Saint Joseph's University Medievalist Paul Patterson, Ph.D. Awarded NEH and British Academy Fellowships

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Paul Patterson

PHILADELPHIA, PA (06/21/2011)(readMedia)-- Medievalist Paul Patterson, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, has earned support and recognition for his academic work from several national and international organizations. He has been named an advisor for a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Regional Faculty Fellow, and awarded a fellowship by the Huntington Library and British Academy and a summer stipend by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He has been awarded $8,200 to pursue his personal project, an edition of the Mirror to Devout People as well as a stipend to participate in the Penn program. In addition, he will advise on a $70,000 sub-project with the Mellon Foundation.

The Mirror to Devout People, also known as the Speculum devotorum, was written by a monk at the Carthusian monastery of Sheen, in Surrey, England, for a sister of the Bridgettine Syon Abbey in Isleworth, Middlesex. It tells the story of Christ's life, with an emphasis on the Passion, and was written at a time when the vernacular Bible was banned. Over the past several years, Patterson has examined a number of late-14th and early-15th century texts, and plans to complete a new edition of the Mirror to Devout People for the Early English Text Society this summer. Patterson will conduct his research at the Cambridge University Library, which holds one of the original manuscripts of the text. Both the Huntington Library and British Academy Fellowship for study in the United Kingdom and the NEH summer stipend will support the completion of this project.

"This text is an important indicator of lay and monastic devotion," says Patterson. "It shows the specific importance of devotional texts during the time period. This new edition will provide access to the complete text that scholars haven't had before."

As a Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Regional Faculty Fellow, Patterson will participate in weekly seminars at the University of Pennsylvania on the theme of "Adaptations." This program brings together humanities faculty from Philadelphia-area universities who are working on projects that suit the academic year's theme to present interdisciplinary public forums held each Tuesday. Each Fellow presents during one session and moderates another; Patterson's presentation will illustrate the levels of adaptation that medieval texts passed through, from replication by scribes to modernizations.

"I'm looking forward to interacting with other scholars who are excited about a topic, in an intellectual forum," says Patterson.

Additionally, Patterson was chosen by Alexandra Gillespie, D.Phil., associate professor of English at the University of Toronto, to serve as an advisor for "Parker's Scribes," a subproject to the digitization initiative "Making Medieval English Manuscripts: New Knowledge, New Technologies," a two-year project Gillespie is helping to research. Patterson's role will involve confirming researchers' findings and serving as a consultant to the project, which strives to identify the original authors and writers of marginalia of texts owned by Archbishop Parker, considered an important collection of medieval manuscripts.

Background: Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851, Saint Joseph's University advances the professional and personal ambitions of men and women by providing a demanding, yet supportive, educational experience. One of only 141 schools with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and AACSB business school accreditation, Saint Joseph's is home to 4,600 traditional day students, 750 College of Professional and Liberal Studies adult undergraduates and 3,500 graduate and doctoral students. Steeped in the 450-year Jesuit tradition of scholarship and service, Saint Joseph's was named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for General Community Service. The University strives to be recognized as the preeminent Catholic comprehensive university in the Northeast.