First Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies at SLU went really well! My favorite conference bits included hearing Peter Brown's plenary lecture in which he compared Christianity to both Starbucks and recreational drug use, the souvenir wine glasses carried most creatively by Phil, the well-organized but nevertheless competitive ( Read more... )

I received this email this morning. While I am very sad to be absent from these meetings, I can't wait to participate in the conversation some way via email or skype, and hear the results of these discussions.

Dear all ( Read more... )

Today I went to the Hobbit Symposium at SLU. As a young person I had a deep love for all things Tolkien, but when I got to grad school and realized at Kalamazoo that Tolkienists get a weird reputation among medievalists (especially the historians, I don't think it's as big a deal in the English dept.) as extra-nerds whose passions are pseudo- ( Read more... )

Getting my budget put together for Madrid today. Just estimates at this stage, but oy vey! I'm glad to know that the university has the 1818 fund to help me finance this trip! Out of pocket it would be rough to do three months of research abroad. Here's hoping they approve my whole budget ( Read more... )

FINALLY Getting some answers back from Madrid. Talking individually to people and waiting for instructions wasn't working, so yesterday I took matters into my own hands emailed two deans, the overseas admissions advisor at SLU, and the admissions office at SLU Madrid, and they all got back to me, which is surprising. It sounds like they're pretty ( Read more... )

SLU hosted the Medieval Academy of America conference this week - while not as large as Kalamazoo as far as medieval conferences go, it is FAR more important and pretentious. Hah! I helped set up and work the welcome table, passing out badges and folders and such. But mostly we just did whatever Teresa needed us grad students to do in order to pull ( Read more... )

Today was a good day ( Read more... )

I'm glad our prospie Charles had a good time!
I'm including a selection from his email.
I must say, I was utterly floored by your kindness and the hospitality of the other grad students at SLU. I have to say, you all have a very special community that seems to me to be quite rare! I had a marvelous time at Saint Louis University and I trust that ( Read more... )

Just had a 3+ hour dinner at Dressel's Welsh Pub with Casey, 6 of my grad student friends (Matt, Kyle, John, Sammy, Katie, and Rebecca), and visiting Prospie Grad named Charles. We all had SO much fun and laughed and drank and ate for hours... I'm stuffed, and tired from smiling. These are the nights in grad school I hope to remember. I think we ( Read more... )

This week was Islam week in History 111. And I couldn't have been happier about it. Most students at some point in their education have learned about Egypt or Rome or whatnot in their middle school or high school history classes, but very few have ever been exposed to even the basic facts of the history and nature of Islam. It's ridiculous, because ( Read more... )