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, Early Medieval Europe, Church History, the Journal of Medieval History, postmedieval, and Viator. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; the Stanford Humanities Center; and the Institute of Historical Research (University of London). Griffiths is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.

Academic Appointments

  • Professor, History
  • Professor (By courtesy), Religious Studies
  • Professor (By courtesy), German Studies

Administrative Appointments

  • Chair, Religious Studies (2022 - 2023)

Honors & Awards

  • Fellow, Medieval Academy of America (2022)
  • Violet Andrews Whittier Faculty Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (2019-2020)
  • Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize, American Society of Church History (2009)
  • Margaret Wade Labarge Prize, Canadian Society of Medievalists (2008)
  • Humboldt Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2007-2008)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, NEH (2007-2008)
  • Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, American Society of Church History (2006)
  • Walter Jackson Bate Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2003-2004)
  • Scouloudi Research Fellow, Institute of Historical Research (London) (1997-1998)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Advisory Board, FOVOG, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany) (2023 - Present)
  • Series Editor (with Beatrice Kitzinger and Kathryn Starkey), Sense, Matter, and Medium: New Approaches to Medieval Material and Literary Culture (De Gruyter) (2019 - Present)
  • Councillor, Council of the Medieval Academy of America (2019 - 2022)
  • Executive Committee, CARA (Committee on Centers and Regional Associations), Medieval Academy of America (2019 - 2022)
  • Herbert Baxter Adams Prize Committee, American Historical Association (2016 - 2019)
  • Advisory Board, Monastic Matrix (2015 - Present)
  • Editorial Board, The Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures (2015 - Present)
  • Advisory Board, The Medieval Review (2014 - Present)

Program Affiliations

  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Professional Education

  • PhD, Cambridge University

Contact

  • Academic
    fgriffit@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: History Department Position: Professor

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 2024

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Materializing history: Objects and women's lives in medieval Germany GERMAN QUARTERLY Griffiths, F., Starkey, K. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1111/gequ.12346

    View details for Web of Science ID 000987855300001

  • The Corrupter of Boys: Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy. (The Middle Ages) (Book Review) SPECULUM-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Griffiths, F. 2023; 98 (2): 590-592

    View details for DOI 10.1086/724260

    View details for Web of Science ID 001047944500025

  • Wives, concubines, or slaves? Peter Damian and clerics' women EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE Griffiths, F. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1111/emed.12538

    View details for Web of Science ID 000774700400001

  • Introduction: Amputation and warfare in the eleventh century: absence, sensation, and embodiment POSTMEDIEVAL-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL CULTURAL STUDIES Griffiths, F., Starkey, K. 2021

    View details for DOI 10.1057/s41280-021-00213-z

    View details for Web of Science ID 000718708600001

  • Froibirg Gives a Gift: The Priest’s Wife in Eleventh-Century Bavaria Speculum Griffiths, F. J. 2021; 96 (4): 1009-1038

    View details for DOI 10.1086/716002

  • Prayer for the Dead: Women, Death, and Salvation Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages Griffiths, F. Cambridge University Press. 2021: 25-41
  • Noble Fathers and Low-Status Daughters in the Eleventh Century: Rilint, libera, and Hiltigund, presbyterissa Haskins Society Journal Griffiths, F. 2021; 32: 23-46
  • The Mass in Monastic Practice: Nuns and Ordained Monks The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West Griffiths, F. J. Cambridge University Press. 2020: 729–746
  • The Mass in Monastic Practice: Nuns and Ordained Monks, c. 400-1200 CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL MONASTICISM IN THE LATIN WEST, VOL II: THE HIGH AND LATE MIDDLE AGES Griffiths, F. J., Beach, A. I., Cochelin 2020: 729-746

    View details for Web of Science ID 000683757600006

  • Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts Sense, Matter, and Medium Griffiths, F. J., Starkey, K. De Gruyter. 2019; 1

    View details for DOI 10.1515/9783110563443

  • Sensing Through Objects SENSORY REFLECTIONS: TRACES OF EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS Griffiths, F., Starkey, K., Griffiths, F., Starkey, K. 2018; 1: 1–21

    View details for DOI 10.1515/9783110563443-001

    View details for Web of Science ID 000466965900001

  • Sensory Reflections: Traces of Experience in Medieval Artifacts SENSORY REFLECTIONS: TRACES OF EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS Griffiths, F., Starkey, K. 2018; 1

    View details for Web of Science ID 000466965900013

  • Nuns' Priests' Tales: Men and Salvation in Medieval Women's Monastic Life NUNS' PRIESTS' TALES: MEN AND SALVATION IN MEDIEVAL WOMEN'S MONASTIC LIFE Griffiths, F. J. 2018: 1–349

    View details for Web of Science ID 000428221600007

  • SUSAN GROAG BELL'S "MEDIEVAL WOMEN BOOK OWNERS" AFTER 35 YEARS JOURNAL OF WOMENS HISTORY Griffiths, F. J. 2017; 29 (3): 208-213

    View details for DOI 10.1353/jowh.2017.0044

    View details for Web of Science ID 000409397200023

  • Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500 Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts Griffiths, F. J., Hotchin, J. Brepols. 2014; 24

    View details for DOI 10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.6.09070802050003050400090602

  • Monks and Nuns at Rupertsberg: Guibert of Gembloux and Hildegard of Bingen Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500 Griffiths, F. Brepols. 2014: 145-169
  • Women and Men in the Medieval Religious Landscape Partners in Spirit: Men, Women, and Religious Life in Germany, 1100-1500 Griffiths, F. J., Hotchin, J. Brepols. 2014: 1–45
  • Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe Griffiths, F. J. 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 Griffiths, F. J. Brepols. 2011: 343–374
  • 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 Griffiths, F. J. 2008; 83 (2): 303–30

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S0038713400013348

    View details for Web of Science ID 000255106400002

  • Siblings and the sexes within the medieval religious life CHURCH HISTORY Griffiths, F. J. 2008; 77 (1): 26–53

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S0009640708000048

    View details for Web of Science ID 000256406500002

  • Reforming Women in the Garden of Delights GARDEN OF DELIGHTS: REFORM AND RENAISSANCE FOR WOMEN IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY Griffiths, F. J., Griffiths, F. 2007: 194-+

    View details for Web of Science ID 000270224600008

  • 'Men's duty to provide for women's needs': Abelard, Heloise, and their negotiation of the cura monialium JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY Griffiths, F. J. 2004; 30 (1): 1–24

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jmedhist.2003.12.002

    View details for Web of Science ID 000220418400001

  • Brides and Dominae: Abelard’s Cura monialium at the Augustinian Monastery of Marbach Viator Griffiths, F. J. 2003; 34: 57-88.

    View details for DOI 10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.300382