Cistercian and Monastic Studies

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Maulbronn Abbey

The Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies encourages and facilitates research on all aspects of the Cistercian tradition and in the broader field of religious traditions. The Center sponsors sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies and collaborates with the University Libraries on digitization projects. The center's advisory board meets annually at the International Congress on Medieval Studies.

international congress on medieval studies

The Center is sponsoring seven sessions at the 58th Congress (2023):

  • "Cistercian Influence on Medieval Vernacular Literature"
  • "Cistercian Mysticism I"
  • "Cistercian Mysticism II"
  • "Forgotten Cistercians"
  • "The Animate Cosmos in Cistercian Theology and Speculative Naturalism"
  • "The Cistercians: Winemakers to the World"
  • "More than Just Your Average Nun: Lifestyles of Religious Women" (co-sponsored with Magistra: A Journal of Women's Spirituality in History)

Digital projects

The Center is currently developing two digital projects:

  • The Monastic Gazetteer Project is creating a Linked Open Data set describing religious foundations in the West from the Middle Ages to the present. The project is exploring ways to use this technology to accurately represent monasteries and changes to their identities, networks, and locations over time.
  • The Janauschek Portal is a collaboration with the Transkribus Project at the University of Innsbruck, the Verein zur Gründung und Förderung der "Europäischen Akademie für Cistercienserforschung" im ehemaligen Kloster Lehnin and the compilers of Cistopedia: Encyclopedia Cisterciensis. The portal will provide access to unpublished manuscripts by Leopold Janauschek (1827–1898).

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