As part of the CEMERS Fall Speaker Series, Anne Clark, professor of religion at the University of Vermont, will speak on “When Pictures Tell the Story: The Cognitive Possibilities of an Illustrated Prayer Book” at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the IASH conference room, LN-1106. This lecture examines one illustrated prayer book manuscript, created for a woman to explore the different possibilities for cognitive and emotional experience in prayer that is structured by a narrative of interwoven texts and images.
Professor Clark works on the Christian tradition in the Middle Ages. Her Ph.D. is from Columbia University and she teaches Religious Studies at the University of Vermont. Her research focuses on styles of piety, questions of gender, the role of the body, and women’s religious life. She has published two books on Elisabeth of Schönau, a twelfth-century visionary nun, and has also published articles on Hildegard of Bingen, Gertrude of Helfta, women’s monastic communities, the cult of the Virgin Mary, and cognitive theory in the study of religion. Her current research relates Dante to the traditions of women’s visionary and mystical literature.