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Expert on women in the early Christian period to lecture at IU
Oct. 5, 2000
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- One of the world's leading scholars of late antiquity, Elizabeth A. Clark, the John Carlisle Kilgo Professor of Religion at Duke University, will deliver two Patten Lectures at Indiana University.
Clark will speak on "Engendering Religious Studies" on Tuesday (Oct. 10) and on "Rewriting Early Christian History" on Thursday (Oct. 12). Both lectures will be in Jordan Hall, Room A100, at 7:30 p.m. The events are free and open to the public.
A pioneer in opening up the study of Christian history and culture to new questions, Clark applies contemporary cultural, literary, social and feminist theory to ancient sources. She virtually invented the study of women in the post-New Testament early Christian period. Looking behind the male-centered literature of the church fathers, she deciphered and brought to light evidence for the important activities of prominent women. In addition, she translated many of the relevant sources into English for the first time.
Clark analyzed the power that women gained through asceticism and demonstrated the extent to which their acts of renunciation served as a precondition for equality between the sexes. While previous scholars had tended to cast Christian ascetics as masochists or arch neurotics, Clark broke with this tradition, instead construing asceticism in terms of socio-cultural power and the construction and revision of gender roles.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Clark has received numerous awards including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies.
William T. Patten envisioned the Patten Lectures as a way to enrich the intellectual life of the IU campus. Since the first Patten Lecture in 1937, more than 130 world-renowned scholars have lectured at IU under the auspices of the Patten Foundation. Noted specialists in their fields, speakers have been chosen for their ability to convey the significance of their work to a general audience.
(Mary Tilton, 812-855-6398, mitilton@indiana.edu)