Doctoral Candidate
Biography
Matthew is a PhD candidate with interests in early Christianity, intellectual and religious history of the late Roman Empire, and the early medieval Mediterranean. His research focuses on late ancient and early medieval monasticism, with particular attention to the development of monastic identities and ways-of-being. Matthew’s dissertation examines the fifth-century Christian monastery at Lérins, situated off the coast of southern Gaul, near modern Cannes. He traces the rise and evolution of this monastery’s distinctive posture towards the divine, towards the self, and towards humanity—what his work calls the development of a “Lerinian world” or “ontology.”
His research and travel have been supported by the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies as well as the University of Tennessee Humanities Center. He has worked as a graduate teaching assistant and writing tutor for the University of Tennessee Department of History and is currently the Marco Institute’s 2023–24 Haslam Dissertation Fellow. Matthew is also interested in curriculum development, particularly for middle- and secondary-school educators. He previously worked with the Marco Institute as the Jimmy and Dee Haslam Public Humanities Fellow to develop medieval studies course modules and lesson plans.
Research Interests
Monasticism, late antique religion, intellectual history
Education
BA, History and Politics, Centre College, 2015
MA, History, University of Tennessee, 2020
Selected Publications
"Columba of Iona," In Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 1st ed. David Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (Leiden: Brill, 2022): 500 words.
"Dionysius Exiguus," Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 1st ed. David Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (Leiden: Brill, 2022): 1500 words.
"Monks in the Making: Simulating a Medieval Benedictine Monastery," in Teaching the Once and Future Middle Ages (Submitted for Initial Review).