Purdue University College of Liberal Arts

Information for

Past Events

Spring 2008 Events:

"A Marriage Made in Hell: Female Spirituality and the Rise of Witchcraft"
by Dyan Elliott, Northwestern University
Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 4:30 p.m.
Stewart Center, Room 206

See flier.

Dyan Elliott, John Evans Professor of History at Northwestern University, is historian of western Europe in the Middle Ages.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1989.  Her interests center around gender, spirituality, and sexuality and the way these three variables interact.  She is especially intrigued by how the margins help to define the center of a given society.

This talk is sponsored by the Religious Studies Program, the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program and the Department of History.

Fall 2007 Events:

Medieval Double-Bill
November 14, 3:30-4:45, PMU 118
Dorsey Armstrong (English, Purdue), "Arthur's Neighbors: The Case of Cornwall in Malory's Morte Darthur"

Patricia Clare Ingham (English, Indiana University), "Chaucer's Little Nothings: The Squire's Tale and the Ambition of Gadgets"


Renaissance Reading Brown Bag - Fall 2007 PDF Document


MARS Fall Symposium
"Contemporary Old English Philology"
Thursday, September 27
5:00 p.m.
RAWL 1011

Keynote Speakers:
Robert D. Fulk, Chancellor's Professor of English, Indiana University
"Philology and the Changing Text of Frederick Klaeber's _Beowulf_". 
Alger N. Doane, Professor of English (Emeritus), University of  Wisconsin-Madison
"Documenting the Death of Old English: The King's English and the 
Monks."


Fall 2006 Events:

As part of the Illuminations Series in Philosophy & Literature
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
4:30-5:45, MTHW 111
Ann Astell, "When Pardon is Impossible: Two Talmudic Tales, Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale,' and Levinas"

November 1, 2006
5:30, TBA
David Parrish (Art History, Department of Art and Design) will be speaking about the collection of icons recently donated to Purdue University.

"Faith Based Political Engagement"
November 9, 2006
8:00 p.m., Beering Hall, Room 2280
Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain

5th Annual Comitatus Conference for Medieval Studies
February 23-24, 2007
"On the Edge: Representations of Liminality in Medieval Europe"
Plenary Session Speaker: Professor Patricia Claire Ingham, Indiana University
Please check back for further details.

Spring 2006 Events:

Comitatus Graduate Student Conference
February 17-18, 2006
"(Re)imagining Arthur: Cultural and Theoretical Contexts of the Arthurian Legends"
Plenary Session Speaker: Professor Bonnie Wheeler, Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX and Editor of Arthuriana.


Fall 2005 Events:

TWO VISIONS OF THE CROSS: The Anglo-Saxon "Dream of the Rood" and the Ruthwell Cross

Thursday, September 22, 2005

What does it mean to "see" a religious vision, to "hear" a saint's speech?  To what extent is the authenticity of such experiences to be measured by their sheer unexpectedness and unusualness?  Is it possible to practice meditating consciously upon scriptural and liturgical symbols, on works of religious art, in such a vivid and imaginative way that they can, as it were, suddenly "come alive" before one's spiritual eye?  Can a work of religious art (re)appear in a vision?  Conversely, to what extent can a religious experience be memorialized in a work of visual art?

Over a thousand years ago, an anonymous poet and an unnamed sculptor envisioned the cross of Christ in strikingly beautiful ways that have awakened questions about the possible connections between their separate artistic expressions; about the reception of the Christian cross and its acculturation in a pagan society with its own religious symbols; and broader, theo-aesthetical questions about the relationship between the spiritual and physical senses:  sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

In this year’s Medieval Studies September Symposium, two respected scholars will reflect upon these historical and theoretical issues.  Professor Thomas Hall (Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago) will speak on "Prophetic Vision in 'The Dream of the Rood,'" and Professor Catherine E. Karkov (Department of Art History, Miami University of Ohio) will address the topic, "Envisioning the Ruthwell Cross."