Ohio Wesleyan to Present Noted Medieval Studies Scholar
Sturges Hall, home of OWU’s Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies program. (Photo by Paul Molitor)
DELAWARE, OHIO – Ohio Wesleyan University’s Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program will host celebrated medieval scholar Steven F. Kruger on Feb. 21 to discuss “Institutional Time and the Time of Conversion.”
The free event will be held at 4 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Bayley Room of Ohio Wesleyan’s Beeghly Library, 43 Rowland Ave., Delaware. It is sponsored by the university’s Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program and by the OWU Departments of English, History, and Religion.
Kruger, Ph.D., received his doctorate from Stanford University and is a professor of English at Queens College and a professor of Medieval Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY). He has lectured on medieval literatures and religions across the United States and Europe and has published several books and academic articles on subjects such as perceptions of gender in the Middle Ages and dream inheritance.
His Ohio Wesleyan presentation will consider how various temporalities intersect in the writing of Paul of Burgos, a Castilian Jew (and rabbi) who converted to Christianity in either 1390 or 1391. Paul’s last work, written just before he died in 1435, the Scrutinium Scripturarum, stages a debate between “Saul” and “Paul” about the truth of Christianity and the errors of Judaism.
What’s intriguing though, Kruger says, is the way “Paul treats the recent history of Spain (and particularly the history of the monarchs’ relationships to Jewish communities) as a kind of reflex of his own life/autobiography.”
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities. Ohio Wesleyan offers more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. OWU combines an internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that connect classroom theory with real-world practice. Located in Delaware, Ohio, OWU’s 1,850 students represent 41 states and 45 countries. The university is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, and included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.