In the Silicon Valley of medieval research

Obtaining new insights in the field of medieval studies primarily means researching the medieval sources themselves. Apart from the relevant expert knowledge and language skills as well as expertise in the field of auxiliary sciences of history, which are part and parcel of a medievalist’s toolbox, there are essentially two things without which a well-founded exploration of the Middle Ages would be impossible: sophisticated libraries equipped with all the aids for medieval studies, and the stimulus that a vibrant, probing, interdisciplinary research environment brings to this discipline. This is why I applied ambitious standards when it came to selecting foreign research institutions for my Schrödinger fellowship. Ultimately, I established contacts with two research institutions that constitute the “Silicon Valleys of medieval studies”.

Excellent environment in the American Midwest ...

I spent the first of my two years abroad as a visiting researcher at the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA, an elite university in the American Midwest founded by the Catholic Congregation of Holy Cross, which is one of the places to go in North America for my field of research (but not only for that). It proved an immersive experience in a campus world that was completely new and fascinating for me. For a whole year, I was part of a community of academic research excellence and felt at home in an incredibly warm welcoming culture. And apart from the scientific and project-related benefits I reaped from this year, it was the first time that I switched from a bicycle to a car, carved my own Halloween pumpkin and mentally set aside some of my first future tenure salary for importing an American La-Z-Boy recliner.