Professor Mary Carruthers FBA
- Fellow type
- International Fellow
- Year elected
- 2012
- Subjects
- Medieval studies
- Sections
- Medieval Studies
Summary
I am a historian of the European Middle Ages, concerned especially with late classical and medieval ideas about human psychology, including rhetoric and meditation. My focus now is on Latin materials, but I began as a scholar of medieval English language and literature, interests that have never left me. Having been born and raised first in India, and only later in North America, embedding myself in cultures very different from those of the modern West feels natural to me. My scholarly approaches engage historical questions of language and ideas, as well as the material culture of the book. My work in Latin rhetoric began by examining its logical structures of remembering, some work which has brought me into fruitful contact with psychologists who are also interested in learning and memory, and with some interested in computer-enabled archival design. More recently, my work has concerned medieval aesthetic values and their rootedness, via theories of the bodily humours, in various medical as well as religious ideas. My current research is on 'The Art of Invention', including the various logics implied in diagrams. This engages medieval ideas about human creativity and artistic composition, including music, architecture, and design, as well as literature.
Current post
Remarque Professor Emeritus of Literature, New York University; Quondam Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford
Past appointments
St Hilda's College, University of Oxford Visiting Fellow
2018 - 2019
All Souls College, University of Oxford Research Fellow
2007 - 2009
Balliol College, University of Oxford George Eastman Visiting Professor and Fellow of Balliol College
2005 - 2006
New York University Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature
2001 - 2011
New York University Dean for Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Science
2001 - 2005
New York University Professor of English
1991 - 2001
Visiting Professor The Ohio State University
1991 - 1991
University of California at Santa Barbara Visiting Associate Professor
1979 -
University of Illinois at Chicago Associate Professor and Professor
1975 - 1991
Case Western Reserve University Assistant Professor and Associate Professor
1973 - 1975
Smith College Instructor and Assistant Professor
1964 - 1973
Publications
Other Fellows of the British Academy
Professor Dr Willem Blockmans FBA
Political History Medieval Constitutionalism Medieval History - Medieval Studies
Professor John Haldon FBA
History and archaeology of the Byzantine empire (especially 7th-12th centuries); pre-modern state formation; resources and logistics of late ancient and medieval society; environment, climate and societal resilience
