Faculty and Staff
Megan McLaughlin
Department of History
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
309 Gregory Hall, 810 South Wright Street
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Curriculum Vitae
Home Address: 509 West Iowa Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Telephone: 217-244-2084 (days); 217-344-5715 (evenings)
E-Mail: megmclau@uiuc.edu Fax: 217-333-2297
Education:
Ph.D., 1985, Stanford University, Stanford, California
M.A., 1977, Stanford University, Stanford, California
A.B., 1975, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
Academic Positions
Associate Professor, Department of History and Program in Women’s Studies, University of Illinois, 1992-
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Illinois, 1985-92
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Illinois, 1983-85
Instructor, Department of History, Tufts University, 1982-83
Instructor, North Shore Women's School, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1980
Books
Consorting with Saints: Prayer for the Dead in Early Medieval France. Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1994
Sex, Gender, and Authority in the High Middle Ages (under contract with
Cambridge University Press, delivery date, August, 2006)
Articles
“Women and Men,” in Miri Rubin and Walter Simons, ed., The Cambridge
History of Christianity, vol. 4: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1000-c. 1500 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
“Spiritual and Secular Fatherhood in the Eleventh Century,” pp. 25-43 in Jacqueline Murray, ed., Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities: Men in the Medieval West. New York: Garland Press, 1999
"The Bishop as Bridegroom: Marital Imagery and Clerical Celibacy in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries," pp. 209-37 in Michael Frassetto, ed., Medieval Purity and Piety: Essays on Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform.
New York: Garland Press, 1998
“Abominable Mingling: Father-Daughter Incest and the Law,” Medieval Feminist Newsletter 24 (Fall, 1997): 26-30
“On Feminism and Medievalism: Musings from a Prone Position." Medieval Feminist Newsletter 19 (Spring, 1995), 21-23
“The Twelfth-Century Ritual of Death and Burial at Saint-Jean-en-Vallée in the Diocese of Chartres." Revue Bénédictine 105 (1995), 155-66
"'Familiarity and Love': Noble Friendship and Liturgical Commemoration in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries." Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History 18 (1991), 60-69
"Gender Paradox and the Otherness of God." Gender & History 3 (1991), 147-59
"On Communion with the Dead." Journal of Medieval History 17 (1991), 23-34
"The Woman Warrior: Gender, Warfare and Society in Medieval Europe."
Women's Studies 17 (1990), 193-209
Under Review
From Allegory to Law: The Image of Ecclesia in the Libelli de lite," in Karen Fresco, ed., Images of Authority and the Authority of Images
Book Reviews
Uta-Renate Blumenthal, Gregor VII. Papst zwischen Canossa und Kirchenreform (Darmstadt, 2001), Speculum 78 (2003): 140-41
James Howard-Johnston and Paul Antony Hayward, eds., The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 1999), Church History 70 (2001): 775-77
Jean-Claude Schmitt, Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society (Chicago, 1998), in The Historian 62 (2000): 698
Paul Edward Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (Lincoln, NB, 1994), in American Historical Review 101 (1996): 165
Dyan Elliott, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock (Princeton, 1993) and Pierre J. Payer, The Bridling of Desire: Views of Sex in the Later Middle Ages (Toronto, 1993), in Journal of the History of Sexuality 6 (1995): 118-21
John W. Bernhardt, Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936-1075 (Cambridge, Eng., 1993), in The German Quarterly 68
(1995): 193-95
David Abulafia, Michael Franklin, and Miri Rubin, eds., Church and City, 1000-1500: Essays in Honour of Christopher Brooke (Cambridge, Eng., 1992), in The German Quarterly 68 (1995): 75-77
Penelope D. Johnson, Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France (Chicago, 1991) and Jean R. Brink, Maryanne C. Horowitz, and Allison P. Coudert, eds., Playing with Gender: A Renaissance Pursuit (Urbana, IL, 1991), in Signs 18: 2 (Winter, 1993): 480-85
Yvette Duval, Auprès des saints, corps et âme: l’inhumation <<ad sanctos>> dans la chrétienté d’orient et d’occident du IIIe au VIIe siècle (Paris, 1988), in Speculum 66 (1991):394-96
Selected Conference Papers
"Allegory, Ritual and Law: Images of Ecclesia in the
Polemical Literature of the Investiture Conflict," Images of Authority and the
Authority of Images, joint UIUC-CNRS conference, 2003
"Absalom, Absalom: Henry IV and His Sons," Illinois Medieval Association Conference, 2003
“Where’s Papa? Eleventh-Century Popes as Spiritual Fathers,” Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 2000
“Women/Power/Politics,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1999
“Spiritual and Secular Fatherhood in Eleventh-Century Europe," Midwest Medieval History Conference, 1997
"Engendering Memory: Women, Men, and Liturgical Commemoration in Twelfth-Century Chartres,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1994
"The Bishop as Bridegroom: Marital Imagery and Ecclesiastical Authority in Eleventh-Century Europe," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 1994
"Mors Apostolica: Death and the Canons Regular," Annual Meeting of the Society for French Historical Studies, 1993
"Caesar's Mother: Representations of the Empress Agnes in the Polemical Literature of the Investiture Conflict," Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, 1992
"Rethinking the Politics of Reform: Sex, Gender, and Power in the Eleventh Century," International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1990
"The Adolescence of the Parish: Ecclesiastical Politics and the Bodies of the Dead in Medieval Angers," Midwest Medieval History Conference, 1989
"Liturgy and Ideology: Carolingian Bishops and Monks on Prayer for the Dead," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 1987
Other Professional Activities:
Organizer, Conference on "The New Eleventh Century," to be held at UIUC, October, 2006
Consultant to the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity on the liturgy for the consecration of widows, 1999
Keynote speaker for the “Royal University of the Midwest” of the Society for Creative Anachronism, 1999
Organizer of session on “Gender and the Gregorian Reform,” Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 2000
Organizer of session on "Bodies Sacred, Human, and Politic: Sexuality and Politics in Two Pre-Modern Societies," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 1994
Chair for session on "Women and the Power of Religious Transformation: Comparative Perspectives," Berkshire Conference on Women’s History, 1993
Commentator for session on "Continuities and Ruptures: From Carolingian Renaissance to Eleventh-Century Revolution," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 1991
Chair, Commentator for session on "The Body, Chastity, and Society," International Congress on Medieval Studies, 1991
Commentator for Session on "Authority, the Family, and the Dead in Europe and China," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, 1988
Invited Participant in NEH Workshop on "Music as a Cultural Institution in the
Middle Ages and Renaissance," Newberry Library, 1988
Editorial Work:
Associate Editor, Journal of Women's History; Guest Editor (with
Elizabeth Pleck) for special issue on Domestic Violence
Manuscript Reviewer for:
Church History, French Historical Studies, Signs, Journal of
Interdisciplinary History, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press
Grant Reviewer for:
American Council of Learned Societies
Honors and Research Awards
UIUC Research Board Grants, 1997-98, 1994-95, 1993-
94, 1992-93, 1991-92, 1990-91,1988, 1986-87, 1985
Margaret Whiting Fellowship, 1979-80
Georges Lurcy Fellowship for Study in France, 1978-79
Stanford Fellowship, 1975-78
Honorary Vassar Fellowship, 1975
General and Departmental Honors, Vassar College,1975
Phi Beta Kappa
Teaching awards
William F. Prokasy Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIUC, 1995
Humanities Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1995
Queen Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Department of History, 1991
Amoco Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, 1991 (with Anne D. Hedeman)
Undergraduate Instructional Award, 1989 (with Anne D. Hedeman)
Courses taught:
Undergraduate
Western Civilization, The Early Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, Medieval Civilization, Women and Gender in Pre-Modern Europe, Holiness and the Body in Medieval Christianity, Spirituality and Experience in the Arts of the Middle Ages (with Anne D. Hedeman), Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval Europe
Graduate
Religion in Society and Culture: Theoretical Issues for Historians, Gender and Religion: The Case of Christianity, Seminar in Medieval History, Problems in Medieval History