Laura Reinert knew at age 14 that she was destined to be a medievalist. She is getting closer to that goal, writing her dissertation to complete her doctorate in English at Saint Louis University this school year.
Reinert is one of two English doctoral students to be named a Presidential Fellow. This fellowship is awarded to a select few students who are working toward their master’s or doctoral degree, and who “demonstrate outstanding scholastic achievement and potential for success in The Graduate School,” according to SLU’s website.
Reinert earned her bachelor’s degree in history and medieval studies at Ohio Wesleyan University and her master’s in medieval studies at the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University.
“When I went to Ohio Wesleyan, I went in and declared my major in the first week. I’ve known this is the time period I wanted to study for a long time,” Reinert said.
Reinert’s dissertation involves women’s speeches in Old English literature. She said that of approximately 30,000 lines of known Old English poetry, only 601 lines are speeches given directly by women. Reinert said that many of these speeches are surprisingly forceful.
“It seems pretty obvious that women were allowed to say quite a bit. They could say things that might otherwise be seen as rude, and they can tell people what to do . It’s intriguing to me that they can do that as much as they do [in Old English],” she said.
Reinert chose SLU to complete her doctorate for many reasons, including the Medieval Studies Center, the Vatican Film Library, which houses microfilm transcripts of the complete works of the Vatican Library in Italy, and a few key medievalist professors.
“[Tom] Shippey [Ph.D.] does more of what I was interested in-philologically, how the language itself is put together,” Reinert said. “He’s more nitty-gritty with the language . he’s really getting into the words. I’m the same way . I can get a whole page worth of discussion [in my dissertation] out of three words.”
Reinert’s favorite heroine of Old English literature is Judith, a character who cuts off a man’s head and gives a speech to invigorate an army of men. Reinert finds inspiration from the story during stressful times while writing her dissertation.
Reinert has many plans for after she receives her doctorate. She said that she would like to teach a course about women and heroics in the Middle Ages and translate the Maiden Kings Sagas, which are stories about women functioning as kings in literature.
As the first in her family to attend college, Reinert said that her parents have been a great source of support, sharing her excitement about graduation. Her father writes her letters weekly and shares Old English proverbs with her.
“My dad always liked history and antiques,” Reinert said. “I kind of grew up in a museum; my bed was from the late 1800s . I spent a lot of time at home with my dad, and he would talk about history often.”
One thing Reinert will not be sharing with her parents soon is a plan to get a tattoo from the refrain of the Old English poem, “Deor,” which, translated to English, means, “This, too, shall pass.”
“The realization I came to from that poem was, these people lived more than 1,000 years ago, but they were having the same basic human experiences that I’m having right now . that passed away; this will, too,” Reinert said.
Reinert said that the community of medievalist scholars is a well-connected one.
“Everybody knows everybody, which is what’s really cool about it . I went to this Black Swan Dinner at [a medievalist convention in] Kalamazoo, Mich. and it was crazy for me,” Reinert said. “For some people, this would happen if you went to the Oscars, but I’m seeing these big-name Anglo-Saxonist celebrities. I had a bit of a geek moment.”
Reinert is set to finish the rough draft of her dissertation by early March and will defend her final draft in April. She will respond to questions from Shippey, Paul Acker, Ph.D., another English professor at SLU and Paul Szarmach, a former colleague and the executive director of the Medieval Academy of America.
