I am a lover of podcasts. Now that I am a parent, I can’t read as many books as I would like, so listening to academics on podcasts still keeps my mind active while fitting into laundry or dishwashing duty. While listening to the Spirts Podcast this week they interviewed Professor Matthew Gabriele about “Medieval Mythmaking.” He also has his own podcast (that I immediately jumped to and began to follow), American Medieval. In his podcast, Professor Gabriele asks his guests what got them into studying history (or whatever their respective fields are) and specifically how then they ended up becoming medievalists. Well that got me thinking: how did I become a medievalist?
And here is my answer.
Like many college bound sophomores, your thoughts begin to turn to life after high school. I knew I was not a science and math girl; I always enjoyed my English and History classes more. I don’t know how I discerned it, but history excited me. Although I now teach World History and Art History, my path there was not straight nor narrow. Like many students of middle income families, I understood that college was not just for fun, it was to get a well paying job. Therefore, in my mind, history would be a stupid major. How will that get me a viable career?
I disliked my AP World History teacher, he made it so boring. And although I liked my AP US History teacher, I knew I was not interested in American History (too recent! too narrow a focus!). But I also knew, surprisingly, that I did NOT want to study “history;” I didn’t want to spend my days learning about wars and boring politics through the past. I loved the pictures and I loved learning about the things people made. I do not know when I learned that art history was a degree you could choose but once I did I knew it was for me. My parents had me do some research and a mini presentation to ensure I understood the jobs I could get with an art history degree. Honestly, I think my biggest inspiration was Robert Langdon in Dan Brown’s pseudo-historical mystery series. 🙂
Miraculously, I never changed my major in college. I did, however, drop my Anthropology major into a minor when I came to terms with the fact that I was more of an inside girlie, not a field research girlie. As a cultural and more or less practicing Catholic, the European middle ages always had a glimmer of fascination for me, plus I loved the Robin Hood and Arthurian legends since childhood. But I wasn’t necessarily looking to make “the Dark Ages” my passion.
My freshmen Western Art History seminar frustratingly never made it into the Middle Ages (thanks to a hurricane + other delays) and the next class started at the Renaissance. But that was no matter, I had signed up for a Medieval Art course for sophomore year. It got cancelled due to lack of interest. Now the hunger I felt to learn more about this 1,000 year age grew. Through the next three years I decided to add on a Medieval and Renaissance minor which allowed me to take history & literature classes in the European Middle Ages. There was a visiting professor, Dr. Emily Graham, that I loved and I took every class of hers that I could. Now my casual childhood interests in medieval mythology blossomed.
Still frustrated at the continued cancellation of the Medieval Art History course, my art history professor suggested I pursue an Undergraduate Thesis so that I could explore the topic with my own research. I really wasn’t interested in writing a whole thesis, but since (at the time) I was also interested in graduate school she strongly suggested it would help my application. FUN FACT: I was dead set on a master’s in Medieval Studies from Fordham University until an internship at a local art museum’s Education Department made me realize I didn’t want to spend my life teaching college kids.
I knew I wanted to write my thesis on the Middle Ages and I was intrigued by the Black Death. My thesis advisor said I had to start off with the authoritative art history text on the Black Death: Painting Florence and Siena After the Black Death: The Arts, Religion, and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century by Millard Meiss written in 1976. She warned, however, that the Black Death was heavily studied and I might not find any new material for an undergraduate thesis. Long story short, she was pleasantly wrong, and I was able to create new scholarship categorizing plague saints.
Read more: Pestilence & Prayer: Introduction (1)
So that is the long winding story summarizing how I became a woman obsessed with medieval Catholicism, how people use religious beliefs and material culture (namely art) to cope with social disruptors (like the plague). And this (sadly) remains very relevant into the first 25 years of the 21st century.
I should probably write another post about how I ended up as a high school teacher because that was certainly not the path I intended to travel.
JMF
