Embodying Medieval History (Part II): Doing Medieval Monasticism Together

Medieval monks believed that the "efficacy of understanding is gained by experience." Travel with PS to The Met Cloisters (the branch of the Met dedicated to the study of medieval European art; where PS Visiting Scholar Lauren Mancia (Brooklyn College/Graduate Center) will lead us in a happening where we attempt to embody the medieval monastic past (on Good Friday, no less!). No familiarity with Christianity or monasticism is required. The event on 3/28 provides historiographical and historical background for this event, but you do not need to attend 3/28 to attend 3/29.

BIO:

Lauren Mancia is an Associate Professor of History at Brooklyn College (CUNY) and an Associate Professor of Medieval Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also a lecturer on staff at The Met Cloisters. Mancia holds a PhD From Yale, an MA from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and a BA from Columbia. A scholar of medieval Christian monasticism, she is the author of two books, Meditation and Prayer in the Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Monastery: Struggling Towards God (2023) and Emotional Monasticism: Affective Piety in the Eleventh-Century Monastery of John of Fécamp (2019); she has also authored many articles about devotional experience and the history of emotion in medieval Europe. As a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at NYU from 2023-24, Mancia is thinking about how scholars might better understand medieval religious experience using tools of Performance Studies, and, especially, how she might better communicate her ideas about medieval religion to contemporary audiences through performance and curated experiences.