MAURA K. LAFFERTY
Department of Classics
University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Howell Hall, CB# 3145
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
(919) 962-7647
May, 2003
Academic Record:
1987-93 University of Toronto (Ph.D.,
Medieval Studies, Latin Literature, Paleography)
Thesis: Reading Latin
Epic: The Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon
Supervisors: Christopher
McDonough and David Townsend
1983-87 University of North Carolina (MA, Classics)
Thesis: Amicitia
in Tacitus' Annales
Supervisor: George
Houston
1979-83 Wellesley College (BA, Latin)
Publications:
Book: Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis: Epic
and the Problem of Historical Understanding. Turnhout: Brepols, 1998. This study shows how the medieval Latin poet explores the role of
classical learning and literature, of epic, ancient history, and Aristotle's
logical works, in the medieval paideia.
Work in Progress: Empress of Languages:
Latin in Medieval Thought, a book-length study of attitudes towards Latin in Western
Europe in the Middle Ages.
Articles in Refereed
Journals:
“Augustine, the Aeneid, and the
Roman Family,” Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Proceedings
of a Conference at the University of Tampere (24-26 January, 2003), Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture (London: Routledge),
forthcoming.
“Limping Jacob: The Image of the Jew in Walter of Châtillon's
Alexandreis," Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 33 (1998), pp.
133-47.
“Nature and an Unnatural
Man: Lucan's Influence on Walter of Châtillon's Concept of Nature,” Classica
et Mediaevalia 46 (1995), pp. 285-300.
“Mapping Human
Limitations: The Tomb Ecphrases in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,” Journal
of Medieval Latin 4 (1994), pp. 64-81.
Invited Publications:
Introduction to
“Refracted Visions: Looking at the World after September 11,” Perspectives
From the National Humanities Center 9 (2002), p. 33-58.
“Medieval Latin,” in The
Years' Work in Modern Language Studies 58 (1998), pp. 1-13.
Articles on Augustine,
Eadmer of Canterbury, Hugh of St. Victor, Henry of Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of
Monmouth for the Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing. Ed. Daniel
R. Woolf. New York: Garland, 1998.
Article on Walter of
Châtillon in Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages. Ed. J.B.
Friedman, et al. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1899. New
York: Garland, 2000.
Book Reviews:
Farrell, Joseph, Latin
Language and Latin Culture (Cambridge, 2001), Classical World,
forthcoming.
Alexanderdictung im
Mittelalter,
ed. Jan Cölln (Gottingen, 2000), Journal of Medieval Latin, forthcoming.
Review of Christopher
Baswell, Virgil in Medieval England: Figuring the Aeneid from the Twelfth
Century to Chaucer (Cambridge, 1995), in Journal of Medieval Latin 7
(1997), pp. 244-49.
Review of Jan M.
Ziolkowski, ed. and trans., The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia).
(New York and London, 1994) and The Passion of St. Lawrence, Epigrams and
Marginal Poems, by Nigel of Canterbury (Leiden, 1994), Speculum 70
(1995), pp. 956-58.
Review of P.D.A. Harvey,
Medieval Maps (Toronto, 1991), Journal of Medieval Latin 5
(1994), pp. 276-78.
Review of Eileen
Gardiner, trans., Visions of Heaven and Hell before Dante (New York,
1989), Journal of Medieval Latin 2 (1992), pp. 253-56.
Refereed Papers:
“Augustine, the Aeneid
and the Roman Family, Pt. 2: Fathers and Sons,” Passages from Antiquity to the
Middle Ages (University of Tampere, 24-26 January, 2003).
“England
and Romanitas in the Early Middle Ages,” Eighty-second Annual Meeting of
the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South,
November 6-9, 2002.
“Augustine, the Aeneid
and the Roman Family,” Ninety-seventh Annual Meeting of the Classical
Association of the Middle West and South, April 19-21, 2001.
“Order in the Wilderness? Nature in Geoffrey
of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini,” Thirty-fourth International Congress on
Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 6-9, 1999.
“Reader's (and Writer's)
Guides: The Epic Argumenta in
Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Manuscripts,” American Philological
Association, December, 1995.
“Darius' Dying Words: Translatio
imperii and Language in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,”
Thirtieth International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan
University, May 4-8, 1995.
“A Twelfth-Century
Nestor? Aristotle in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,” American
Philological Association, December, 1994.
“Of Ships and Kings,”
Atlantic Classical Association, Ninth Annual Meeting, October 21-22, 1994.
“The Capitula and
the Text: Marginal Authority?” Society
of Canadian Medievalists/Société canadienne des médiévists, June 3-5, 1994.
“Limping Jacob: Jews and Interpretation in the Lyrics of
Walter of Châtillon,” Twenty-Ninth International Congress on Medieval Studies,
Western Michigan University, May 5-8, 1994.
“Nature and Unnatural
Man in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,” Atlantic Classical Association,
Eighth Annual Meeting, October 15-16, 1993.
“Mapping Human
Limitations,” 13th Barnard College Medieval-Renaissance Conference on Public
Structures, December 5, 1992.
Invited Papers and Presentations:
“Women’s Work in the Lives of Irish Saints?
Bring it Home Lecture Series, Carolina Association for Medieval Studies, April
1, 2003.
“Reading or Feeding? The Role of Literacy in the
Lives of Irish Women Saints,” Brown Bag Talk, Dept. of Classics, UNC, April 17,
2002.
“Women’s Lives in Irish Monasteries: Reading or
Feeding?” Seminar on Imperialism and Post-Imperialism, National Humanities
Center, April 30, 2002.
“Earthly Cities: Augustine in Carthage Rome and
Milan,” and “Heavenly Cities: Augustine in Milan and Ostia,” as part of a
seminar on “Great Cities of the Ancient World,” Program in the Humanities and
Human Values, University of North Carolina, July 5-7, 2001.
“Medieval Latin Resources,” Research Tool Workshop,
Carolina Association of Medieval Studies, University of North Carolina, April
26, 2001.
“From Scroll to Codex:
Changes in the Technologies of Writing in Antiquity,” University of North
Carolina – Greensboro, November 8, 2000.
“Venus Unveiled: An Exposé of the Sex Lives of the
Greeks and Romans,” Villanova Experience Program Residential Colloquium Series,
October 6, 1999.
“Manuscripts as Guides to Better Reading: Classical
and Medieval Latin Epic in Twelfth-Century Manuscripts,” Core Humanities
Faculty Research Colloquium, January 1, 1999.
“Epic, the Bible and
Historiography in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,” Departments of
Greek and Latin, Wellesley College,
November 17, 1997.
“How to Tell an Epic When You See One: Genre and Manuscript Presentation in the
Twelfth Century,” Department of Classics, McMaster University, March, 1995.
“Nature in Walter of
Châtillon's Alexandreis,” Department of Classics, Dalhousie University,
February 2, 1994.
“A Twelfth-Century
Battle of the Books: Epic vs. Bible in
Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,” University Seminar, Columbia
University, February 9, 1993.
“Irony in Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis,”
Medieval Latin Seminar, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, May
15, 1992.
Teaching Experience:
Assistant Professor of Medieval
Latin, Department of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2000-
Arthur J. Ennis
Post-doctoral Teaching Fellow in the Humanities, Villanova University,
1998-2000
Visiting Assistant
Professor, Bowdoin College, 1997-98
Assistant Professor,
Duke University/Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome, 1996-97
Instructor, Department
of Classics, University of Toronto, 1995
Instructor (Full-time),
Department of Classics, McMaster University, 1994-95
Visiting Assistant
Professor, Department of Classics, Dalhousie University, 1993-94
Visiting Assistant
Professor, Department of Classics, Columbia University, 1992-93
Awards and
Fellowships:
Fellow, National
Humanities Center, 2001-2002
Research Associate,
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995-96
Ontario Graduate
Scholarships, 1991-92
Toronto Open Doctoral
Fellow (University of Toronto), 1991-92, 1988-90
Horton-Hallowell
Graduate Fellow (Wellesley College, stipend declined), 1991-92
Connaught Scholar
(University of Toronto), 1990-91, 1987-88
Scholarship for the
Summer Program at the American School in Athens, 1984
Mrs. Victor Humphreys
Fellow (University of North Carolina), 1983-84
Durant Scholar (summa
cum laude), Honors in Major Field, 1983
Phi Beta Kappa, 1982