Scholar - Women Also Know History

Participant Info

Website URL: https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/faculty/faculty_profile.jsp?faculty=1153

Keywords: Medieval Christianity; medieval monasticism; history of emotions; embodied devotional practices

About Me: Lauren Mancia looks at what medieval Europeans left behind — art, writings, artifacts, institutions, manuscripts, buildings, etc. — in order to understand how they experienced their religion, and, thereby, how they understood themselves. In her research, Mancia focuses on the devotional culture of medieval monasteries in the 11th and 12th centuries. Some of her courses stem from her research interests (e.g., courses on medieval Christianity or on the history of emotions), but she also teaches courses on wider subjects of medieval and early modern history. Outside of the History Department, as the director of the Studies in Religion program, Prof. Mancia teaches several religion courses. Prof. Mancia is also a lecturer at The Met Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the study of medieval art.

Recent Publications: Prof. Mancia is a historian of medieval Christian monasticism and monastic devotional practice. Her book, Emotional Monasticism: Affective Piety in the Eleventh-Century Monastery of John of Fécamp (Manchester, 2019/paperback 2021), sheds light on the high medieval monastic roots of later medieval affective piety. Her next book, Struggling Toward God: Meditation and Prayer in the Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Monastery is forthcoming from ARC Humanities Press/Amsterdam University Press.