top of page

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

Northwestern University                                                                                       2011–2017

Ph.D., History

  

Adviser:  Prof. Dyan Elliott

Dissertation:  “The Vicarious Middle Ages: Penitents and Their Proxies in Medieval Europe,

200-1550.” 

Awarded the Harold Perkin Prize for Best Dissertation in History (2017).

Committee:  Dyan Elliott (chair), Barbara Newman, Richard Kieckhefer, and Edward Muir

Major field:  Medieval and Early Modern History (High Pass)

Minor field:  Medieval Jewish and Islamic Mysticism (High Pass)

Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Cluster Member: 2011–2017

California State University, Fullerton                                                                      2009–2011

M.A., History

  

Adviser:  Prof. Jochen Burgtorf

Thesis:  “Past as Present: Paradisal Language in Medieval Reform”

University of Surrey, Roehampton (London, England)                                            2003

Studied Modern English and American Literature, Fall 2003

Biola University                                                                                                        2001–2005

B.A., English Literature

Minor in Modern European History

PUBLICATIONS

“Boy Becoming Man: Liturgical Inversion in the Boy Bishop Ceremony in Medieval England”

Forthcoming in Childhood in Medieval Culture, ed. Lahney Preston-Matto and Mary A. Valante.

“'Make a Pilgrimage for Me': The Role of Place in Late Medieval Proxy Pilgrimage” 

In Travel, Time, and Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time. Volume 22 of Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, ed. Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge, 424-445. Boston/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2018.

"Suffering Another's Sin: Proxy Penance in the Thirteenth Century."

Journal of Medieval History, 44.2 (2018): 202-230.

"Penitents and Their Proxies: Penance for Others in Early Medieval Europe."

Church History 86.1 (2017): 1-32.

Awarded the Sidney E. Mead Prize of the American Society of Church History(2016)

DIGITAL PROJECTS

"Proxy Pilgrimage Digital Visualization"

An interactive digital map of proxy pilgrimage including: origins, destinations, chronology, social status, and gender. 

WORKS IN PROGRESS

"Penitents and Their Proxies in Medieval Europe, 200–1500"

Monograph

"Spirituality in the Middle: Courtly Theology in Twelfth-Century England"

Article

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, PRIZES, & AWARDS

Harold Perkin Prize for Best Dissertation, Northwestern University, History Department, 2017

Sidney E. Mead Prize (article prize), American Society of Church History, 2016

Schallek Award (research grant), Medieval Academy of America, 2015

Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant (research grant), American Historical Association, 2015

Schallek Fellow (Alternate), Medieval Academy of America, 2015

Graduate International Exchange, Institute for Historical Research (London), 2014

Teagle Teaching Fellow, Northwestern University, 2013–2014 

Funded by the American Historical Association and the Teagle Foundation

Graduate Research Grant, Northwestern University, 2013

Graduate Research Fund Grant, California State University, Fullerton, 2011

Associated Students Research Grant, California State University, Fullerton, 2011

Lawrence B. de Graaf Outstanding Graduate Student Award, California State University, Fullerton, 2010

First prize, The J. O. Henry Award for History, Biola University, 2005

PAPERS PRESENTED (selection)

“Proxy Pilgrimage in Late Medieval and Early Modern England"

14th International Symposium on Medieval and Early Modern Studies, U. of Arizona, May 2017

“Past as Present: Nostalgia and the Role of Eden in Medieval Religious Reform”

American Society of Church History and American Catholic Historical Association, Spring Meeting,

Berkeley, April 2017

“The Violence of Charity: Proxy Penance in Thirteenth-Century Female Hagiography”

Fifth Annual Graduate Conference on Religion, Harvard Divinity School, October 2016

“Fasting for Others: Completing Penance by Proxy in the Early Middle Ages”

International Congress on the Study of the European Middle Ages, Leeds, UK, July 2016

“The Vicarious Middle Ages: Penitents and Their Proxies in Medieval Europe”

Seminar on Medieval Culture and Intellect, Chicago, IL, March 2016

 

“Penitents and Their Proxies: Penance for Others in Early Medieval Europe”

California Medieval History Seminar, Huntington Library, CA, November 2015

 

“The Good, the Bad, and the Bee: Walter Map’s Courtly Virtues in the De Nugis Curialium

Medieval Academy of America, Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO, March 2012

 

“Writing in the Court: A Guide to Virtuous Reading in Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium

46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2011

 

“Longing for Paradise: Past as Present in Medieval Reform”

Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, Chapman University, CA, April 2011

 

“Where is Eden? The Search for a Terrestrial Paradise in the Medieval World”

Graduate Seminar, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, MN, March 2011

 

“Past as Present: Paradisal Language in Medieval Reform”

Graduate Seminar, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, MN, March 2011

 

“Preparing for an Unpopular Crusade: The Last Acts of Lord Edward of England at Home, 1266-1270,”

Phi Alpha Theta 2010 Biennial Convention, San Diego, January 2010

INVITED LECTURES

"Erasmus and Luther and the Battle Over Free Will"

Azusa Pacific University, Honors College, 2017 and 2018

"Teresa of Avila: Mystic and Doctor"

Azusa Pacific University, Honors College, 2018

"The Violence of Charity: Proxy Penance in the Lives of Thirteenth-Century Holy Women"

St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN, 2017

EDITING EXPERIENCE

Editorial Assistant                                                                             2016

Journal of Ghana Studies

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Faculty Tutor, Honors College                                                                         2017–present

Azusa Pacific University

Honors Core II and III Courses, including:                                              

Medieval, early modern, and modern (ca. 500–1900) history,

literature, philosophy, and theology

Teaching Assistant                                                                                 2012–2014

Northwestern University

Sex and Scandal in Early Modern England                                               

Western Civilization, 1000–1750                                                            

Global History Part One, 600–1800                                                        

California State University, Fullerton                                                        2010

Honors Western Civilization                                                                    

TEACHING FIELDS

Medieval and Early Modern European History, 1000–1750

Global History, 600–1800

Early Middle Ages, 300–1100

High Middle Ages, 1100–1250

Late Middle Ages, 1250–1500

Holy Wars in the Middle Ages

History of Christianity: Early Church to Age of Tolerance

Comparative Religion: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

Early Islamic History

State Formation: From Charlemagne to the British Empire

RESEARCH FIELDS

Religious proxy, vicariousness, and substitution

Penance and confession (early church to Reformation)

Pilgrimage (early church to Reformation; Christian and Islamic contexts)

Scholastic Theology

Church, politics, and conflict

Female spirituality

Paradise (early church to Reformation)

Late-medieval England

Monastic and ecclesiastical reform movements

LANGUAGES

Latin (advanced reading knowledge)

Modern French (reading knowledge)

Modern German (reading knowledge)

Modern Spanish (basic grammar and vocabulary)

ADVANCED SEMINARS

Dissertation Seminar for Historians

Newberry Library, Center for Renaissance Studies, Fall 2014

Reading the Early Modern Anglo-Muslim Archive: The Poetics and Politics of Cultural Translation

Newberry Library, Center for Renaissance Studies, September 2012

Paleography and Manuscript Graduate Seminar

Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, MN, 2011

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Medieval Academy of America

American Historical Association

American Society of Church History

Hagiography Society

Phi Alpha Theta

REFERENCES

*Please find references in the PDF at the top of this page.

© 2018 GAVIN FORT

bottom of page