In order to support the teaching and research in medieval studies at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS) established in 2010 a special visitorship for distinguished scholars in medieval studies.
Current John Bennett Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Bennett Fellow, 2024, Margot Fassler, is Keough-Hesburgh Professor Emerita of Music History and Liturgy, University of Notre Dame and Robert Tangeman Professor Emerita of Music History, Yale University. Her books include The Virgin of Chartres (Yale, 2010); Music in the Medieval West and Anthology (New York, 2014); (with Jeffery Hamburger, Eva Schlotheuber, and Susan Marti) Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300-1425: Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent, 2 vols. (Munster, 2016); Medieval Cantors and Their Craft (ed. with Katie Bugyis and AB Kraebel) (York, 2017), and Cosmos, Liturgy and the Arts in the Twelfth Century: Hildegard’s Illuminated Scivias (Philadelphia, 2023). Professor Fassler is now working on a book with Professor Susan Rankin, University of Cambridge, and editing the volume Art, Artistry and Liturgy in the Medieval Book with Professor Eva Schotheuber, University of Düsseldorf. Digital work includes several documentary films on various aspects of sacred music, and now the project “The Medieval Liturgy: Tutorials for Students, Teachers and Researchers” with Professor Katie Buygis of Notre Dame. This interactive teaching venture on the medieval liturgy is supported by the University of Notre Dame and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Fassler is a former president of the Medieval Academy of America, a fellow of the Medieval Academy, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary member of the American Musicological Society.
Past CMS/PIMS Distinguished Visitors
2023-2024
Pasquale Porro (September-December 2023)
2019-2020
Robin Norris (September-December 2019)
2017-18
Sabine von Heusinger (September-December 2017)
2016-17
Charles Burnett (January-April 2017)
2015-2016
Felix Heinzer (January-April 2015)
2014-2015
Catherine Conybeare (September-December 2014)
2013-14
Michael Ryan (January-April 2014)
2013-14
Christopher Martin (September-December 2013)
2012-13
Stella Panayotova (January-April 2013)
2011-12
Henrietta Leyser (January-April 2012)
2010-11
John Marenbon (September-December 2010)