Dissertation title: "Children of the Flesh": Sanctity, Gender, and Domesticity in the Central and Late Medieval West, 1150-1500."
Director: Dr. Katherine L. Jansen

I am interested in the history of the family, gender, and sanctity in the late medieval west. My dissertation evaluates the hagiography of "parent-saints," that is, individuals who achieved a reputation for extreme holiness in addition to (or perhaps despite) being biological parents. I am particularly interested in how the hagiographers of these saints depicted the domestic lives of their subjects and the extent to which the care of one’s own children was seen as compatible with the demands of Christian devotion. My dissertation argues that there was no one template for how to portray "parent-saints." The great variety of ways in which the domestic lives of "parent-saints" were either celebrated or ignored sheds light on how discourses surrounding sex, fertility, masculinity and femininity, sanctity, religious purity, and the value of children were articulated and negotiated in the medieval world.

Before coming to Catholic Univeristy, I completed a B.S. at Corban University and then spent a few years in secondary education. My passion for teaching preceded my interest in academic research, the former being the impetus which inspired me to pursue the latter. I completed an M.A. in Late Medieval and Early Modern history at Catholic University in 2015. Since then, I have had the privilege of teaching history at Catholic University, Mount St. Mary’s University (Emmitsburg, MD), and Holy Trinity School in Georgetown. When not researching or teaching the premodern world, I enjoy spending time with my husband, two children, and three dogs.

 

Highlights

Conferences:

“A Mystic for a Mother: The Intersection of Sanctity and Domesticity in the vitae of Medieval Mother-Saints,” Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Presenter, March 2022

“The Inconvenient Child: Analyzing the Desire for Child Mortality in the vitae of ‘Parent-Saints’,” planned to be presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 7-10, 2020.  (Conference canceled due to COVID-19. The panel has been rescheduled for 2021)

“Sanctity and Parenthood: Deconstructing the hagiography of ‘parent-saints’ in the late medieval West,” presented at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 1-4, 2019

“‘Against the Laws of Nature': Martyrs, Mothers, and Patriarchs in the Late Antique West," presented at "Family in the Premodern World: A Comparative Approach", Princeton University, April 7-8, 2017.                 

“‘The Good Wife’: The Construction and Practice of ‘Motherhood’ in Fifteenth-Century England as Revealed by Conduct Literature,” presented at the Phi Alpha Theta Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, Georgetown University, March 28, 2015.   

Awards:

Excellence in Teaching Award, History Department, The Catholic University of America, 2018.

Outstanding History Student of the Year, History Department, Corban University, 2011.