Amelia Kennedy is Assistant Professor of the History of Medieval Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Kennedy is a religious and cultural historian of medieval Europe whose research focuses on histories of health, medicine, aging and disability, as well as Christian monasticism. She is currently completing her first book manuscript, a study of old age in European religious communities c. 950-1350. Tentatively entitled On the Threshold of Eternity: Old Age in Medieval Monasteries, the book argues that age was a crucial factor not only in creating communal identity, but also in navigating tensions between individual and institutional aspirations. She has published an article on abbatial retirement among the Cistercians in Radical History Review and an article on monastic disability in the Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies. After graduating with a Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 2020, she completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Yale before joining the faculty at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, Austria.
Faculty Spotlight
Tuesday, May 16, 9:00 a.m.
Stuart Hall 6
Seminar
Tuesday, May 16, 10:15 a.m.
Stuart Hall 6
Growing Old in Medieval Europe
How did medieval people define and understand old age? What roles did older people play in society? How did sermons, miracle stories, and hagiographies discuss topics such as mentorship, retirement, age-related aches and pains, and the end of life? This seminar surveys European experiences and depictions of old age c. 1000-1500 with a focus on old age and religion – and the ways in which medieval conversations resonate today.
