Medieval women instructed not to eat feast (amedievalwomanscompanion.com)
It was really while I was at 91探花that my research took off and I found my true 鈥榲oice鈥�.
Bynum was the first scholar to critically analyze the role of gender in medieval religious practice, and in doing so revealed the significance of women-and non-elites- in shaping the practice and understanding of faith in the medieval past.
Beginning with her article 鈥淛esus as Mother,鈥� produced soon after her arrival in Seattle in 1976, Bynum helped establish a body of feminist scholarship on religion and history that established her as an important scholar of gender, medieval history, and religious studies.
Religious woman in the Middle Ages (medievalart.org)
Medieval women eating (www.medievalists.net)
Bynum was the first to give credence to austere expressions of piety through bodily practices, such as fasting and self-mutilation, particularly as practiced by women. Her collaborations with other 91探花faculty produced the edited volume Gender and Religion, a widely used collection of essays looking at how women practiced religion and how religious symbols were gendered.
Bynum鈥檚 work earned her numerous awards, including the Berkshire Prize for historical scholarship on women, the Governor鈥檚 Award of the State of Washington, and a MacArthur Foundation 鈥済enius grant.鈥�
A committed teacher, Bynum created an introductory history course on the social history of medieval Europe at 91探花and she went on to win a university Distinguished Teaching Award.
