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IMC 2017: Sessions

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

Wednesday 5 July 2017, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Religion & Society in the Early & Central Middle Ages (ReSoMa), Universiteit Gent / Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Gent
Organisers:Jirki Thibaut, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent / KU Leuven
Steven Vanderputten, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent
Moderator/Chair:Anne-Marie Helvétius, amhelvetius@univ-paris8.fr
Paper 1130-a'Canonicae vivere, claustra tenere': The Negotiation of Reform in Female Monastic Communities in 10th-Century Saxony
(Language: English)
Jirki Thibaut, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent / KU Leuven
Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 1130-bSophia the Proud?: Gender and Imperial Identity in the Gandersheim Conflict
(Language: English)
Sarah Greer, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 1130-cTransforming Women Religious?: 12th-Century Church Reform and the Archaeology of Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland
(Language: English)
Tracy Collins, Aegis Archaeology Ltd, Limerick
Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life
Abstract

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. In a second of four sessions that seek to address this lack of cross-temporal debate, speakers will consider gendered aspects of reform in the transitional phase of the 10th to 12th centuries: Jirki Thibaut will consider the tension between canonical and Benedictine modes of life in female convents in 10th-century Saxony, while Sarah Greer will consider issues of gendered and aristocratic identity in women's convents of the same region; finally, Tracy Collins will explore the material testimonies of the reform of female institutions in Ireland.