Research Interests
My twin research interests are medieval Latin and Information Sciences.
My foundational knowledge of Medieval Latin was built during my doctoral studies on a biblical commentary by the medieval Parisian master, William of Luxi (†1275). At the time, I was a member of the Leonine Commission, a research group tasked with producing the definitive Latin editions of Thomas Aquinas. During my tenure on the Commission, I was trained in medieval Latin paleaolography (i.e., deciphering and dating ancient handwriting and scripts) and codicology (i.e., understanding the origins, dating, and relationships between manuscripts). I have since published six academic and peer-reviewed articles on medieval sermon and biblical exegesis; as a visiting professor and lecturer, I also taught these subjects. For the past ten years, I have been researching and writing a first edition of the Latin university sermons of William of Luxi (originally written in sixteen separate medieval manuscripts). I plan to submit the work to Brepols publishing house in Turnhout, Belgium within the next two months. I also plan on publishing an English translation of William of Luxi’s sermons. My other research interest lies in medieval principia, namely academic inception speeches given by an Oxford or Parisian master on the eve of receiving his doctoral degree in Philosophy or Theology. I am currently editing a principium attributed to Peter Auriol, a master of Theology at Paris in 1318.
As a professional librarian I have been fascinated with how information is indexed and made discoverable through descriptive metadata and relational databases. I am most interested in those materials that have been least represented in online library catalogs, such as archival and special collections, the very grist for the scholarly research mill. Part of my interest stems from an early experience I had editing and indexing two digital libraries, The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts and The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation, for Alexander Street Press. My interest in digital libraries and databases led me to tinker with creating a relational database that better exposed the works of African Americans to researchers. I subsequently pitched the concept to the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the form of a National Leadership grant, and received grant monies to build it. I dubbed this research database, “Portal to the Black Experience.” Not a day goes by when I am not thinking of how I can improve discoverability and access for researchers behind the search box.