Summer Seminars at UMass Downtown

Description

UMass Downtown and the UMass Amherst Graduate School invite you to the Summer Seminar Series, a new public speaker series connecting campus research with the community. Each Wednesday evening, UMass graduate student presenters will share their research, ideas, and work in an engaging and approachable format designed to spark conversation, curiosity, and connection. Each session offers a chance to hear directly from emerging scholars doing meaningful work across disciplines, with opportunities for discussion and community engagement.

Wednesdays | June 17–August 5 6:00–7:30 PM
Free and open to the public

June 17 | Genny Dorgan A Female Voice in Medieval Academia: Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Editors Even though the medieval period is popularly known as the “Dark Ages,” academia as we know it was instituted during that time. Medieval academics were avid researchers of some of the most pressing questions of the day, such as: When would the end times begin, and what would they be like?

In this talk, PhD candidate in Comparative Literature Genny Dorgan will explain how medieval universities produced knowledge and discuss the rare case of a female writer, the thirteenth-century German mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg, who became an accepted source of authority on matters of theology.