Karen Christianson - Newberry Library

Karen Ann ChristiansonThe Newberry Library60 West Walton StreetChicago, IL 60805Work phone: 312-255-3539E-mail: christiansonk@newberry.orgEducationPhD History, University of Iowa, 2009Dissertation: Female Leadership and Male Submission: The Order of Fontevraud in Twelfth-CenturyFrance. Advisor, Constance Hoffman BermanMA History, San Francisco State University, 1997BA with High Honors, History, Portland State University, 1995Minor: English LiteratureAcademic PositionsAdministrationNewberry LibraryAssociate Director, Center for Renaissance StudiesSeptember 2012 – present andJuly 2010 – August 2011Acting Director, Center for Renaissance Studies September 2011 – August 2012Assistant Director, Center for Renaissance Studies May 2009 – June 2010Manager of Public Programs September 2008 – April 2009Interim Assistant Director, Center for Renaissance Studies January – August, 2008TeachingDePaul UniversityAdjunct Instructor, History Department2005 – presentChicago State University 2003 – 2005Visiting Assistant Professor, History DepartmentUniversity of Iowa 1998 – 2002Instructor, History DepartmentInstructor, Rhetoric Department

PublicationsEditor, Constructing the Medieval and Early Modern across Disciplines: Selected Proceedings of the NewberryCenter for Renaissance Studies 2011 Graduate Student Conference (Chicago: The Newberry Library,2011).Editor, Intersecting Diciplines: Selected Proceedings of the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies2010 Graduate Student Conference (Chicago: The Newberry Library, 2010Editor, Education, Forming and Deforming the Premodern Mind: Selected Proceedings of the Newberry LibraryCenter for Renaissance Studies 2009 Graduate Student Conference (Chicago: The Newberry Library,2009).Editor, Mapping the Premodern: Selected Proceedings of the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies2008 Graduate Student Conference (Chicago: The Newberry Library, 2008). Book review: MediciWomen: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal, by Gabrielle Langdon, and Renaissance Woman, by GaiaServadio. In Canadian Journal of History 42:1 (2007), 95-97Book review: Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal, by Gabrielle Langdon, and RenaissanceWoman, by Gaia Servadio. In Canadian Journal of History 42:1 (2007), 95-97Book review: Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages, edited by Cindy L. Carlsonand Angela Jane Weisl. In The Journal of the History of Sexuality 11 (2002), 490-495Editor, The History Journal: Ex Post Facto VI (1997) and V (1996)ConferencesInvited plenary session: ‚Research Libraries and Teaching about Early Modern Women: The NewberryLibrary as a Case Study,‛ Attending to Early Modern Women Conference, Milwaukee, June 2012‚The Supremacy of the Abbess at Fontevraud‛Medieval Academy of America annual meeting, Saint Louis, March 2012Session organizer and chair: Roundtable: Perspectives on the War of 1812 from the Collections of the NewberryLibrary, American Historical Association annual meeting, Chicago, January 2012Session organizer and chair: Medieval and Modern Perceptions of TransgressionAmerican Historical Association annual meeting, Boston, January 2011‚Female Authority and Robert of Arbrissel’s Rule for Fontevraud‛ (paper delivered in absentia)International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2010‚Robert of Arbrissel: Proto-Feminist?‛International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2008‚Women, Patronage, and Power: The Early Abbesses of Fontevraud in Twelfth-Century France‛International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2004‚The Reconstruction of an Order: Charters and Fontevraud‛American Historical Association annual meeting, Chicago, January 2003‚Women on Top: Reflections on the Order of Fontevraud‛Southwest Wisconsin Medieval and Renaissance Conference, Platteville, November 2001‚Female Leadership and Male ‘Obligation of Reverent Subjection’: The Twelfth-Century Order ofFontevraud.‛ History of Women Religious Conference, Marquette University, April 20012

AffiliationsAmerican Historical AssociationIllinois Medieval AssociationMedieval Academy of AmericaSociety for Medieval Feminist ScholarshipSociety for the Study of Early Modern Women4