BRUCE LANIER VENARDE
Department of History
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412) 624-8437
bvenarde@pitt.edu
http://www.pitt.edu/~bvenarde/bvcv.html
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Harvard University (History), 1992
A.M., Harvard University (History), 1985
B.A., Swarthmore College (Classics, Phi Beta Kappa), 1984
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Associate Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh, 1999-
Affiliated Faculty Member in Cultural Studies, French & Italian, Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Religious Studies and Women 's Studies
Assistant Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh, 1996-1999
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Tufts University, 1994-1996
Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard University, 1992-1995
Teaching Fellow in History, Harvard University, 1986-1989, 1990-1992
Lecturer in Divinity (Ancient Language Study), Harvard University, 1986
PUBLICATIONS
Books

Two Women of the Great Schism: Constance de Rabastans and Ursulina of Parma, in collaboration with Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, under agreement for University of Chicago Press series “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe”

 Les deux vies de Robert d’Arbrissel: Légendes, écrits et témoignages/The Two Lives of Robert of Arbrissel: Legends, Writings, and Testimonies, trilingual collaboration with five French scholars, Brepols, publication expected in 2006

Robert of Arbrissel: Sex, Sin, and Salvation in the Middle Ages, translation of Jacques Dalarun, Robert d’Arbrissel, fondateur de Fontevraud [Paris, 1986], with introduction and notes by the translator, Catholic University of America Press, spring 2006

Robert of Arbrissel: A Medieval Religious Life, Catholic University Press of America, 2003

Women's Monasticism and Medieval Society: Nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Cornell University Press, 1997 (paperback,1999)

Articles/Book Chapters

“Power, Personality – and Perversity?  Robert of Arbrissel (ca. 1045-1116) and His Critics,” in Robert F. Berkhofer III, Alan Cooper, and Adam Kosto, eds., The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, Ashgate, 2005
Translation of Drogo of Sint-Winoksbergen, Life of Godelieve, in Thomas F. Head, ed., Medieval Hagiography: A Sourcebook, Garland Publishing, 2000

"Praesidentes Negotiis: Abbesses as Managers in Twelfth-Century France," in Samuel K. Cohn Jr. and Steven A. Epstein, ed., Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living: Essays in Memory of David Herlihy, University of Michigan Press, 1996

"La réforme à Apt (Xe-XIIe siècles): Patrimoine, patronage et famille," Provence historique 38 (1988): 131-147

Entries in Reference Works

"Frauenfrage" and "Petronilla of Chemillé" in Encyclopedia of Medieval Women, Greenwood Publishing, 2005

"Fontevraud," "Premonstratensians" and "Recent Scholarship, Western Christian" in The Enyclopedia of Monasticism, FitzroyDearborn Publications, 2000

"Alfons Dopsch," "Georges Duby," and "Henri Sée" in A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing, Garland Publishing, 1998

Reviews

Constance Brittain Bouchard, ed.  The Cartulary of Montier-en-Der, 666-1129, forthcoming in Journal of Medieval Latin 15 (2005)

Dianne Hall, Women and the Church in Medieval Ireland, c. 1140-1540, in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 80 (2005): 1296-1298

Jacques Dalarun, ed., Robert d’Arbrissel et la vie religieuse dans l’Ouest de la France, forthcoming in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 80 (2005): 1253-1254

Lois L. Honeycutt, Matilda of Scotland: A Study in Medieval Queenship, Albion 36 (2005): 769-772

Frederic L. Cheyette, Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours in The Medieval Review 03.02.11 (http://www.hti.umich.edu/t/tmr)

Maria Rosa Menocal, Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain in Choice, January 2003

Sarah Foot, Veiled Women, 1: The Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England; 2: Female Religious Communities in England, 871-1066 in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 78 (2003): 171-173

Constance Hoffman Berman, The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of A Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe in H-France (http://www3.uakron.edu/hfrance/reviews/venarde.html)

Nancy Bradley Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England, forthcoming in Religious Studies Review 28 (2002): 174

Bernice Kerr, Religious Life for Women c. 1100-c.1350: Fontevraud in England, forthcoming in Religious Studies Review 27 (2001): 421

F. Donald Logan, Runaway Religious in Medieval England, c.1240-1540, in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 76 (2001): 758-761

Lutz Kaelber,Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Medieval Religious Communities, in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 76 (2001): 744

R.I. Moore,The First European Revolution c.970-1215, in H-Net Reviews, February 2001 (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=7852982605820)

John Kitchen, Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography, in Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 23 (2000): 693-696

Jeffrey Hamburger, Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67 (1999):484-487

Marilyn Oliva, The Convent and the Community in Late Medieval England: Female Monasteries in the Diocese of Norwich, 1350-1540, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 74(1999): 1102-1104

Roberta Gilchrist, Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 74 (1999): 118-120

Helen Jewell, Women in Medieval England in The Medieval Review 98.07.09 (http://www.hti.umich.edu/b/bmr/tmr.html)

Ansgar Wildermann, ed. La visite des églises du diocèse de Lausanne en 1453 in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 70 (1995): 699-700

Sally Thompson, Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries after the Norman Conquest in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 68 (1993): 567-569

Pedagogy

Study Guide to Accompany Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury, The West and the World, two volumes (co-authors Melissa McGary and Megan McLean), McGraw-Hill, 2000

"Remaking the Middle Ages: Description and Interpretation" on H-Net, August 2000 (http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=6953969048051)

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

“The Loire Valley Humanists: Robert of Arbrissel, Marbode of Rennes, and Their Circle.”  A study of religious culture, careers, and mentalities in Western France, ca. 1050-ca. 1125, centered on the evangelist and wandering preacher Robert of Arbrissel and the scholarly poet-bishop Marbode of Rennes.  Method will be close and contextual readings of a variety of materials, with some framework provided by ideas of habitus and cultural capital as developed by Pierre Bourdieu.

 “Celebrating Death: Memorial Culture in Northern France, 1075-1150.”  Investigation the monastic culture of death and remembrance in medieval France, including examination of chronicle, hagiography, mortuary roll, Latin lyric, letters, liturgy, and monuments.  Comparison to death as viewed in the imaginative literature of the period, e.g., epic poetry and early vernacular poetry.

GRANTS, HONORS, AND AWARDS
  • Bellet Teaching Excellence Award nominee, University of Pittsburgh, 2001, 1999
  • Center for West European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, research grants, 1997, 1999-2000
  • Center for West European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, small grant, 1997 University of Pittsburgh, 1997
  • Danforth Center Award for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduates, Harvard University, 1991
  • Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for supervision of an outstanding honors thesis, Harvard University, 1991
  • Traveling Fellowship, Department of History, Harvard University, 1989-1990
COURSES TAUGHT
Undergraduate
Lectures and section format

Western Civilization I: Antiquity to the 17th Century

Lecture/discussion format

Medieval History I: The Early Middle Ages
Medieval History II: The Later Middle Ages
Medieval World: An Introduction to Medieval Studies
Medieval England
Charlemagne and the Carolingians (in preparation)

Seminars

Abelard and Heloise in Medieval History and Modern Memory
Western Civilization I: Antiquity to the 17th Century
Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
History and Literature: Middle Ages
History and Literature: Renaissance and Reformation

Language courses

Introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin
Medieval Latin
Graduate
Introduction to Research Methods
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Core Seminar
Premodern Slavery
Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
Gender in Global Perspective
Readings in Early European History
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND ACTIVITIES

Associate Chair, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, 2000-
Duties include supervision of departmental curriculum and structuring the current overhaul of PhD program.

Organizing Chair
"Where Is Europe?" conference, University of Pittsburgh, April 2004

Manuscript reader/advisor
Church History, The Journal of Ritual Studies, Journal of Social History, Longman; McGraw-Hill; Routledge

Advisory Board Member
The Encyclopedia of Monasticism (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000)

Advisory Board Member and Research Scholar
"Matrix: A Collection of Resources for the Study of Women's Religious Communities, 500-1500." Consultant, author of over 800 topobibliographic entries ( http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu )

University of Pittsburgh Standing Committees
Graduate Committee, Department of History, 1997-1998, 1999-2000
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Department of History, 1997-2000 (chair, 1999-2000)
Phi Beta Kappa Executive Committee, 1998- (vice president, 1999-2000)
Center for West European Studies Advisory Council, 1999-

Harvard University Standing Committee
Committee on Instruction in History and Literature, Harvard University, 1993-95. Member of board which directs policies of academic program in History and Literature and oversees all instructional matters, including curriculum and degrees.
INVITED LECTURES

“Medieval Sexuality and Salvation,” Medieval Studies Program, Yale University, November 2005

 John Boswell Memorial Lecturer, Department of History, College of William and Mary, April 2005

“Robert of Arbrissel and the Matter of Medieval Culture,” Humanities Center Seminar on Medieval Studies, Harvard University, March 2005

PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

“‘Your Daughter’s Going to Hell’ and Other Adventures in Medieval Latin,” Medieval and Renaissance Studies Series, University of Pittsburgh, September 2004
Invited panelist on "Queer Medieval Studies and the Disciplines," International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2004

"The Christian Middle Ages: In Quest of the Center," American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 2004

"Engendering Christianity: Robert of Arbissel (ca. 1045-1116) and His Critics," American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, January 2000

"Women and Property in Medieval Western France: Charter Evidence," 34th International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1999

"Demonizing Heterosexuality? Monasticism, Spirituality, and Gender in Western France around 1100,"Queer Middle Ages, New York, NY, November 1998

"Nuns, Nunneries, and Social Change," Medieval and Renaissance Studies Series, University of Pittsburgh, November 1996

"Monasticism and Society in Medieval France," College of William and Mary, February 1995

"Remembering Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Holy Women: or What to Do When There Aren't Any Vitae," Conference of the Medieval Academy of America, Boston, MA, March 1995

Chair and respondent for session 'Civic Life, Civic Strife: Bishops and Their Cities in Medieval Europe,' American Catholic Historical Association Conference, Worcester, MA, April 1994

"Women's Monastic Foundations: Describing Religious Change in the Central Middle Ages," Wellesley College, February 1995

Chair and respondent for session 'Civic Life, Civic Strife: Bishops and Their Cities in Medieval Europe,' American Catholic Historical Association Conference, Worcester, MA, April 1994

"Medieval Monastic Expansion and its Contents," Washington University in St. Louis, February 1994

"Going to Heaven, Going to Hell: New Approaches to Religious Change in the Twelfth Century," Conference of the New England Historical Association, Worcester, MA. April 1992

"Female Monasticism in an Age of Reform," American Catholic Historical Association Conference, Oxford, MS, April 1991

"Yet Another Medieval Crisis?: Nunneries in 11th-13th Centuries," Hamilton College, January 1990

"All in the Family: the Agoults and the Church of Apt in the 11th and 12th Centuries," 21st International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 1986
LANGUAGES
  • Mastery of classical and medieval Latin and Latin paleography
  • Proficiency in French
  • Reading knowledge of German, Italian, and Spanish