Maureen C. Miller

My research and teaching explores the extraordinary capacity of individuals and societies for change, using the rapid transformation of Europe over the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a lense to interogate contemporary understandings of life choices and the social, economic, political, and cultural forces conditioning them. Medieval religious beliefs and practices figure centrally in my work: I am profoundly interested in the radical claims made for human efficacy on the basis of otherworldly premises and the paradoxical results of attempts to realize religious ideals in this world. I have a particular interest in movements for reform in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. What really distinguished them from earlier, Carolingian-era, efforts to create a Christian society? How did the material culture of western Christianity figure in the novel claims to authority advanced for the priesthood and the new ecclesiastical and social order reformers attempted to realize? Another longstanding fascination is with medieval Italian cities: the development of their institutions, social relations, their urban landscapes, and cultures. The creative interaction and reciprocal influence between religious and communal institutions - in methods of decision-making, ritual expression of claims to power, and notions of community - are particularly intriguing to me. What did the leaders of the early commune learn about the exercise of power from attending their bishop's court, or about the ways to organize elections from monastic communities? The Italian cities offer rich sources and interpretive questions for the study of the circulation of ideas and practices fostering human collaboration and peaceful coexistence.

"Reframing the 'Documentary Revolution' in Medieval Italy," Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 98 (2023), 1-22.