Caroline Walker Bynum
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{short description|American historian}}
Caroline Walker Bynum, FBA (born May 10, 1941, in Atlanta, Georgia)[https://books.google.com/books?id=XJSdT_4NWTMC&dq=Caroline+Walker+Bynum+May+10%2C+1941&pg=PA34 Profile of Caroline Walker Bynum][http://www.hs.ias.edu/bynum/cv Caroline Walker Bynum short CV] at Institute for Advanced Study website (retrieved June 29, 2009). is a Medieval scholar from the United States. She is a University Professor emerita at Columbia University and Professor emerita of Western Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She was the first woman to be appointed University Professor at Columbia. She is former Dean of Columbia's School of General Studies, served as president of the American Historical Association in 1996. She was President of the Medieval Academy of America in 1997–1998.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hs.ias.edu/bynum/cv|title=Caroline Walker Bynum {{!}} School of Historical Studies|website=www.hs.ias.edu|date=July 5, 2011 |language=en|access-date=March 28, 2018}}
Education and career
Bynum attended Radcliffe College before completing a bachelor's degree with high honors in history at the University of Michigan in 1962,{{Cite journal|date=September 1, 1996|title=Interview with Caroline Walker Bynum|journal=The Historian|language=en|volume=59|issue=1|pages=1–17|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1996.tb00981.x|issn=1540-6563}} and master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1969. Her honors include the Jefferson Lecture, a MacArthur Fellowship, and fourteen honorary degrees including degrees from the University of Chicago in 1992,{{Cite web|url=https://convocation.uchicago.edu/page/1990|title=Honorary Degrees 1990–1999 {{!}} Convocation {{!}} The University of Chicago|website=convocation.uchicago.edu|language=en|access-date=March 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327182634/https://convocation.uchicago.edu/page/1990|archive-date=March 27, 2018|url-status=dead}} Harvard University in 2005,{{Cite web|url=https://www.harvard.edu/on-campus/commencement/honorary-degrees|title=Honorary Degrees {{!}} Harvard University|website=Harvard University|language=en|access-date=March 28, 2018}} the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania in 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://secure.www.upenn.edu/secretary/hondegalph.html|title=Penn: Office of the University Secretary: Alphabetical Listing of Honorary Degrees|website=secure.www.upenn.edu|language=en|access-date=March 28, 2018|archive-date=February 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207005106/https://secure.www.upenn.edu/secretary/hondegalph.html|url-status=dead}} She taught at Harvard University from 1969 to 1976, the University of Washington from 1976 to 1988, Columbia University from 1988 to 2003, and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2003 to 2011.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ias.edu/scholars/bynum|title=Caroline Walker Bynum|work=Institute for Advanced Study|access-date=March 12, 2017|language=en}} In 2015, she was the Robert Janson-La Palme Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hs.ias.edu/bynum/cv|title=Caroline Walker Bynum {{!}} School of Historical Studies|website=www.hs.ias.edu|date=July 5, 2011 |language=en|access-date=March 12, 2017}}
Thought
Bynum's work has focused on the way medieval people, especially women, understood the nature of the human body and its physicality in the context of larger theological questions and spiritual pursuits. Bynum's work centers around late-medieval Europe.{{cite web|title=Caroline Walker Bynum|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/273/|website=MacArthur Foundation}} Her focus on female piety has brought increased attention to the role of women in medieval Europe.{{cite web|title=Caroline Walker Bynum|url=https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/participants/caroline-walker-bynum|website=The Center for the Humanities|publisher=CUNY}}
Works
- Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe (New York: Zone Books, 2020).
- Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe (New York: Zone Books, 2011){{Cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/christian-materiality|title=Christian Materiality|website=MIT Press|language=en-US|access-date=March 12, 2017}}
- Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (Philadelphia, 2006), winner of the American Academy of Religion's 2007 Award for Excellence, the 2009 Gründler Prize, and the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America in 2011.
- Metamorphosis and Identity (New York: Zone Books, 2005){{Cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/metamorphosis-and-identity|title=Metamorphosis and Identity|website=MIT Press|language=en-US|access-date=March 12, 2017}}
- The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995; revised and expanded 2017); received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize from Phi Beta Kappa, and the Jacques Barzun Prize of the American Philosophical Society.[http://www.neh.gov/news/report99/lecture.htm "The Jefferson Lecture"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512043556/http://www.neh.gov///news/report99/lecture.htm |date=May 12, 2009 }} at [http://www.neh.gov/news/report99/contents.htm 1999 National Endowment for the Humanities Annual Report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813232633/http://neh.gov/news/report99/contents.htm |date=August 13, 2009 }}.{{Cite book|url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/resurrection-of-the-body-in-western-christianity-200-1336/9780231081276|title=Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336|last=Bynum|first=Caroline Walker|date=May 1, 1996|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51562-7}}
- Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York: Zone Books, 1990), winner of the Trilling Prize for the Best Book by a Columbia Faculty Member and the Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Analytical-Descriptive Category from the American Academy of Religion.{{Cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fragmentation-and-redemption|title=Fragmentation and Redemption|website=MIT Press|language=en-US|access-date=March 12, 2017}}
- Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), winner of the Governor's Writer's Day Award of the State of Washington and the Philip Schaff prize of the American Society of Church History.
- Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)
- Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth-Century Spirituality. Harvard Theological Studies 31 (Missoula: Scholars Press: 1979)
Awards and prizes
- Distinguished Teacher Award from the University of Washington (1981)
- Berkshire Prize (1985)
- MacArthur Fellowship (1986–1989)[http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1142693/k.79E6/Fellows_List__August_1986.htm "MacArthur Fellows August 1986"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718112518/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1142693/k.79E6/Fellows_List__August_1986.htm|date=July 18, 2011}}
- Governor's Writers Day Award (1988){{Cite news|url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/library/governorswritersawardsatthewashingtonstatelibrary19662000.aspx|title=Governor's Writers Day Awards at the Washington State Library, 1966–2000 – WA Secretary of State|access-date=March 28, 2018}}
- Philip Schaff Prize (1989)
- Trilling Prize (1992)
- Membership to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993){{Cite web|title=Caroline Walker Bynum|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/caroline-walker-bynum|access-date=December 20, 2021|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}
- Membership to the American Philosophical Society (1995){{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Caroline+Bynum&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=December 20, 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize (1995)
- Barzun Prize (1996)
- Columbia University, Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching (1997)
- Jefferson Lecturer (1999)
- Harvard University, Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School (2001)
- Mark van Doren Teaching Award of Columbia College (2002)
- American Society of Church History, Distinguished Career Award (2005)
- Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (2007 and 1992)
- Gründler Prize (2009)
- Haskins Medal (2011)
- Pour le Mérite (2012){{cite web |title=Caroline Walker Bynum ORDEN POUR LE MÉRITE |url=http://www.orden-pourlemerite.de/mitglieder/caroline-walker-bynum |website=www.orden-pourlemerite.de |access-date=May 16, 2019}}
- Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2013)
- Hebrew University, Doctor Honoris Causa (2015){{Cite web | url=https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/director-receives-degree-honor-hebrew-university-90th-celebration | title=Director Receives Degree in Honor of Hebrew University 90th Celebration | Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology}}
In 2016 Bynum was elected a Fellow of the Ecclesiastical History Society.{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.ac.uk/ehsoc/election-new-fellows|title=Election of New Fellows {{!}} Ecclesiastical History Society|website=www.history.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=March 28, 2018}} In July 2017, Bynum was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.{{cite web|title=Elections to the British Academy celebrate the diversity of UK research|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/elections-british-academy-celebrate-diversity-uk-research|website=British Academy|access-date=July 29, 2017|date=July 2, 2017}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- Women Medievalists and the Academy, Edited by Jane Chance, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005, pp. 995–1006.
External links
- [http://www.hs.ias.edu/bynum/cv Caroline Walker Bynum] at Institute for Advanced Study website (retrieved September 29, 2015).
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090527013818/http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1999-03/bynum.html "From the Medieval to the Modern: A Conversation with Caroline Walker Bynum"] at National Endowment for the Humanities website (retrieved June 29, 2009).
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150915001739/http://ias.umn.edu/2008/09/18/bynum/ "Visual Matter: The Materiality of Late Medieval Devotional Images – A presentation by Caroline Walker Bynum"] at the University of Minnesota (retrieved November 19, 2012).
- [http://www.historians.org/info/aha_history/cwbynum.htm Caroline Walker Bynum, Wonder, AHA Presidential Address] Retrieved April 19, 2010
{{American Historical Association presidents|state=uncollapsed}}
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Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Institute for Advanced Study faculty
Category:Presidents of the American Historical Association
Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
Category:Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Category:American women medievalists
Category:American medievalists