Fellows Lectures Archive (2006-2007)

Thomas H. Bestul, Professor, Dept. of English
“Ramona Bressie, Historical Scholarship, and the Chaucer Life Records”

Thomas Bestul is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago . His early publications include Satire and Allegory in Wynnere and Wastoure (University of Nebraska Press, 1974), followed by numerous editions such as: A Durham Book of Devotions: An Edition of London, Society of Antiquaries (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1987), andWalter Hilton’s Scale of Perfection: An Edition (Medieval Institute Publications, 2000). He has also published edited volumes of essays: 2 volumes of Opera Omnia (Brepols, 2004); Cultures of Piety: Medieval English Devotional Literature in Translation (Cornell University Press, 1999); and Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism in Honor of Professor Valerie Lagorio (Boydell and Brewer, 1995). His research has been supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society, among others.

Elspeth Carruthers, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History
“Transforming the Medieval Baltic Frontier”

Elspeth Carruthers is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago . She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1999 and joined the UIC faculty in 2000. Her publications include numerous articles on medieval law, migrations, and frontiers. Her research has been supported the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies. the American Bar Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Stephen Engelmann, Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science 
“Skeptical Engineers: Biopolitics and the Pursuit of Social Science”

Stephen Engelmann is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago . His publications include Imagining Interest in Political Thought: Origins of Economic Rationality (Duke University Press, 2003), and the edited volume Selected Writings of Jeremy Bentham (Yale University Press, forthcoming). His research has been supported by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, at UIC, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Samuel Fleischacker, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy
“Divine Teaching and the Way of the World”

Samuel Fleischacker is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago . His publications include A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard University Press, 2004), On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion (Princeton University Press, 2004),A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith (Princeton University Press, 1999), The Ethics of Culture (Cornell University Press, 1994), and Integrity and Moral Relativism (E.J. Brill, 1992). His research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including awards from the ACLS and the American Philosophical Association. He was an Institute for the Humanities Fellow in 2000-2001, and a 2001-2004 University Scholar.

Rachel Havrelock, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English and Program in Jewish Studies
“Let the Jordan be Your Border: The Mythic History of a Dividing Line”

Rachel Havrelock is Assistant Professor of English and Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago . She joined in the UIC faculty in 2003, and in 2004 was awarded a joint Ph.D. from the University of California , Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. Her publications include the co-authored Women on the Biblical Road: Ruth, Naomi, and the Female Journey (University Press of America, 1996) as well as numerous articles. In addition, she is a playwright/director, most recently recognized for From Tel Aviv to Ramallah, nominated for The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play of 2003-04.

Brian Hosmer, Associate Professor, Dept. of History 
“Working and Belonging, On Wind River”

Brian Hosmer is Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago . His publications include the co-edited volume Native Pathways: Economic Development and American Indian Culture in the Twentieth Century (University Press of Colorado, 2004), and American Indians in the Marketplace: Persistence and Innovation among the Menominees and Metlakatlans, 1870-1920 (University Press of Kansas, 1999), nominated for four major book awards. His research has been supported by the University of Wyoming , Brigham Young University , and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Brian Hosmer is also the Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library.

Robert D. Johnston, Associate Professor, Dept. of History
“Crusaders against Vaccination: An American History of Medical Populism”

Robert Johnston is Associate Professor of History and the Director of Teaching of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His publications include The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon (Princeton University Press, 2003), winner of the 2002 Social Science History Association President’s Book Award. He also edited The Politics of Healing: Histories of Twentieth-Century North American Alternative Medicine (Routledge, 2004), and co-edited The Middling Sorts: Explorations in the History of the American Middle Class (Routledge, 2001), as well as The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State: Political Histories of Rural American (Cornell University Press, 2001).

Laura Lee Junker, Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
“The Impact of Captured Women on Cultural Transmission in Contact Period Philippine Slave-Raiding Chiefdoms”