Making the Medieval Archive: Celebrating Elizabeth A.R. Brown at Penn

Registration opens July 1, 2025

On September 12, 2025, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts will host a day-long symposium commemorating Elizabeth (Peggy) A. R. Brown’s extraordinary legacy in the field of Medieval Studies. The event will also mark the official launch of the Elizabeth A. R. Brown Medieval Historians’ archive, a new initiative at Penn Libraries to collect the professional papers of scholars of the Middle Ages and of associated professional organizations. The goal of the symposium is to honor Peggy’s legacy and gift by celebrating research on her area of specialty, namely Medieval France.

The symposium will consist of three panels of short papers devoted to subjects featured in Peggy’s work: source and archive; politics and kingship; and liturgy and sacred image.

The day will also include an introduction to the research possibilities and historical interest of the medievalists' archive at Penn, presented by the Elizabeth A.R. Brown Archivist, an endowed position in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. The day will conclude with reminiscences by friends, students, and mentees, and a reception for all attendees.

Co-organized by Nicholas Herman (Kislak/Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies) and Ada Kuskowski (Department of History).

Speakers include:

Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, New York University
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh
Susan Boynton, Columbia University
William Chester Jordan, Princeton University
Rowan Dorin, Stanford University
Pierre-Anne Forcadet, Université d’Orléans
Paul Freedman, Yale University
Cecilia Gaposchkin, Dartmouth University
Xavier Hélary, Sorbonne Université/École pratique des Hautes études
Frédérique Lachaud, Sorbonne Université
Anne Lester, Johns Hopkins University
Sara Lipton, Stony Brook University
Lauren Mancia, Brooklyn College
Sara McDougall, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Dan Smail, Harvard University
Alison Stones, University of Pittsburgh
Julien Théry, Université Lyon 2
Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University