Gender and Sainthood, c. 1100–1500

5-6 April 2024, University of Oxford, History Faculty
Register for the conference here

Organisers: Antonia Anstatt (University of Oxford, email) and Edmund van der Molen (University of Nottingham, email)

This conference is generously supported by the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages
and Literature, the Hagiography Society, the Past & Present Society, and the History Faculty,
University of Oxford. In association with Oxford Medieval Studies, it is sponsored by The
Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).

FRIDAY, 5TH APRIL

9 CONFERENCE START, REGISTRATION
9.15am WELCOME
9.30-11 PANEL 1: TRANSGRESSING GENDER
Marita von Weissenberg (Xavier University, Cincinnati): Husband-saints and Secular Masculinity as
a Tool for Religious Pursuit
Caitlín Kane (University of Oxford): Womanly Bridegroom, Manly Bride: Gender Transgression in
the Visions of Saint Catherine of Siena
Maria Pieschacon-Raffael (Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich): La Pucelle: The Significance of
Gender in the (After-)Life of Joan of Arc
11.30-13 PANEL 2: (TRANS)CENDING GENDER
Verity Bruce (University of Exeter): Death Becomes They/Them? Christina Mirabilis’ Post-Death
Gender State
Genevieve Caulfield (University College London): Desire Has No Gender: Styles of Seeing in
Franciscan Hagiography
Davide Tramarin (University of Padua): Transcending Gender in Mystical Devotion: Images of
Christ and St John the Apostle in Late Medieval Germany
14-15.30 Keynote Lecture: Who’s Afraid of Trans and Genderqueer Saints?
Alicia Spencer-Hall (University College London)
16-17.30 PANEL 3: QUEERING SAINTHOOD
Michael Eber (Georg-August-University Göttingen): Sancta virgo / sicut pater: Homosociality and
Gender Transgression in the Latin Lives of St Marina/us
Shay Pertler (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg): Oblita sit sexum: Life and Death
of Joseph of Schönau
Roan Runge (University of Cambridge): Fúair comartha bandachta ann ([He] Found the Sign of
Womanhood There): The Construction of Gender in the Medieval Irish ‘Story of the Abbot of
Drimnagh’

SATURDAY 6TH APRIL

9.30-11 PANEL 4: WRITING GENDER
Isabel Kimpel (Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich): Famula Christi et Mulier fortis: The Writings
of Caesarius of Heisterbach on Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia
Georgie Crespi (University of Reading): ‘We’re All Born Naked, and the Rest is Drag’: The Concept
of Drag in ‘Christina of Markyate’ and ‘Revelations of Divine Love’
María del Carmen Muñoz Rodríguez (University of Seville): In ure lauerdes luue: The Spaces of
Female Sanctity in the Middle English ‘Seinte Iuliene’
11.30-13 PANEL 5: VISUALISING GENDER
Rosalind Phillips-Solomon (University of York): ‘Miraculous Aged Virgin’ or Quintessential Virgin
Martyr? Late Medieval Imaginings of Saint Apollonia
Sarah Wilkins (Pratt Institute, New York): A Preaching Woman: Mary Magdalen in Late Medieval
Italian Art
Elisabet Trulla Serra (Trinity College Dublin): Gender Configuration in Byzantine Art Through Saint
Mary of Egypt
14-15.30 PANEL 6: FAMILIAL AND SPIRITUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Jessica Troy (Independent Scholar): Unequal Treatment: The Power Struggle of Medieval Chaste
Couples
Laura Moncion (University of Toronto): ‘Be My Spouse’: Spiritual Partnership in the Life of Pirona
the Recluse
Michaela Granger (Catholic University of America, Washington DC): ‘And It Was Accounted to Him
(or Her?) as Righteousness …’: The Value of Childrearing in the Construction of Late Medieval
Sanctity
16-17.30 PANEL 7: MODERN PERSPECTIVES
Dannelle Gutarra (University of Warwick): Medieval Sainthood and Scientific Racism: Race, Gender,
and Sexuality in ‘History of the Female Sex’ by Christoph Meiners
Maria Zygogianni (Swansea University): Saint Athanasia of Aigaleo: An Entrepreneur Saint
Myrna Nader (American University of Beirut): The Cult of Marina the Monk: Faith, Discourse and
Sexuality in Contemporary Lebanon
17.30-18 CLOSING REMARKS
18 CONFERENCE END