Dr. Katherine Clark Walter teaches courses on the Ancient World, Roman history, and the medieval world. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, religion and culture in the later Middle Ages, but she is interested in all things medieval and the extension of the past into the present–the use of classical and medieval ideas and themes in modern times.
Education
PhD, Indiana University - Department of History
Dissertation: “Pious Widowhood in the High and Later Middle Ages”
M.A., Indiana University- Medieval History
B.A.,University of Richmond - History and Music
Areas of Specialty
Medieval European History
Gender
Culture and Religion
Courses Taught
HST 201 The Ancient World
HST 335 Roman Empire
HST 336 Medieval Europe
HST 390 Research Seminar
HST 436 Medieval England and Ireland
HST 444/544 Medieval Women
HST 445/545 The High Middle Ages
HST 455/555 The Black Death
HST 600 Historical Methods
HST 648 Tolerance and Persecution in Medieval Europe
Roland Fontaine Award for Faculty-Student Engagement, 2017
Chancellor’s Award for Faculty Service, 2014
SUNY Brockport Faculty Incentive Grant, Fall 2007
Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst Re-Invitation Program Grant, Summer 2007
SUNY Drescher Award, Spring 2007
Andressohn Fellowship and Hill Dissertation Fellowship, Department of History, Indiana University, 1998
Outstanding Teaching Award, Department of History, Indiana University, 1998
College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, Indiana University, 1998
Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst Annual Grant and Extension, 1995-1996
Annual Anderssohn Awards, Department of History, Indiana University, 1995-1997
Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellowship, 1992-1993
The Profession of Widowhood: Widows, Pastoral Care, and Medieval Models of Holiness, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press (2018)
“A Serious and Painful Beginning: Boccaccio’s Decameron in the Age of Coronavirus,” in Writing the Pandemonium: Perspectives on Pandemic Literature, ed. Rakhi Vyas. Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute (2021) 63-79.
“The Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture, ed. Susan de Gaia. Santa Barbara: ABC/CLIO, 2019. Ancient and Medieval Women Writers (Christianity), Gender and Sexuality (Christianity), Gender and Sexuality (Spirituality),Women in Christianity (Christianity),
Women Saints (Christianity), Widowhood (Christianity).
“Animals on the Edge: Humans and Hybrids in the Pontificals of Later Medieval France” in Human/Animal: Proceedings from the International Medieval Symposium, eds. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi and Anna Russakoff. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press (2014) 95-113.
Putting on the Garment of Widowhood’: Medieval Widows, Monastic Memory and Historical Writing,” Quidditas 31:1 (2010) The Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, 22-76.
Thematic Review: “Visible Negotiations: Widowhood as a Category for Assessing Women’s Lives and Work in Early Modern Europe,” Gender and History (21:1 April 2009) 190-195.
Purgatory, Punishment, and the Discourse on Holy Widowhood,” Journal of the History of Sexuality, (16:2 May 2007) 169-203.
“Reconstructing Race and Class in the Life of Yvette of Huy.” Southeastern Medieval Studies Association Conference, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina, October 2023.
“Pious Widowhood in Text and Image: Images of Women’s Consecration in Illuminated Pontificals of the later Middle Ages (invited presenter), The Other Sister Conference, University of Toronto, May 2023
“Intersectionality in the Life of Yvette of Huy,” International Anchoritic Society Roundtable, International Medieval Studies Conference, Western Michigan University, May 2023
“Medievalism at Ardua Hall” (conference paper), panel sponsored by International Society for the Study of Medievalism, International Medieval Studies Conference, Western Michigan University, May 2023
“Bodies, Bestiaries, and Holy Laws” Southeastern Medieval Studies Conference, Birmingham, November 2022.
“Holy Innocents, Sacred Time, and Imagined Geographies,” International Haskins Society Conference, University of Richmond, Virginia, October 2022.
“Real Mothers and the Dystopian Future,” Roundtable: The Handmaid’s Tales, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Boston, Massachusetts, March 9, 2020.
“Marriage, Murder, and Memory: Saint Godelieve of Gistel and the Changing Uses of Her Vitae in the Later Middle Ages,” Medieval Institute, International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 10, 2018.
“Liturgy, Church, and City: Illuminated Pontificals of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” Medieval.Institute, International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 14, 2016.
“Violation and Reconciliation: The Negotiation of Sacred Spaces in Later Medieval Illuminated Pontificals,” New York State Association of European Historians Annual Meeting, October 10, 2015.
“Dancing with Death Across the Pages: Medieval Macabre and Representations of the Body in Later Medieval Liturgical Books,” New York State Association of European Historians Annual Meeting, Rochester, NY, October 2013.
“Pious Widowhood in the Writing and Experience of Christine di Pisan,” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, March 2013.
“Ritual, Order, and Status: Animal Marginalia and Social Commentary in the Liturgical Books of the Avignese Papacy,” New York State Association of European Historians Annual Meeting, Oswego, NY, October 2012.
“Animals on the Edge: Humans and Hybrids in the Pontificals of Later Medieval France,” International Medieval Society Symposium: Human/Animal, Paris, June 2012.
“Widows’ Spirituality, Domesticity, and the “Holy Household,” American Society of Church History Annual Meeting, Chicago, January 2012.
“Tales of Martyrdom, Models of Marriage: Sex and Violence in the Lives of Medieval Matron Saints,” Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Amherst June 2011, for a panel I organized, Maidens, Wives, Widows: Medieval Sexuality and the Marital Bond.
Invited Talk, National University of Ireland, April 2011: “Tales of Martyrdom, Models of Marriage”.
“Visualizing The Widow’s Spiritual Bereavement: Medieval Texts, Renaissance Images,” New York State Association of European Historians, September 2009.
Keeper and Spy of Deeds and Conscience: The Powers and Functions of Religious Widowhood in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” New York State Association of European Historians, September 2008. Presented as part of a panel, “Women, Power, and Religion in Medieaval and Modern Europe”.
Who Gave These Laws?: Bestiaries, The Widow’s ‘Nature,’ and the Nature of Women in Later Medieval Pastoral Care,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, England, July 2008.
The Singlewomen and the Ratherrn: Sexual Fantasy and Social Opportunity in Later Medieval Nuremberg,” seminar on “Singlewomen” led by Judith Bennett and Susan Amussen, Berkshires Conference on the History of Women, June 2008.
Putting on the Garment of Widowhood’: Medieval Widows, Monastic Memory and Historical Writing” at the international conference, “The Merry Widow: Widowhood in History, Society, and Culture” sponsored by the Center for Gender, Culture, and Society of the University of Wales, Swansea, July 2007.
“Clothed in the Garments of Widowhood: Medieval Ceremonies Consecrating Widows to Chastity,” Medieval Academy of America, Boston, April 2006.
“The Chaste Widow at Home: Domesticity and the Sacred Space of the Vere Vidua,” New York State Association for European Historians Conference, West Point Military Academy, September 2005
Invited Paper, “Piety, Prophecy, and Punishment: The Purgatorial Visions of Holy Widows in the High and Later Middle Ages,” German Historical Institute, Washington D.C., October 2003.
“Danger and Discretion: Pious Widows in Preachers’ Exempla,” Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 2003.
“The Widow and the World: Secular Models of Medieval Widowed Piety,” 35th International Medieval Studies Conference, Western Michigan University, May 2000.
Current Projects
I am currently working on a book, Luxurious Ministries, explores medieval liturgy’s relationship to popular religious practice and sensibilities in Europe in later medieval religious life. The book explores ceremonies—such laypeople’s vows, the reconsecration of desecrated churches and cemeteries, and representations of death and dying– that integrated laypeople into the liturgical life the church. The book focuses on expressions of popular spirituality and how these were managed by an institutional Church that increasingly defined itself through images of the powerful, celibate male priest.
I am also working on articles on domestic violence in the life of the eleventh-century saint, Godlieve of Gistel, intersectionality in the life of the saintly anchoress Yvette of Huy, intersections of gender and nature in medieval bestiaries, and representations of the Holy Innocents in religious devotion.
