Affiliated Departments & Programs
- Religious Studies
- Gender & Sexuality Studies
Mary A. Suydam has taught religion, history, and women's and gender studies courses at Kenyon since 1991. Her research field is medieval mysticism, with an emphasis on the performance aspects of mysticism (the public and performative, rather than the private and ineffable, aspects of the mystical experience).
Her most current research concerns the mystical spirituality of communities of women (called Beguines) in 13th and 14th century Flanders. She is the author of numerous articles about Hadewijch of Antwerp, a thirteenth-century Beguine. She is the co-editor (with Ellen Kittell) of The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in the Southern Low Countries (Palgrave: 2003), and the co-editor (with Joanna Ziegler) of Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality (St. Martins, 1999).
Education
1993 — Doctor of Philosophy from University of California, Santa Barbara
1984 — Master of Arts from University of California, Santa Barbara
1973 — Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Santa Barbara