FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Barbara Newman, professor of English, religion and classics and John Evans Professor of Latin at Northwestern University, will present “Persona: Some Thoughts about Medieval Selfhood” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, in Hillside Auditorium room 206. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Barbara Newman is known for her work on medieval religious culture, allegorical poetry and women’s spirituality. Her many books include Frauenlob's Song of Songs: A Medieval German Poet and His Masterpiece, God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages, and From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature.

Her most recent book, Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred, was published by Notre Dame in 2013. She is also the author of three works on Hildegard of Bingen:  an edited volume, Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World; an edition and translation of Hildegard's collected songs, Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum; and Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine.

Newman received a doctorate of philosophy in medieval studies from Yale University, a master of arts from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a bachelor of arts in English and religion from Oberlin College. She has been teaching at Northwestern University for 28 years and is currently the director of the graduate cluster in medieval studies.

Before becoming the John Evans Chair of Latin Language and Literature, held the Charles Deering McCormick Chair of Teaching Excellence. She has been a fellow of the Medieval Academy, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alice Berline Kaplan Center for the Humanities at Northwestern.

Newman’s visit was made possible by the medieval renaissance studies program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.