Skip to main content

IMC 2017: Sessions

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

Wednesday 5 July 2017, 16.30-18.00

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:Sara Moens, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent
Paper 1330-aThe Provost as 'Wise Architect' of Reform: Gender and Material Culture at Ebstorf in the Late 15th Century
(Language: English)
Julie Hotchin, School of History, Australian National University, Canberra
Index terms: Gender Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 1330-bReforming the Semi-Monastic: Beguines and Male Authority in the Late Medieval Low Countries
(Language: English)
Jennifer de Vries, Department of History, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Index terms: 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 final of four sessions that seek to address this lack of cross-temporal debate, speakers will consider late medieval reflections and responses to reform: Julie Hotchin will investigate aspects of material change as a result of male-induced reform in women's convents; and finally Jennifer De Vries explores attempts by male agents to establish their authority over beguines in the Low Countries.