Dr Julie Ann Smith

DPhil (York) BA Hons (UNE)
Senior Lecturer
Room 821 MacCallum Building

+61 2 9351 4003

I received my BA (Hons) from the University of New England in 1990, and my doctorate from the University of York in 1994. My thesis examined the nature of queenship in early medieval France and England. I spent a year of a post-doctoral fellowship at Massey University in New Zealand before being appointed to a position in the Department of History where I lectured for eight years. I commenced my position as lecturer at Sydney University at the end of 2003.

Research Areas

My major research focus at present is the nunnery rules and constitutions of the 10th-15th centuries. I also research the history of women pilgrims of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, in particular, relating to women’s accounts of their pilgrimages and the processes through which they constructed their identities as pilgrims.

Research Projects

A Rule of Their Own: Writing Nunnery Life in the Central-Later Middle Ages

Selected Publications

Ordering Women’s Lives: Penitentials and Nunnery Rules in the early Medieval West (London: Ashgate, 2001)

‘“The Hours that They Ought to Direct to the Study of Letters”: Learning in the Institutiones for Dominican Nuns’ – under review for Women’s History Review

‘An Apostolic Vocation: the Formation of the Religious Life for Dominican Nuns in the Thirteenth Century’ - forthcoming Medieval Feminist Forum

‘Clausura Districta: Conceiving Space and Community for Dominican Nuns in the 13th Century,’ Parergon 27:2 (2010) 13-36.

‘Prouille, Madrid, Rome: the Evolution of the Earliest Dominican Instituta for Nuns,’ Journal of Medieval History 35:4 (2009)

‘The Virtue of Stillness: Abelard and Monastic Silence,’ American Benedictine Review 59:3 (2008) 291-303.

‘Debitum Obedientie: Heloise and Abelard on Governance at the Paraclete,’ Parergon 25:1 (2008) 1-23.

‘“What Now Lies Before Their Eyes”: The Foundations of Early Pilgrim Visuality,’ Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 4 (2007) 135-157.

‘“My Lord’s Native Land”: Mapping the Christian Holy Land,’ Church History 76:1 (2007), 1-31.

‘The Eye of Faith: Vision and Visuality in the Experience of Women Pilgrims,’ Women-Church: Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 40 (2007), 32-36.

‘The Earliest Queen-making Rites,’ Church History 66:1 (1997), 18-35.

‘Observing the Holy Gospel: The Formation of a Female Franciscan Vocation’ – in Interpreting Francis and Clare: From the Middle Ages to the Present eds Constant J. Mews and Clare Renkin, Broughton, 2010, 121-134.
‘Sacred Journeying: Women’s Correspondence and Pilgrimage, 4th and 8th centuries’ - in Pilgrimage Explored ed. Jennie Stopford, Boydell & Brewer, 1999, 41-56.

‘Pilgrimages of Religious Women’, Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (Brill, forthcoming 2009) – invited to contribute

Conference Papers

‘“The Hours that They Ought to Direct to the Study of Letters”: Learning in the Institutiones for Dominican Nuns’
ANZAMEMS Conference
University of Otago, Dunedin
February, 2011

'Modelling a Gospel Life for Women: the Creation of a Rule for the Poor Clares’, International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2010.

‘Observing the Holy Gospel: The Formation of a Female Franciscan Vocation’
Franciscan Conference, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University, 19-20 November, 2009.

‘“The Virtue of Stillness”’: Abelard and Monastic Silence’
International Medieval Congress
University of Leeds
Leeds, July 2007

‘“The Eye of Faith”’: Vision and Visuality in the Experience of Women Pilgrims’
41st International Congress on Medieval Studies
University of Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, May 2006

‘Old Roads, New Roads: Continuity and Change in Women’s Pilgrimage Accounts’
Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and early Modern Studies Conference
University of Auckland, February 2005

‘Vision and Visuality in the Experience of Women Pilgrims’
Religious History Association Conference
Newcastle, July 2004

‘A Nuptial Pilgrimage: Margery Kempe’s Dalliance with God’
School of History, Philosophy and Politics Seminar
Massey University, May 2001.

‘Nunnery Rules and Enclosure in Early Medieval Europe’
Designing Women Conference
Auckland University English Dept, February 2001

‘Dangerous Bodies: Women’s Sexuality and the Penitentials’
ANZAMEMS Conference
Victoria University
Wellington, February 1998

‘Sacred Journeying: Victor Turner’s Theory of Liminality and Women’s Pilgrimage, 4th and 8th centuries’
31st International Congress on Medieval Studies
University of Western Michigan
Kalamazoo, May 1996

‘Imago Reginae: Queenship in Early Medieval Europe’
ANZAMEMS Conference
University of Tasmania
Hobart, February 1994

‘Knowledge and Learning in Medieval Women’s Convents’ and ‘Creating Female Religious Identity’ in conjunction with Dr Elizabeth Freeman, ANZAMEMS Conference, University of Otago, February, 2011, sponsored by SMFS.

‘Gender Politics of Poverty and Wealth’ in conjunction with Dr Liz Herbert McAvoy, sponsored by SMFS, and ‘Poverty and Property’, sponsored by Department of History, University of Sydney, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July, 2011.

Professional Association Memberships

• Society for Medieval Feminist Scholars (SMFS)
• Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS)

Postgraduate Activities

Postgraduate Workshop
Monastic Books and Libraries, Masterclass convened with Professor Eva Schlotheuber (Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf), Rare Books Library, Fisher Library, University of Sydney, 22 February, 2011.

Supervisions (Postgraduate)

• Sarah Crawford, PhD,
• Joseph Millan-Cole, PhD,
• Kylie Malone, PhD,
• Lauren Webb, Masters,
• Fergusson Elliott, Masters