Kathryn Coldiron (M.A. Student) writes: “Since the last newsletter, I have completed my graduate coursework in medieval history with a minor in public history. I received high marks on my master's essay on the Chicago church St. James last spring, and have recently completed my comprehensive examination and am awaiting the results.  In the meantime, I am enjoying working full time in the Books and Manuscripts Department at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.”   

Andrew Donnelly (Ph.D. Candidate) reports: Since our last newsletter, I presented the paper "Food in Byzantine Italy: Ceramics, Texts, and Acculturation" at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, MI, and the poster "Byzantine Ceramics in Italy: Reconstructing a Dietary History" at the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores conference in Belgrade.  I am currently finishing the next chapter of my dissertation ("Food and Society in Late Antique and Early Medieval Italy"), teaching Loyola's Medieval Studies course, and completing my portion of an article on a ceramic assemblage from a rescue excavation in Ostia.  This December I'll present "Roman Ceramics in Roman Cooking Texts"
at the conference "Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: the Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean World" in London. 

Thomas Greene (Ph.D. Candidate) writes: Since the last newsletter, I was awarded the history department's McCluggage essay prize for chapter one of my dissertation ("De filii irae facit filios Dei: Emotional Transformation in the Carolingian Baptismal Ritual"). More importantly, I have made significant progress on the dissertation. I wrote two chapters: Chapter Three ("Ardenti affectu: Experiencing the Mass in Late-Ninth-Century Auxerre") and of Chapter Five ("Hoc ad diem iudicii pertinet: Emotions, Death and the Afterlife in Ninth-Century Auxerre") as well as a first draft of the Introduction. I hold the Medieval Academy of America's Birgit Baldwin Fellowship for the 2010-11 academic year, thanks to which I am currently in Paris conducting archival research. I am also working on a draft of the one remaining chapter of my dissertation (on Heiric of Auxerre/penance) and I will have a full draft of my dissertation completed by the end of December. After attending the AHA annual meeting, I will return to Paris in the spring semester to conclude my work in the archives. Also, I have been invited to present an overview of my dissertation at the Encuentros Complutenses de Investigación en Historia Medieval seminar held at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in February 2011. I plan to defend my dissertation in the late spring/early summer. 

Emily Inman (M.A. Student) notes: “This year marks my introduction to graduate studies.  As a first year masters student, I am still charting my direction of study.  This spring, I hope to begin working with primary documents on a more regular basis and to further refine my interest in the interchange of culture during the High Middle Ages.  I look forward to seeing where this year takes me.”  

Daniel O'Gorman (Ph.D. Student) reports: “This past year has been the first full year devoted to my dissertation, and I've made substantial progress on three chapters.  Last April I gave a paper at the Literature and Law Conference hosted by John Jay College in Manhattan entitled "Memorialization or Ossification? Accumulating Earlier Law Codes in 11th-Century Anglo-Saxon England" that summarized many of the findings from my chapter on laws.  In July, at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, England, I read my paper "'Pour encourager les autres': Mutilation and Display in II Æthelstan."  I have been invited to submit an expanded version of this paper as a chapter for a volume entitled Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England that is scheduled to go to press next year.  While in England, I had the opportunity to do some manuscript work, both at the British Library and at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  This fall, I'm teaching both U.S. History and Contemporary Global Issues at Loyola.  In the upcoming summer, I plan to present International Society of Anglo-Saxonists' biennial conference in Madison, Wisconsin, and at the Mellon Symposium on Medieval Subjectivities at Northwestern. 

Jilana Ordman (Ph.D. Candidate) reports: “This past year I continued to research and write my dissertation, 'Feeling Like a Crusader: Clerical Authors' Attribution of Affect as Evidence for Combatants’ Motives.' In April 2010 I won a paper prize for an overview of my dissertation research composed for a general academic audience, at Loyola's 3rd Annual Interdisciplinary Research Symposium for Graduate Students and Alumni. I am currently writing my project's introduction, and plan to soon move on to editing my completed chapters. After my dissertation defense and final submission next summer, I hope to participate in an interdisciplinary workshop in London currently being organized by the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East to aid junior scholars with research in this area.”

Christopher Panagakis (M.A. Student) says: “I am approaching the halfway mark in my coursework towards the M.A. in History.  Last year I successfully completed Professor Dossey's seminar in Early Medieval Archaeology with a paper titled "From Eel to Cod: The Changing Face of Fish Consumption in Medieval England".  I am currently taking Father McManamon's course on Shipwreck Archaeology and my interest in integrating Medieval History and Archaeology grows daily.  I am particularly looking forward to Professor Rosenwein's seminar in the History of Emotions next semester as I am certain it will be a welcome break from technical jargon of Archaeological excavation reports.” 

Stephanie Ridella (M.A. Student) reports: “I am glad to have returned to Chicago this fall, and am happily immersed in my coursework this fall.  I've continued to improve both my French and my Latin, which should be enormously helpful as I prepare to write my Master's Essay next spring.  I will also have the pleasure of taking Dr. Rosenwein's seminar this spring on the History of Emotions.  I hope to complete the degree this fall, and intend to attend law school next fall.” 

Lauren Sheehy (M.A. Student) says: “I have just begun my first year as a Master’s student, and feel I have successfully transitioned into the graduate program. I am currently only taking a part-time course load, my present courses being Latin and Medieval and Early Modern Shipwrecks, as I work full time training horses and teaching horseback riding lessons. I am eagerly looking forward to Dr. Rosenwein’s seminar on the history of emotions next spring, as well as continuing my study of Latin and hopefully, in the near future, French.”  

Panos Siampos (M.A. Student) writes: “During the Fall Semester 2010 I am completing my Masters Essay, which I will submit by Dec. 2010.  Under the guidance of Fr. McManamon, I am writing on Michael Apostolios’s Oratio Funebris (1472) and how Byzantine-Greek rhetoric fit within the context of funeral oratory of the Italian Renaissance.  I have also made a translation of the Oratio and hope in the near future to offer it for publication and presentation at conferences.  In the more immediate future, however, I will also be consumed by preparations to write exams during the Spring 2011 semester. 

Maria Wagner (M.A. Student) writes: “In the last year, I have finished my medieval coursework.  Also, I was honored to have presented my work on Bernard of Clairvaux’s role in the divorce of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine at Vagantes 2010, held in Albuquerque, NM, and at the graduate student conference of the Newberry Library.  This semester, I am taking my major exam and have begun coursework in Public History with a desire to pursue archiving.  I have also been pleased to serve as the volunteer Treasurer of the Glenwood Sunday Market, a new local farmers' market in Rogers Park."