This seminar will examine the cultural construction of moral thought in the Middle Ages using the categories of the Seven Deadly Sins, critically review recent scholarship on the sins, and make maximum use of the unique manuscript, research, and human resources available in Cambridge. The seminar will seek to deepen the participants' appreciation for the ways in which the conception of morality in the Middle Ages was a response to varying cultural factors, and will make the study of the sins available for inclusion in the participants' regular college instruction. The format of the seminar will combine individual presentations, guest lectures, and excursions to manuscript collections in Cambridge and to parish churches with wall paintings on the topic of the seven sins in Hardwick (Cambridgeshire), Hessett, and Stanningfield (Suffolk).
The seminar will be directed by Richard G. Newhauser, Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Trinity University (San Antonio) and will feature lectures by the following faculty:
Richard Beadle, Department of English, University of Cambridge
István Bejczy, Department of History, Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen, Holland
David Ganz, Department of English and Classics, King's College, University of London
Miriam Gill, Department of Art History, University of Leicester
Nigel Harris, Department of German Studies, University of Birmingham
Sylvia Huot, Department of French, University of Cambridge
Ed Peters, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
Siegfried Wenzel, Department of English (Emer.), University of Pennsylvania
This seminar means to attract participants from a wide variety of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Participants will receive a stipend of $ 3,600.
This seminar was made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The support of the NEH is gratefully acknowledged here. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.