Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, who earned her doctorate in religious studies from Brown University in June 2009, has been named assistant professor of religious studies at Saint Michael's College, starting this fall semester. Dr. Saint-Laurent was a junior fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D.C., for the 2008-2009 academic year where she researched and completed her dissertation, titled Apostolic Memories: Religious Differentiation and the Construction of Orthodoxy in Syriac Missionary Literature.
A specialist in Early Christianity: Christianity in Late Antiquity and Syriac Studies, Dr. Saint-Laurent will be teaching Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxies and Early Christianity this semester, and probably Christianity, Past and Present next semester.
Dr. Saint-Laurent earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in religious studies and classics from Gonzaga University of Spokane, Wash., in 2000. She earned a master’s degree in early Christian studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2002 with a thesis titled “The Vita Tradition of Ephrem the Syrian: a Hagiographical and Theological Analysis.” She was a Fulbright Scholar in Austria in 2002-2003, studying at the Theologische Facultat of Salzburg University on a project titled “Christianity in Late-Antique Austria: A Social History.”
Dr. Saint-Laurent has published a coauthored essay, “Tools of the Trade: Instrumenta Studiorum,” in the book Oxford Handbook of Early Christianity (2008), and a solo-authored essay, “Early Christianity in Late Antique Austria: Eugippius and Severinus,” in Studia Patristica (2006). She has published a book review in Religious Studies Review, and six reports on conferences in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (four reports), E-Gorgias, and Syriac Dialogue. She has presented papers at 18 conferences or scholarly meetings, many for the Patristic Society or Syriac conferences. She has also given numerous talks to community groups, church gatherings and retreats on such topics as Early Christianity, Female Mystics in the Medieval Church, History of Monasticism, Saints throughout the Ages, Martyrs and Monastics, Women in the Early Syriac Church, and more.
