Lecture by Professor George Greenia
3:00PM - 4:30PM

Hors d'oeuvres and break
4:30PM - 5:00PM

Reflection on the retirement of Professor Steven Dworkin
(Professor Emeritus, Romance Languages and Literatures, Linguistics)
5:00PM - 6:00PM


The history of written culture involves social practices intertwined with material history. During medieval pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome or Santiago, readers and writers suffered from specific constraints occasioned by the rigors of their laborious journeys which were frankly nasty, brutish and long. An international team is tackling the oxymoron of “pilgrim libraries” attempting to catalog the challenges faced by pre-modern people on the move against their tools of literacy. Packing lists for Palestine survive, but fall silent about supplies for readers or writers. What readings prompted medieval folk to undertake sacred travel and what textual trail did they leave in their wake?

If you have any questions, please contact Nicholas Henriksen at nhenriks@umich.edu.