Caroline Walker Bynum
WESTERN MEDIEVAL HISTORY
Professor
School of Historical
Studies

Caroline Bynum’s work has been instrumental in introducing the concept of gender into the study of medieval Christianity. Her path-breaking books, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (1987) and The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christendom (1995), created the paradigm for the study of women’s piety that dominates the field today and helped propel the history of the body into a major area of pre-modern European Studies. She is currently working on pilgrimage and piety in Germany and on theories of identity in medieval theology. She came to the Institute from Columbia University, where she was the first woman to be named University Professor.

Ph.D. Harvard University, 1969; Harvard University Faculty, 1969-76; Professor, University of Washington, 1976-88; Professor of History, Columbia University, 1988-99; University Professor, Columbia, 1999-2003; Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, 2003-; Fellow, Medieval Academy of America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member, American Philosophical Society; Past President, American Historical Association, Medieval Academy of America; MacArthur Fellow, 1986-91; Berkshire Prize, 1985; Philip Schaff Prize, 1989; Trilling Prize, 1992; Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, 1995; Barzun Prize, 1996; Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School,  2001; Distinguished Career Award, American Society of Church  History, 2005.