Medieval Institute
Archive of Featured Alumni
This archive contains past postings on Medieval Institute alumni.
Melodie Harris Eichbauer, MA, 2000
I earned my MA in Medieval Studies and continued my doctoral studies in history at The Catholic University of America. I defended my dissertation entitled "From Gratian's Concordia discordantium canonum to Gratian's Decretum: The Evolution from Teaching Text to Comprehensive Code of Canon Law" in 2009. My deepest gratitude goes to Ken Pennington, who directed my research, and to my husband Paul, who has supported me through both degrees and did not mind when I defended on our anniversary.
I am currently part-time faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University where I teach a survey course in medieval history and seminar courses in medieval religious culture. I hope to continue my research in legal and ecclesiastical history as an assistant professor. I look forward to returning each year to the Congress for the scholarly environment and to catch up with old friends and reminisce about our time at the Institute. (posted 2009)
Juleen Audrey Eichinger, MA, 1992
I earned my MA in Medieval Studies while working full time as Production Editor at Medieval Institute Publications. It was a particularly intense period: mediaevalia day, night, and weekends. But it was also an intellectually exhilarating period . . . so much so that I went on to earn a PhD in History in 1999! I could never have done it without lots of support and patience from colleagues, administrators, professors, and family. But the research, critical thinking, and discipline skills acquired as a student inform virtually all aspects of my intellectual life and communications, making the "investment" invaluable.
My subsequent career path has been rather non-traditional but equally satisfying: a period as Director of Communications for WMU's Research and Graduate Studies, then a move to Tucson, Arizona, where my editorial business, Eichinger Communications, LLC, provides editorial services to scholars and publishers in Medieval Studies, History, and Literature. What career could be better than reading interesting articles and books, working with long-time colleagues as well as with an expanding group of talented professionals from around the world? (posted 2009)
Kimberly (Campbell) Laing, MA, 2004
After my graduation in 2004, I married fellow Institute graduate Gregory Laing and we bought a house in Kalamazoo while he pursues his PhD in English at Western. No kids yet, but we have two rescued greyhounds that fill out our family. I work for the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency as a Project Manager. I run various state and federal grant programs as well as providing professional development for K-12 teachers. In order to support my continued interest in medieval studies, I developed an online section of MDVL 1450: Heroes and Villains of the Middle Ages, and I have taught it for the last three years. (posted 2009)
Dorothy C. Porter, MA, 2001
My name is Dot Porter, and I work in digital humanities. My current position is Metadata Manager at the Digital Humanities Observatory, run out of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. "Digital Humanities" is a fairly broad term that refers to the application of technologies to humanities research and teaching. I focus mainly on the research aspect of the field, and it's fair to say that I never would have entered the field were it not for my graduate work in Medieval Studies. While a student at WMU I was intrigued by the
various electronic projects that were just becoming popular, which focused on bringing usually hard-to-view manuscript materials to a broader audience, particularly The Canterbury Tales project, Piers Plowman, and the Electronic Beowulf. After completing the MA I took an MS in Library Science at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and from January 2003 I was the Program Coordinator at the Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities. I first worked with Kevin Kiernan on the Electronic Boethius project and later worked with Ross Scaife on a number of different projects in the digital Classics. In October 2008 I took up my current position in Ireland. Although my current project list is quite broad, I still enjoy working with medieval materials when I can, and my own research interest focuses on the expression of the physical materiality of text-bearing objects within digital environments - including, of course, medieval manuscripts. (posted 2009)
Photos:
- Melodie Eichbauer (MA, 2000)
- Juleen Eichinger (MA, 1992)
- Kimberly Laing (MA, 2004) and Gregory Laing (MA, 2004) with their greyhounds
- Dorothy C. Porter (MA, 2001)