Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform I-IV
Conferences & Lectures Religious History Women's History
Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform I-IV
Conferences & Lectures Religious History Women's History

Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform I-IV

This recap of four sessions on gender and monastic reform in the Middle Ages at the International Medieval Congress, July 2017—#s1030, #s1130, #s1230, #s1330—was originally published at Storify until that service closed down.

Recent years have seen tremendous progress in the study of how institutional, liturgical, and spiritual reform was planned, debated, implemented, and challenged in monastic communities of the medieval period. This includes a significant amount of research on gender aspects of monastic culture, and on male-female relations in the context of women’s monasticism: yet so far, discussions for distinct periods have rarely intersected. These four sessions sought to address this lack of cross-temporal debate.

Session 1030: Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform, I: Early Medieval Transformations

The first speaker was Anne-Marie Helvétius on “Reforming Male and Female Communities in Merovingian Gaul.”

The next speaker was Albrecht Diem on “Enclosure Re-Opened: Gender and Sacred Space in Early Medieval Monasticism”.

The last speaker in the session was Gordon Blennemann on “Who Has the Fairest Prayers of Them All?: Gendered Transformations of Monastic Liturgy in the Early Medieval West.“

Session 1130: Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform, II: Establishing Gendered Realities in the High Middle Ages

The first speaker was Jirki Thibaut on “‘Canonicae vivere, claustra tenere’: The Negotiation of Reform in Female Monastic Communities in 10th-Century Saxony.“

The second speaker was Sarah Greer, who spoke on “Sophia the Proud?: Gender and Imperial Identity in the Gandersheim Conflict.”

The third speaker was Tracy Collins, who gave a paper entitled “Transforming Women Religious?: 12th-Century Church Reform and the Archaeology of Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland.”

Session 1230: Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform, III: Negotiating Communal Identities, 1050-1250

I was the first speaker, presenting, “‘Concerning the Sisters Who Persist in Their Stubbornness’: Gender and the Abbot Gervais’s Programme of Reform for the Premonstratensian Order.”

The second speaker was Sara Moens, whose talk was called, “‘Moniales incorporatae sunt’: The Role of the Bishop and Abbots in Institutionalizing Female Religious Fervor in Liège in the 13th Century.”

The last person on the panel was Kirsty Day, who spoke on “The Role of Franciscan Women in Transmitting, Developing, and Implementing the Mandates of the Fourth Lateran Council.”

Session 1330: Gendered Perspectives on Monastic Reform, IV: Late Medieval Reflections and Responses

The first speaker in the final panel was Julie Hotchin, who looked at “The Provost as ‘Wise Architect’ of Reform: Gender and Material Culture at Ebstorf in the Late 15th Century.”

The day’s final speaker was Jennifer De Vries, who spoke on, “Reforming the Semi-Monastic: Beguines and Male Authority in the Late Medieval Low Countries.”

 

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