Curriculum Vitae
CURRICULUM VITAE
LYNDA L. COON
Dean, University of Arkansas Honors College
Professor, Department of History
Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
e-mail: llcoon@uark.edu
DEGREE INSTITUTION YEAR
Ph.D. in History University of Virginia 1990
M.A. in History University of Virginia 1986
B.A. in History James Madison University 1983
(Summa cum laude)
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
June 2015 to the Present
Dean, Honors College, University of Arkansas
Developer of Honors College signature courses and study abroad experiences; stewardship
of the Walton Family Foundation gift; supervisor of programming, grants, and curricula
related to honors education; administrator of the fellowship selection process; head
of donor engagement and alumni outreach.
August 2014 to May 2015
Associate Dean, Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences
Dean’s liaison to the fine arts and humanities departments and programs; organizer
of research workshops for faculty in STEM, social sciences, and humanities; point
person for the Cambridge University research fellowships.
August 2013—July 2014
Interim Associate Dean, Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences
Dean’s liaison to the fine arts and humanities departments and programs; point person
for the Cambridge University research fellowships.
August 2013—August 2016
Director, Religious Studies Program
Curricular administrator; organizer of programming; faculty outreach director; advisor
of Religious Studies minors.
July 2008—July 2013
Chair, Department of History
Administration of faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and alumni affairs;
supervision of tenure-and-promotion cases; annual evaluation of faculty, grievances;
graduate selection process, undergraduate programming, lecture series; PR for the
department; stewardship of department’s endowments and scholarships.
August 1998—August 2004
Director, Humanities Program
Administration of interdisciplinary programs in Gender Studies, Religious Studies,
and Medieval & Renaissance Studies; curricular coordination; faculty outreach; advising
of minors; stewardship of the Humanities Endowment.
August 1998—August 2004
Director, Honors Humanities Project (H2P)
Administration of an N.E.H.-supported, four-semester honors sequence in World Cultures.
In 1995, the Humanities Program of Fulbright College won a $200,000 NEH Curriculum
Grant to develop this interdisciplinary honors course. The course has become an academic
anchor for ambitious honors scholars.
August 2001—August 2004
Director, Fulbright College Study Abroad Program in Rome
Administration of the inaugural “Humanities in Rome” program, including teaching at
the Rome Center and recruiting students and faculty to participate in the Rome Center.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Full Professor, University of Arkansas (2011—the present)
Rome Study Center, University of Arkansas (Fall 2001)
Associate Professor, University of Arkansas (1996--2011)
Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas (1990-1996)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Bates College (1989-1990)
TEACHING FIELDS
Early Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
Late Roman Empire
Late Antiquity
Church History
Gender and Sexuality
World Cultures
TEACHING AWARDS
2014 University of Arkansas Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award
2000 Charles and Nadine Baum University of Arkansas Teaching Award
1998 Fulbright College Master Teacher Award
PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS IN PROGRESS
Book in Progress: Dark Age Jesus.
Article Accepted (with Kim Sexton): "Racetrack to Salvation: The Circus, the Basilica, and the Martyr," forthcoming in Gesta, Spring 2020.
Chapter under Contract: “The Call of the Siren: Sex, Salt, and Water in the Sacramentary of Gellone,” in Matthew Gillis (ed.), Carolingian Experiments, under contract with Brill Publishers (forthcoming, 2021).
Chapter under Contract: "The Architecture of the Ascetic Body," in Bernice Kaczynski and Thomas Sullivan (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism, under contract with Oxford University Press (forthcoming, 2019).
Chapter under Contract: "Merovingian Meditations on Jesus," in Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira (eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World, under contract with Oxford University Press (forthcoming, 2019).
Book: Dark Age Bodies: Gender and Monastic Practice in the Early Medieval West (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Dark Age Bodies has been nominated for the Jacques Barzun Prize in cultural history, the Philip Schaff Prize in church history, the James Henry Breasted Prize for best monograph in historical fields prior to the year 1000 C.E., and the John Gilmary Shea Book Prize in the history of the Catholic Church.
Book: Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997).
Edited Book: Co-editor and introduction with Elisabeth Sommer and Katherine Haldane,
That Gentle Strength:
Historical Perspectives on Women and Christianity (University of Virginia Press, 1990.
Published Articles & Essays:
"Gendering Dark Age Jesus," Gender & History 28/1 (April 2016): 8-33; article of the month in Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index (May 2016).
"Gender and the Body, 600-1100," in Thomas Noble and Julia Smith (eds.), Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 3, Early Medieval Christianity, c. 600-1100 (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 433-52.
“Somatic Styles of the Early Middle Ages,” Gender and History 20/3 (2008): 463-86.
“Collecting the Desert in the Carolingian West,” Church History and Religious Culture 86 (2006): 135-62.
"What is the Word if not Semen?: Priestly Bodies in Carolingian Exegesis," in Leslie Brubaker and Julia Smith (eds.), Gender and the Transformation of the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 278-300.
"Historical Fact and Exegetical Fiction in Ermanrich's Vita S. Sualonis," Church History 72.1 (2003): 1-24.
"Refashioning the Sacred: Saints and Charismatic Clothing in the Late Antique West," Earthly Love, Spiritual Love, Love of the Saints, Sewanee Medieval Studies 8 (1999): 109-20.
Book Reviews published in Augustiniana, Speculum, Medieval Review, Journal of the Academy of Religion, Catholic Historical Review, American Historical Review, and Religious Studies Review
PRESENTATIONS
“Dark Age Jesus,” Medieval Academy of America, Berkeley, California (March 2020).
With Kim Sexton, “Racetrack to Salvation: The Circus, the Basilica, and the Martyr,” Medieval Studies Group, MIT, Boston (May 2020).
“Honors Off Campus and Out in the Community!” National Collegiate Honors Council,
New Orleans, Louisiana (November 2019).
“Civic Engagement and Industry Partnerships,” Honors Education at Research Universities,
Salt Lake City, Utah (May 2019).
“Honors College Passport: Pilgrimage,” National Collegiate Honors Council, Boston,
Massachusetts (November 2018).
“Interdisciplinary Honors College Curricula,” National Collegiate Honors Council,
Atlanta, Georgia (November 2017).
“Racetrack to Salvation: The Circus and the Martyr,” Medieval Studies Group, University of Mississippi (November 2017).
“Merovingian Meditations on Jesus,” Late Antiquity Group, Duke University (September 2017).
“Conjuring Carolingian Jesus,” MARCO Symposium on Carolingian Experiments, University
of Tennessee (March 2017).
“Office of Admissions and the Honors College: A Partnership in High Ability Recruitment,”
National Collegiate Honors Council, Seattle, Washington (October 2016).
"Scripting Dark Age Jesus," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2015).
"Gendering Dark Age Jesus," Gender & History Public Lecture Series, University of Glasgow (May 2014).
"Dark Age Jesus," Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan (February 2013).
"Walahfrid Strabo and the Mastery of Self," American Society for Church History at the American Historical Association Meeting, New Orleans (January 2013).
"Five-Fifths of Torah in a Carolingian Age," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2012).
“Gender and Ascetic Practice in the Carolingian World,” American Society for Church History Meeting at the American Historical Association, Boston (January 2011).
“Lay Bodies in the Carolingian World,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2010).
“Mapping Generational Change onto Medieval Sacred Space,” Plenary Lecture, Women’s History Network, University of Glasgow (September 2008).
“The Mandalas of Hrabanus Maurus,” Theorizing the Early Middle Ages, Portland Oregon (March 2008).
“The Aesthetic of Dining in the Carolingian Refectory,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2007).
“The Dark Age Body and Its Parts,” The Medieval Circle, University of Virginia (March 2007).
“Dark Age Bodies: Power and Eroticism in the Early Medieval West,” Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (April 2006).
“Dark Age Corporeal Styles,” MARCO Institute, University of Tennessee (March 2006).
“On Man and His Parts: Reading the Body in Hrabanus Maurus’s De Universo,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2005).
“The Carolingian Desert,” The Encroaching Desert: Egyptian Hagiography and the Medieval West, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands (March 2005).
‘Gender and the Early Medieval Body’, Sex/Gender Colloquium, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, N.C. (February 2005).
“What is the Word, if not Semen?” Medieval Circle, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (November 2004).
“Medieval Body Parts,” Southeastern Medieval Conference, Charleston, South Carolina (October 2004).
“Gender & Sexuality, c. 600-1100,” Cambridge History of Christianity Seminar, Notre Dame, University (September 2004).
“Tight Linen: Clothing, Bodily Deportment, and Carolingian Monastic Reform,” Southeastern Medieval Conference, Fayetteville, Arkansas (October 2003).
“Ecclesiastical Authority and Sacred Clothing in Carolingian Biblical Exegesis,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, U.K. (July 2003).
Jewish and Christian Exegesis in the Carolingian West," Mid-America History Conference, Arkansas (September 2002).
"Multicultural Approaches to the Field of Late Antique and Early Medieval History," Faculty for Oriental and African Studies, Saint-Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia (June 2002).
"Ascetic Bodies and Sacred Space in the Ninth-Century Carolingian West," Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Ohio (April 2002).
"Priestly Bodies: Gender and Hrabanus Maurus's Expositiones in Leviticum," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 2001).
"Biblical and Classical Landscapes in the Carolingian Vita S. Sualonis," Catholic Historical Association, New Mexico (April 2000).
"Reinventing Sacred Clothing: The Priestly Torah and Patristic Authority," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 1998).
"Moving Icon of Faith: Conversion in the Vita of Mary of Egypt," International Medieval Conference, Leeds, U.K. (July 1997).
"Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth and Poverty in the Life of Melania the Younger," Ecclesiastical History Society, University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. (July 1996).
"The Charismatic Life of Saint Radegund of Poitiers," Jesus College, Cambridge University, U.K. (February 1994).
"Vessels of Sin and Repentance: The Lives of Harlot Saints in Late Antiquity," Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University, U.K. (April 1994).
"Saints and Sacred Clothing in the Late Antique West," Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (April 1993).
"Demonic Possession and Gender in Merovingian Gaul," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 1991).
"Women and Bishops in Early Medieval Hagiography," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Michigan (May 1989).
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Lilly Fellow in Religion and the Humanities, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle, North Carolina (2004-2005).
Fulbright College Research Assignment (Cambridge University, Spring Semester, 2004).
Fulbright College Cambridge Fellowship, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University (1993-1994).
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (1991).
Research Incentive Grant (University of Arkansas, 1991).
DAAD Goethe Institute Fellowship (Göttingen, Germany, 1987).
Philip F. Dupont Fellowship Travel Grant (University of Virginia, 1987).
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Member, International Center of Medieval Art (2019—present).
Council Member, Medieval Academy of America (2019—present).
Manuscript Reviewer: Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge Press, University of Notre Dame Press, Patristic Monograph Series, University of Pennsylvania Medieval Series, Catholic University Press’s Medieval Texts in Translation Series; Speculum; Church History, Gender & History.
Editorial Board, Honors in Higher Education (2017—present).
American Historical Association’s James Henry Breasted Prize Committee (2006-2009); Chair, 2008.
Outside Evaluator, National Humanities Center (2005—2014).
Advisory Board, Monastic Matrix (2010-2017).
Book Review Editor for Medieval Christendom, Religious Studies Review (1999—2003).
American Society for Church History Prize Committee (1997-2000).
N.E.H. World Cultures Humanities Grant (1995--2003).
Secretary-Treasurer for the Southern Association of Women Historians (1992-1995).
Membership Committee, Southern Association of Women Historians (1996-1997).
Outside Evaluator for 1992 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend.
Secretary, Arkansas Women's History Institute (1997-1999).
Member, Board of Directors of the Arkansas Women's History Institute (1992-1999).
Member, American Academy of Religion.
Member American Historical Association.
Member, Southern Historical Association.
Member, Medieval Academy of America.
Member, Hagiography Society.
PH.D. SUPERVISION
John Arnold, "Ego Sum Michael: The Origin and Diffusion of the Christian Cult of S. Michael the Archangel in Late Antiquity," (June 1997). Dr. Arnold published "Arcadia Becomes Jerusalem: Angelic Caverns and Shrine Conversion at Monte Gargano," in Speculum 75 (July 2000): 567-588. He is currently an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Fredonia. In October of 2013, Professor Arnold published his fine book on the cultus of the Archangel Michael in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages with Palgrave's New Middle Ages series.
Susan Laningham, "Gender and Mystical Authority in the Sixteenth-Century Vita of Doña Maria Vela," (May 2001, co-directed with Professor Jodi Bilinkoff, UNC Greensboro). Professor Laningham is Professor of History at Tennessee Technical University. She is the author of several articles and book chapters dealing with the religious history of sixteenth-century Spain and hagiographer in general: ‘Making a Saint out of a Sibling’ in Miller and Yavneh (eds.), Thicker than Water: Siblings in the Early Modern World (Ashgate, 2006); “Painting Fabiola: The Hagiographer as Literary Artist” (Yale, 2008); “Maladies Up Her Sleeve: Clerical Interpretation of a Suffering Female Body in Counter-Reformation Spain,” Early Modern Women (2006). She is putting the final touches on the introduction to a new translation of the autobiography of María Vela y Cueto (Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, forthcoming). In 2008 she won a N.E.H. Summer Stipend to join “The Medieval Mediterranean Seminar” in Barcelona, Spain. In 2010, Spain’s ministry of culture awarded Dr. Laningham a grant to conduct archival research in Avila. Dr. Laningham along with Jane Tar edited and translated the corpus of texts produced by Doña Maria Vela: Autobiography and Letters of a Spanish Nun, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 51 (Toronto, Ontario: Iter Press, 2016).
Natalie Molineaux, "The Theology of Sin and Healing in the Early Medieval Penitentials," (May 2001). She is the author of Medici et Medicamenta: The Medicine of Penance in Late Antiquity (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009). Dr. Molineaux currently is an instructor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Nathan Howard, "Episcopal Patronage and the Cappadocians," (April 2005). Dr. Howard won the 2004 Edith Whitehead Williams Prize for best paper in medieval history (awarded by the Southeastern Medieval Association) and published this fine piece on the Cappadocians in Medieval Perspectives. He also won a Mellon Fellowship to use the Vatican Microfilm Library at St. Louis University (2003). He has presented his work on the Cappadocians in a number of professional settings, including the North American and Oxford Patristic Society meetings. In 2004, Dr. Howard won a University-wide teaching award (2004). Dr. Howard completed his stint as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University (2005-2006), where he taught survey courses in World Civilization as well as upper-level seminars on late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at the University of Tennessee, Martin. In 2007, Prof. Howard won an N.E.H. Summer Institute Fellowship to attend a seminar held at Notre Dame University, “Early Christianity and the Path to Islam: The Middle East Between Rome and Persia" held at Notre Dame University in the Department of Classics. Finally, Dr. Howard has received tenure at UT Martin and has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of History. He is currently finishing his book on the culture of letter-writing among the Cappadocian fathers. He spent the summer of 2019 as a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.
Annette Morrow, "Gender and the Passio of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas," (August 2005). Professor Thomas Heffernan (University of Tennessee), a leading specialist in late Latin and hagiography, served as a member of Professor Morrow’s doctoral committee. Professor Morrow has presented her re-reading of the Passio at graduate conferences at UCLA and Brown University. She spent the 2004-2005 academic year as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Ancient History at Oklahoma State University. While at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Morrow won the University-wide Baum teaching award for graduate assistants (2002). She currently is an Associate Professor of Ancient/Medieval History at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where she is teaching survey courses on World Civilization as well as upper-level classes in ancient and medieval history. In 2007, Professor Morrow won a position in the American Academy in Rome’s N.E.H. Summer Institute on Roman Religion led by art historian Karl Galinsky (University of Texas). In 2009, Prof. Morrow was named Director of Honors Studies at Minnesota State, Moorhead. In 2012, she assumed the duties of Chair of the Department of History. In 2019, Prof. Morrow was named Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Minnesota State Moorhead.
Aneilya Barnes, “Women’s Ritual Spaces and the Transformation of the Early Christian Basilica, ca. 300-600” (July 2007). Prof. Barnes has presented her research on the gendered meanings of early Christian private and public spaces in a variety of international venues. In 2006, she received the Fulbright College Dissertation Grant to fund on-site work in Rome. Prof. Barnes has already published an essay on this important topic (Medieval Perspectives 2004). Prof. Barnes is a faculty member in the field of late ancient History at Coastal Carolina University, where she was named Humanities Professor of the Year in 2010. She received tenure and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2013. In 2018, she received the rank of Professor of History.
Natalie Hall, won the Medieval Academy of America’s CARA Scholarship to study Medieval Latin at Notre Dame (summer 2007). She defended her dissertation on the transformation of the urban landscape of Rome during the papacy of Damasus in July 2018.
Scott Lloyd, currently is a doctoral student in the history of medieval Spain as well as an Instructor in the Department of History. He is the recipient of the Fulbright College Dissertation Research Award, which he used for archival research in Madrid.