DESERT HARVEST—Fall 2007
Vol. 15, No. 2

The view through the round window
by Professor Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Director

   GLAD TIDINGS!  Of late, it is as though angels have appeared to impart news of good things. This partial listing will doubtless gladden your hearts too, for many of you have repeatedly revealed your enthusiasm for my larger goal of securing the foundation that Heiko Oberman provided to the Division.
   Most immediately beneficial to our graduate students is the arrival on campus of Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Peder Sather Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. This semester he is also Heiko A. Oberman Visiting Professor of Late Medieval and Reformation History. Brady is surely one of the world’s half-dozen top experts on early modern Germany, and he and Katherine G. Brady are close friends of the Oberman family. He is teaching the seminar History 696F, on the Holy Roman Empire. On October 27 in Minneapolis, Brady’s colleagues and former students honored him with a two-volume festschrift, "Politics and Reformations" (Brill).
   The History Department is searching now for the first “permanent” occupant of the Oberman Chair. We seek a senior scholar with a (so the ad) “well-established international profile.” I am chairing the search committee, made up of four other History faculty and one doctoral student. SBS Dean Donnerstein successfully made the case to Provost Eugene Sander that, having raised $1.3 million of the requisite $2 million, the Division should be allowed to proceed to a search. Donnerstein supported Luise Betterton’s and my application to the Provost’s office for a three-year match of our endowment interest—which we’ve won!
   As if all this were not sufficient for jubilation, our anonymous challenger has once again proffered a $300,000 match of all gifts to the Chair made within two years of August 2007. Our cup runneth over! The fulfillment of this summons to generosity will bring us within $100,000 of the needed $2 million. At this writing, new donations ranging from liberal to spectacular have already totaled $81,000—which, I repeat, will be matched. During the summer, Bazy Tankersley made a substantial contribution “in kind” by opening her scenic ranch to us, for a weekend High Country Seminar devoted to the topic, “Religious Conflict in the Western World.” She personally welcomed us into her kitchen and dining room.
   All these good things move us toward the triumphant closure of our common endeavor. Toetie Oberman looks forward to the moment of transferring Heiko’s research collection to the UA Libraries. Do join us in the race to the finish line!

First Heiko A. Oberman Visiting Professor
Professor Thomas A. Brady, Jr., University of California, Berkeley
by Adam Duker, master's student     photo

   This fall, the Division welcomes Thomas A. Brady, Jr. as the first Heiko A. Oberman Visiting Professor of Late Medieval and Reformation Studies. Professor Brady is perhaps the world’s foremost expert on Reformation Germany. He is Peder Sather Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published numerous books and supervised the dissertations of countless graduate students, who now staff history departments internationally. Division students will enjoy an entire semester of study under one of our field’s most distinguished scholars.
   In addition, the seminar benefits from the presence of Katherine G. Brady, his wife and coadjutor, who has a joint-master’s degree in religion from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and is an expert in early modern German paleography. Dr. Hester Oberman, daughter of Heiko Oberman, also takes this opportunity to sit at Professor Brady’s feet. She earned the PhD in the Philosophy of Religion and the Psychology of Religion at the University of Leiden and adds valuable perspective to the seminar.
   This is by no means Professor Brady’s first visit to the Division. He and Mrs. Brady first visited Tucson in November of 1984 (the first year of Oberman’s UA career), when he was a professor at the University of Oregon. In subsequent years, the Bradys visited often while collaborating with Oberman and James Tracy on their two-volume "Handbook of European History" (1996). Professor Brady also enjoys a long collaborative history with the Division’s Director, Susan C. Karant-Nunn.
   In addition to the "Handbook," Professor Brady has distinguished himself by publishing several historical masterpieces and translating many others. After earning his doctorate at Chicago, he published "Ruling Class, Regime and Reformation at Strasbourg, 1520-1555" (1978), while at the University of Oregon. In 1985, while holding joint appointments in History and Religious Studies, Brady published "Turning Swiss: Cities and Empire, 1450-1550," which won the German Studies Association Book Prize. That same year he became the President's Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Oregon, a title that he held until 1991, when he left to succeed William Bouwsma as the University of California’s leading Reformation scholar. In 1993, Brady was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern. He has published far more books and articles, and received more awards than space allows.
   Professor Brady’s seminar this semester is on the Reformations in the Holy Roman Empire. He is challenging seminar students to understand the reformers and the reformations on their own terms and to develop the skills to explain them to our contemporaries in terms that they can understand. According to Brady, the dyad of understanding and explanation is key to preserving the historicity of past generations while allowing our future students to intelligibly appreciate them.
   He compels us to understand authors beyond their arguments and to place them in historiographical context, and reminds us that “books do not work on only one level.” As historians, we must understand the theories and methodologies behind the authors’ arguments. Only then can we truly appreciate their contribution to scholarship. While the Holy Roman Empire is confusing in pretty much every geographic, linguistic, political, and ecclesiastical way, Professor Brady encourages us with continuous reminders that we can reap much benefit from a thorough understanding of the Empire, but only after we cease to be intimidated by it.
   He has also assumed an active role in editing students’ grant proposals and writing letters of recommendation. Not bad for someone busy finishing his own book on the European Reformations!
   It was Professor Brady who encouraged me, while an undergraduate at Berkeley, to apply to this program. Together with Mrs. Brady, he has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

The High Country Seminar   photos

   The weekend of August 24-26, high in the wilderness of northern Arizona at Bazy Tankersley’s ranch, a group gathered in pursuit of an understanding of “Religious Conflict in the Western World.” Four renowned scholars lectured and led discussions on the following themes: Thomas A. Brady, Jr. (University of California, Berkeley), ‘A Neuralgic Theme: Religious Communities and Conflict in Modern Ireland”; Tracy Fessenden (Arizona State University), ‘Invisible History: Religious Intolerance in America”; Susan C. Karant-Nunn (University of Arizona), “Mayhem and the Language of Piety: Thinking About War, Violence, and Tolerance in the Germany of the Thirty Years’ War”; and Roger L. Nichols (University of Arizona), “Agents, Clergymen, and Shamans: Battling for Indian Souls: Pastors, Priests, and Shamans.” The weekend  of lectures was offered to benefit the endowment for the Heiko A. Oberman Chair in Late Medieval and Reformation History.

Division announces new associated faculty
Cynthia White, classicist, medieval Latinist
by Tod Meinke, master's student

   The Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies welcomes Professor Cynthia White of the Department of Classics as an associated faculty member. Professor White’s research interests include Greek and Latin bridal poetry, medieval Latin, Augustan poetry, and the writings of the early Church Fathers. She earned the Ph.D. in classics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1991. In the course of her studies, she also spent a year at the American Academy in Rome and studied for two summers with the famed papal Latinist, Reginald Foster. Professor White has been with the University of Arizona since 1991 where she has served on the graduate committees of over a dozen students. She also organizes a very popular trip to Italy each year over the spring break that is open to students, UA alumni, and the wider UA community. She has a book forthcoming from Brepols on “The Northumberland Bestiary: An Edition with Translation and Commentary,” a scholarly edition of the thirteenth-century manuscript with translation and commentary.
   Professor White provides an invaluable service to Division students, who, in order to read the original documents and modern scholarship related to our historical subjects, must acquire a reading knowledge of at least French, German, and Latin. Consequently, we spend a considerable amount of time studying languages in addition to our graduate coursework. In history, Latin, as one might imagine, is the most challenging language for most students. To ensure that we gain the necessary competency, we must enroll in a Latin course every semester throughout our graduate careers. As Professor Susan Karant-Nunn occasionally reminds us, studying Latin also fulfills a deathbed request from the Division’s founder, Heiko A. Oberman. He made that request, not out of some macabre jest or a final attempt to direct the studies of future students, but because he, as an exceptionally skilled Latinist, understood the opportunities that a command of Latin opens to scholars. He and Toetie Oberman established an endowment to support the summer continuation of Latin and other language studies.
   Throughout the middle ages and through the early years of the Reformation, Latin was the written language used in Western Europe by the Church, noble and royal courts, legal systems, and intellectuals. Printed materials written in local dialects usually appeared only when someone thought it was important to communicate with the general public, which means that we also begin to see more French and German in the sixteenth century as the reformers tried to explain new doctrines to their communities. Latin, however, remained the Western European language of choice of intellectuals and theologians to correspond with each other. Oberman’s request, therefore, recognizes that skills in Latin gives students and scholars access to an enormous cache of surviving documents from the late medieval and early modern periods.
   Professor White often conducts independent study programs with advanced students of Latin (those who have completed two years of introductory college Latin) needing more experience with these Latin documents. The opportunity to work directly with historical texts related to our research is an immeasurable asset. When her own teaching responsibilities prevent her from holding independent studies, Division students usually choose to take her advanced classes in medieval Latin or classical poetry. The reason is simple—she is an outstanding instructor. In her poetry course last semester, I read the works of Horace and Catullus. I freely admit that, before we began, I was less than enthusiastic about reading any form of poetry over the course of a semester, especially in Latin. However, the combination of her infectious enthusiasm and an uncanny ability to have her students engage the material was a rewarding and memorable learning experience. Because of Professor White, the prospect of studying more Latin, either with the aid of historical Latin documents or in a classroom reading ancient poetry, has become a welcome proposition.
   On behalf of everyone in the Division, I offer a very hearty welcome to Professor Cynthia White—Salve ad divisionem! 

In memoriam
Morris H. Martin, Advisory Board member and friend
by Luise Betterton, Program Coordinator Senior, and Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Director

   With sadness the Division marks the death on May 17, 2007, of Dr. Morris H. Martin at the age of 96. We marvel at his lifetime achievements as classical scholar, educator, and laborer for peace among nations. His friendship with Heiko Oberman brought him to the Division every Friday morning where they sat outside on a blue bench and discussed matters of mutual interest. After Heiko’s death, we visited Morris for tea and engaged in good if less lofty conversation. His wit transported us.
   Morris was a founding member of the Division’s Advisory Board, on which he served actively and enthusiastically for nineteen years until his death. He and his wife established the Ora DeConcini Martin and Morris Martin General Endowment to provide scholarships for graduate students. Owing to gifts made recently in memory of Morris, this fund now stands at approximately $107,000.
   Long, too, will we remember the annual receptions that Ora and Morris hosted after the annual Town and Gown Lectures. Their gracious spirit and the beauty of their home created a perfect environment for celebrating the presence of many a renowned scholar.      

Fear and the English summer
by Mary Kovel, doctoral student

   For three years, I have wanted nothing more than to return to England and begin my dissertation, and I finally took my first step towards this goal over the summer. My work investigates how England’s leaders addressed a national identity crisis in the early modern period, particularly 1558-1660, by prescribing specific headcoverings as the markers of true Englishmen and women. They relied on reformed theology which clearly advocated distinct gender roles. This project builds on my master’s thesis, which argued that a woman’s donning of a veil, or failure to do so, during the religious ritual, the Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth, in post-Reformation England led to introduction of this topic in the larger theological debates within the Church of England and the role of women in society.
   With travel grants from the Division, the History  Department’s Richard Cosgrove Scholarship, the Association for Women Faculty, the Group for Early Modern Studies, the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, and the UA Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation Committee, I began my preliminary research in the English Midland counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Straffordshire, and Leicestershire. Within the short span of four weeks, I traveled to five different towns in order to locate the records that I will use when I begin my full dissertation year in September 2008. The first week, spent in Stratford-upon-Avon, was taken up with work at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and a conference, “Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and Its Meanings,” held at the Shakespeare Institute. There, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Catherine Richardson (University of Kent) with whom I hope to collaborate in the future on the Clothing, Culture, and Identity in Early Modern England Project, which she chairs. I also renewed my acquaintance with Dr. Graeme Murdoch of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Reformation Studies, whom I met at last year’s Sixteenth Century Studies Conference.
   I then moved on to Warwick, Worcester, Leicester, and Lichfield, where I spent long tiring days in the archives. The highlight of my stay in Worcester was the hospitality that I received in the home of James and Anne Betterton, Division program coordinator Luise Betterton’s brother-in-law and his wife. After two weeks of constant research and only speaking to strangers, the Bettertons revitalized my spirits by welcoming me into their home, permitting me access to the Internet, and sharing their life with me. Perhaps the best experience was sitting with them at their local pub, having Yorkshire pudding for the first time, and visiting with their friends.
   I also learned a few valuable lessons on my trip. First, it is not possible to read Foucault after spending a day in the archive. The brain can only process so much information, and sometimes I just need to relax and soak up the atmosphere around me. Therefore, when not in the archives, I took leisurely walks along the River Avon and the cobbled streets of the small towns, imagining the people who had walked those paths before me. The second lesson that I learned was that one should not pack too many books in a suitcase because it becomes extremely cumbersome when using public transportation.
   I believe that packing light and traveling with the intention of enjoying every minute of the journey, whether sitting in the archive, meeting with colleagues, or having lunch in a pub, is what will make my dissertation year a success.
   Since the first weeks of this semester, the only writing that I have done is grant proposals, which has actually proven quite difficult. How do you convey your dream, what you have been working towards for years, in fifteen hundred words or less? When I was asked to write this article, I actually looked forward to pushing aside the proposals for a while and writing about my summer research trip—that was until I sat down to do it and no words came. How do I convey the beginning of my dream’s fulfillment in six hundred words or less? How can I reveal to you the excitement and fear that I experienced the first time that I stepped into the archives this summer? Even though I conducted research in England a few years ago, the same feelings bombarded me. I could not wait to get my hands on the documents, but at the same time I also experienced a sense of dread that my ‘great idea’ was nothing but rubbish and that what I was about to read would soon prove this correct. Of course, I can now, with a smile on my face, happily tell you that my fears were unfounded, but at the time they were quite real. However now I know what to do . . . sharpen my pencil, take a deep breath, and start reading because action always conquers fear. 

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