of memory formation and retrieval, as well as its reliability and relation to identity.

Considering these psychological theories, Victorian fantasy's cultural memory …

The Architect Of The Past: Heinrich Himmler's Remaking Of Germany's History., Chad M. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the complex interplay between historical narratives, ideological manipulation, and cultural artifacts in Heinrich Himmler’s efforts to reshape Germany’s history during the Nazi regime. The study shows how Himmler used historical revisionism to mythologize Germanic history to support Nazi ideology. Himmler used the Ahnenerbe, an SS organization, to research and propagate distorted narratives, fabricating artifacts to legitimize the Aryan myth and assert Germanic superiority. Influenced by movements like the Völkisch Movement, Himmler's ideology relied on pseudo-historical narratives to shape public perception and Nazi policies. The study analyzes Himmler's writings and the spatial transformation of sites like Wewelsburg Castle …

Res Historica, Volume 3, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The 2024 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, Johnathan Sorce, and Samuel Sanders.

Fra Angelico In San Marco: A Comparison Of Fra Angelico’S Frescoes And Altarpieces During His Time In San Marco, Isaac Copeland

Tenor of Our Times

Fra Angelico stood at the crossroads of two major art movements in the early 15th century, the old International Gothic style, and the new Renaissance style. During his stay at San Marco between 1436, when the monastery moved to Florence, and 1445, when Fra Angelico was summoned to Rome, his work reflected elements of both the International Gothic style and the Renaissance style. However, in his works at San Marco, his panel paintings were more conservative, painted with more Gothic conventions than his frescos, which exhibited elements of the rising Renaissance.

Foundation Of Empire In The Tudor Era: Further Explorations Of The Northeast And Northwest Passages, Richard H. Lloyd Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The British Empire is often traced back to the late sixteenth century and Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation, but Tudor monarchs had been eyeing expansion beyond Britain long before Drake. John Cabot, commissioned by Henry VII in the late fifteenth century, became the first European to step foot in the Americas in five centuries. Half a century later, adventurers like Richard Chancellor and Sir Hugh Willoughby sought a possible Northeast Passage to Asia, interacting with the Sami and Russians along the way. These expeditions and others like them, funded by the English monarchy and merchants, aimed to expand the kingdom’s economic …

Res Historica, Volume 1, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The inaugural journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, Hunter Curlee, and Johnathan Sorce. Cover art for this volume is the Phi Alpha Theta: Alpha Rho Epsilon logo created by Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg.

What Is The Sound Of Holiness? The Regulation Of Sound And Silence In Early Medieval Monastic Communities, 600-900, Melissa Kapitan

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation explores how the regulation of sound and silence in the early medieval monastery formed a distinct soundscape imbued with personal, communal, and theological resonances. More narrowly, this investigation focuses on the Frankish empire of the ninth century, which saw a series of monastic reforms led by the Carolingian royal family and ecclesiastical figures and consolidated in imperial legislation and treatises on the monastic life.

These ninth-century reforms witnessed not only the promotion of a single rule and custom to guide monastic life, but also a great flowering of liturgical texts, including the earliest treatises on musical theory. These …

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …

Between The Judean Desert And Gaza: Asceticism And The Monastic Communities Of Palestine In The Sixth Century, Austin Mccray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the religious culture of Christian monasticism in sixth-century Palestine. Rather than see the monastic communities of the Judean Desert, just to the east of Jerusalem, and those around Gaza as two independent monastic regions, as much scholarship has done, the dissertation focuses on the common threads that can be seen in the monastic teachings and idealized ascetic practices in the literature of the area. This dissertation reveals ways to redefine the boundaries between the monastic communities of Palestine during the sixth century as well as emphasizes the continuities between the monks of the Judean Desert and …

Mara Dzolan, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Marta Sarcevic & Mara Burecic, Maracic Marija, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Luca Markesic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Ruza Ilicic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Mara Pavlovic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Spices, Spirituality, And Scarcity: Experiences Of Food And Drink In The Middle Ages, Thomas Nelson

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………….......3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………27

III. Textbook Critique…………………………...37

IV. New Textbook Entry………………………...40

V. Bibliography…………………………………..49

Children Of A One-Eyed God: Impairment In The Myth And Memory Of Medieval Scandinavia, Michael David Lawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the lives of impaired individuals catalogued in the Íslendingasögur as a narrative framework, this study examines medieval Scandinavian social views regarding impairment from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Beginning with the myths and legends of the eddic poetry and prose of Iceland, it investigates impairment in Norse pre-Christian belief; demonstrating how myth and memory informed medieval conceptualizations of the body. This thesis counters scholarly assumptions that the impaired were universally marginalized across medieval Europe. It argues that bodily difference, in the Norse world, was only viewed as a limitation when it prevented an individual from fulfilling roles that …

Kata Ostojic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Zora Mendes, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Nevenka Vazgec, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Jagoda Duvnjak & Ana Komso, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

Memorializing The Middle Classes In Medieval And Renaissance Europe, Anne C. Leader

Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

Memorializing the Middle Classes in Medieval and Renaissance Europe investigates commemorative practices in Cyprus, Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Offering a broad overview of memorialization practices across Europe and the Mediterranean, individual chapters examine local customs through particular case studies. These essays explore complementary themes through the lens of commemorative art, including social status; personal and corporate identities; the intersections of mercantile, intellectual, and religious attitudes; upward (and downward) mobility; and the cross-cultural exchange of memorialization strategies.

The Impact Of Latin Culture On Medieval And Early Modern Scottish Writing, Alessandra F. Petrina, Ian M. Johnson

Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

In the late medieval and early modern periods, native tongues and traditions, including those of Scotland, cohabited and competed with latinitas in fascinating and inventive ways. Scottish latinity had its distinctive stamp, most intriguingly so in its effects upon the literary vernacular and on themes of national identity. The present book shows how, when viewed through the prism of its latinity, Scottish textuality was distinctive and fecund. The flowering of Scottish writing owed itself to a subtle combination of literary praxis, the ideal of eloquentia, and ideological deftness. This combination enabled writers to service a burgeoning national literary tradition, and …

Prosocial Religion And Games: Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

In a time when religious legal systems are discussed without an understanding of history or context, it is more important than ever to help widen the understanding and discourse about the prosocial aspects of religious legal systems throughout history. The Lost & Found (www.lostandfoundthegame.com) game series, targeted for an audience of teens through twentysomethings in formal, learning environments, is designed to teach the prosocial aspects of medieval religious systems—specifically collaboration, cooperation, and the balancing of communal and individual/family needs. Set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, the first two games in the series address laws in Moses Maimonides’ …

When We Were Monsters: Ethnogenesis In Medieval Ireland 800-1366, Dawn Adelaide Seymour Klos

Master's Theses

Ethnogenesis, or the process of identity construction occurred in medieval Ireland as a reaction to laws passed by the first centralized government on the island. This thesis tracks ethnogenesis through documents relating to change in language, custom, and law. This argument provides insight into how a new political identity was rendered necessary by the Anglo-Irish. Victor Turner’s model of Communitas structures the argument as each stage of liminality represents a turning point in the process of ethnogenesis.

1169 marked a watershed moment as it began the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. English nobles brought with them ideas of centralized power. In …

Depending On Sex? Tongue, Sieve, And Ladle Shaped Pendants From Late Iron Age Gotland, Meghan P. Mattsson Mcginnis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Artifacts of female dress such as brooches and pendants have long been objects of interest to scholars of late Iron Age /early medieval Scandinavia. They figure in dating and tracing stylistic developments, and their presence is often (controversially) used to help assign gender to burials. There are three types of pendants which constitute a type of feminine adornment unique to Viking Age Gotland: the so-called tongue, sieve, and ladle pendants. The purpose of this paper is to examine these pendant types and the possible symbolic and magical functions behind their forms and manner of use, and how these functions intersected …

Literary Theories Of Circumcision, A. W. Strouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Literary Theories of Circumcision” investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organizes literary experience. In every period of English literature, major authors have employed the penis’s hood as a figure for thinking about reading and writing. These authors belong to a tradition that defines textuality as a foreskin and interpretation as circumcision. In “Literary Theories of Circumcision,” I investigate the origins of this literary-theoretical formulation in the writings of Saint Paul, and then I trace this formulation’s formal applications among medieval, early modern, and modernist writers. My study lays the groundwork for an ambitious …

Displays Of Power In English Tudor Painting (1485-1603), Laura Meisner

Student Scholar Showcase

English painting between 1485 and 1603 shaped and was shaped by a myriad of cultural influences. Art historians generally agree that because England did not produce much of its own art until the 18^th century, it had a relatively slight impact on the development of Western art. A cursory history lesson of this time frame likely omits English art apart from the appearance of Hans Holbein the Younger as court painter under Henry VIII and Nicholas Hilliard during Elizabeth I’s reign. However, a study of English paintings throughout the entire Tudor period reflects its importance not only to England’s …