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Alison Beach

Alison I. Beach
Born
Alison Isdale Beach

(1963-10-08) October 8, 1963 (age 61)
NationalityAmerican
Spouse
(m. 1990)
AwardsRatner Teaching Award
Academic background
Alma materColumbia University (Ph.D.)
Smith College (B.A.)
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian
InstitutionsUniversity of St Andrews, Ohio State University, University of Cologne, College of William and Mary
Main interestsMedieval History

Alison Isdale Beach (born October 8, 1963) is an American historian.

She is a professor of medieval history at the University of St Andrews. She completed her B.A. in history at Smith College in 1985 and her Ph.D. in religion at Columbia University in 1996. She also holds an M.A. in history and an M.Phil. in religion from Columbia University. From 2011 to 2020 she was a professor of history at the Ohio State University. She has also held regular positions at the College of William and Mary and the University of Cologne, and visiting positions at Union Theological Seminary, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Temple University, and the University of Trier. She is the author of Woman as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria (Cambridge University Press, 2004)[1] and The Trauma of Monastic Reform: Community and Conflict in Twelfth-Century Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2017)[2] as well as numerous articles that explore the history of monasticism in medieval Europe. She is a founding member of the Arbeitskreis geistliche Frauen im europäischen Mittelalter (AGFEM).[3] With Isabelle Cochelin, she edited the two-volume Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West (Cambridge University Press, 2020).[4]

Alison Beach was a Fulbright recipient in 2003 and has received grants from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2013-14 she was a Member in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study and is Co-President of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Members of the Institute for Advanced Study.[5] In 2017, she won a Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award from Ohio State.[6][7]

In January 2019, Alison Beach was a coauthor of the article "Medieval women’s early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus", which appeared in Science Advances.[8] The article demonstrated that a female religious in twelfth-century Germany was likely involved in luxury book production as an illuminator because she had lapis lazuli in her dental calculus. The article received extensive global press coverage.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

She is married to the economist David A. Jaeger.

Books

  • Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • (ed.) Manuscripts and Monastic Culture: Reform and Renewal in Twelfth-Century Germany, Brepols, 2007
  • (ed., with Lisa Bitel and Constance Berman) Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions: Gender, Medieval Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany, written by June Mecham, Brepols, 2014.
  • Trauma of Monastic Reform: Community and Conflict in Twelfth-Century Germany, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • (ed., with Isabelle Cochelin) Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West, 2 vols., Cambridge, 2020.

References

  1. ^ "Women scribes book production and monastic reform twelfth century bavaria - Anglo Saxon and medieval literature". Cambridge University Press.
  2. ^ "Trauma monastic reform community and conflict twelfth century germany - Church history". Cambridge University Press.
  3. ^ "A G F E M".
  4. ^ "Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West". Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ "AMIAS". Institute for Advanced Study. 31 October 2018.
  6. ^ "The Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards". Archived from the original on 2018-01-21. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  7. ^ "Alison Beach Receives Ratner Award". Department of History. 2 November 2017.
  8. ^ Radini, A.; Tromp, M.; Beach, A.; Tong, E.; Speller, C.; McCormick, M.; Dudgeon, J. V.; Collins, M. J.; Rühli, F.; Kröger, R.; Warinner, C. (2019). "Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus". Science Advances. 5 (1): eaau7126. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.7126R. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau7126. PMC 6326749. PMID 30662947.
  9. ^ Yin, Steph (9 January 2019). "In an Ancient Nun's Teeth, Blue Paint — and Clues to Medieval Life". The New York Times.
  10. ^ McGrath, Matt (9 January 2019). "Blue tooth reveals hidden medieval artist". BBC News.
  11. ^ "Die Nonne aus Dahlheim". Mediathek. 10 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Was Zahnstein über die Kunst von Nonnen erzählt". science.ORF.at. 9 January 2019.
  13. ^ Spiering, Hendrik (10 January 2019). "Lapis lazuli verraadt vergeten middeleeuwse tekenares". NRC.
  14. ^ "Du lapis-lazuli entre les dents d'une nonne". Le Monde.fr. 15 January 2019 – via Le Monde.
  15. ^ Criado, Miguel Ángel (10 January 2019). "El sarro azul en los dientes de una monja que resultó ser lapislázuli". El País – via elpais.com.
  16. ^ Schuster, Ruth (9 January 2019). "Blue Plaque Signals That Women Illuminated Religious Texts 1,000 Years Ago in Germany". Haaretz.
  17. ^ Braziliense, Correio (12 January 2019). "Anlise de ossos revela surpresa de monastrio alemo do sculo 11". Correio Braziliense.