Lauren Mancia
I find myself continually returning to the same historical question in my work on the European Middle Ages: how did Christians understand God, and how was their understanding shaped by contemporary events, intellectual developments, and emotional needs? So far, I've spent most of my time pursuing this question in the period between the tenth- and twelfth-centuries, particularly in the monastic sphere. For my dissertation, I am working on the spiritual writings of John of Fécamp (ca. 990-1078 C.E.) and the devotional culture at his monastery in Normandy in the eleventh-century, with a particular focus on the manuscript culture there. My dissertation committee includes Paul Freedman (chair), Anders Winroth, Denys Turner (Religious Studies/Yale Divinity School), and Fiona Griffiths (NYU, History).
2011-2012 is my fourth year in Yale's history department. This fall 2011, I am a teaching fellow for Professor Paul Freedman's course "The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000." From January to August 2012, I will be in France on a Fulbright doing research on my dissertation. I have received additional funding to support my research from the Etienne Gilson Dissertation Grant from the Medieval Academy of America; the John B. and Theta H. Wolf Travel Fellowship from the Society for French Historical Studies; the Elizabeth Ann Bogert Fund for the Study and Practice of Christian Mysticism; the National Organization for Italian American Women; and the Yale MacMillan Center.
My fields of study for oral exams (passed in April 2011) were: Medieval Cultural, Intellectual, and Religious History with Anders Winroth; Medieval Political, Social, and Economic History with Paul Freedman; and Religious History in the Early Modern Atlantic World with Bruce Gordon. In the past, I have taught for Prof. Donald Kagan's course on Ancient Greek History and Prof. Alexander Nemerov's introductory survey of the history of Western art from the Renaissance to the present.
Originally from New York, I graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in English and Medieval Studies in 2005, and also got an M.A. in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 2006. I then spent two years teaching history, art history, and theater at a private high school in Manhattan. While at Yale, I regularly lecture at The Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the study of medieval art.
