
Fiona Griffiths
Professor of History and, by courtesy, of Religious Studies and of German Studies
Bio
Fiona Griffiths is a historian of medieval Western Europe, focusing on intellectual and religious life from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Her work explores the possibilities for social experimentation and cultural production inherent in medieval religious reform movements, addressing questions of gender, spirituality, and authority, particularly as they pertain to the experiences and interactions of religious men (priests or monks) with women (nuns and clerical wives). Griffiths is the author of Nuns' Priests' Tales: Men and Salvation in Medieval Women's Monastic Life,The Middle Ages Series (The University of Pennsylvania Press: 2018) and The Garden of Delights: Reform and Renaissance for Women in the Twelfth Century, The Middle Ages Series (The University of Pennsylvania Press: 2007); she is co-editor (with Kathryn Starkey) of Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019) and (with Julie Hotchin) of Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014). Her essays have appeared in Speculum, Church History, the Journal of Medieval History, and Viator. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and the Institute of Historical Research (University of London).
Academic Appointments
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Professor, History
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Professor (By courtesy), Religious Studies
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Professor (By courtesy), German Studies
Honors & Awards
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Violet Andrews Whittier Faculty Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (2019-2020)
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Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize, American Society of Church History (2009)
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Margaret Wade Labarge Prize, Canadian Society of Medievalists (2008)
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Humboldt Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2007-2008)
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National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, NEH (2007-2008)
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Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History (2006)
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Walter Jackson Bate Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2003-2004)
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Scouloudi Research Fellow, Institute of Historical Research (London) (1997-1998)
Program Affiliations
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Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Professional Education
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PhD, Cambridge University
2020-21 Courses
- Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500
HISTORY 115D, HISTORY 15D, RELIGST 115X (Win) - Medieval Germany, 900-1250
GERMAN 213, GERMAN 313, HISTORY 213F, HISTORY 313F (Spr) - Race and Ethnicity in Premodern Europe
ARTHIST 207D, ARTHIST 407D, HISTORY 215B, HISTORY 315B (Win) - Research Seminar for Majors
HISTORY 209S (Spr) -
Independent Studies (7)
- Curricular Practical Training
HISTORY 299F (Sum) - Graduate Directed Reading
HISTORY 399W (Aut, Win, Spr) - Graduate Research
HISTORY 499X (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Research I
HISTORY 299A (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Research II
HISTORY 299B (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Research III
HISTORY 299C (Win, Spr) - Undergraduate Directed Research and Writing
HISTORY 299S (Win, Spr, Sum)
- Curricular Practical Training
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Prior Year Courses
2018-19 Courses
- Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500
HISTORY 115D, HISTORY 15D, RELIGST 115X (Aut) - Medieval Germany, 900-1250
GERMAN 213, GERMAN 313, HISTORY 213F, HISTORY 313F (Win) - Research Seminar for Majors
HISTORY 209S (Win)
2017-18 Courses
- Core Colloquium: Graduate Readings in Medieval History
HISTORY 313 (Win) - Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500
HISTORY 115D, HISTORY 15D, RELIGST 115X (Aut) - Medieval Methodologies
DLCL 300, ENGLISH 300, MUSIC 300C (Win) - Research Seminar for Majors
HISTORY 209S (Win) - The Holy Dead: Saints and Spiritual Power in Medieval Europe
HISTORY 218, HISTORY 318, RELIGST 218X, RELIGST 318X (Aut) - Transhistory: Gender Diversity from Medieval to Modern
FEMGEN 3B, HISTORY 3B (Spr)
- Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1500
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Nathan Lilje, Mae Velloso-Lyons -
Orals Evaluator
Joe Amato, Christopher Bacich, Nathan Lilje, Demetrius Loufas -
Doctoral (Program)
Lauren Adams, Ana Nunez
All Publications
- The Mass in Monastic Practice: Nuns and Ordained Monks The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West Cambridge University Press. 2020: 729–746
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Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts
Sense, Matter, and Medium
De Gruyter. 2019; 1
View details for DOI 10.1515/9783110563443
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Sensing Through Objects
SENSORY REFLECTIONS: TRACES OF EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS
2018; 1: 1–21
View details for DOI 10.1515/9783110563443-001
View details for Web of Science ID 000466965900001
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Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts
SENSORY REFLECTIONS: TRACES OF EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS
2018; 1
View details for Web of Science ID 000466965900013
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Nuns' Priests' Tales: Men and Salvation in Medieval Women's Monastic Life
NUNS' PRIESTS' TALES: MEN AND SALVATION IN MEDIEVAL WOMEN'S MONASTIC LIFE
2018: 1–349
View details for Web of Science ID 000428221600007
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Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500
Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts
Brepols. 2014; 24
View details for DOI 10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.6.09070802050003050400090602
- Women and Men in the Medieval Religious Landscape Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500 Brepols. 2014: 1–45
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Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages
Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
Oxford University Press. 2013: 447–463
View details for DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199582174.013.036
- Like the Sister of Aaron’: Medieval Religious Women and Liturgical Textiles Female vita religiosa between Late Antiquity and High Middle Ages: Structures, Norms and Developments Brepols. 2011: 343–374
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The cross and the cura monialium: Robert of Arbrissel, John the Evangelist, and the pastoral care of women in the age of reform
SPECULUM-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES
2008; 83 (2): 303–30
View details for DOI 10.1017/S0038713400013348
View details for Web of Science ID 000255106400002
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Siblings and the sexes within the medieval religious life
CHURCH HISTORY
2008; 77 (1): 26–53
View details for DOI 10.1017/S0009640708000048
View details for Web of Science ID 000256406500002
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Reforming Women in the Garden of Delights
GARDEN OF DELIGHTS: REFORM AND RENAISSANCE FOR WOMEN IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
2007: 194-+
View details for Web of Science ID 000270224600008
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'Men's duty to provide for women's needs': Abelard, Heloise, and their negotiation of the cura monialium
JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY
2004; 30 (1): 1–24
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jmedhist.2003.12.002
View details for Web of Science ID 000220418400001
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Brides and Dominae: Abelard’s Cura monialium at the Augustinian Monastery of Marbach
Viator
2003; 34: 57-88.
View details for DOI 10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.300382