Plenary Speakers

Bernard McGinn is Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He studies the history of Christianity and of Christian thought, focusing primarily on the medieval period. He has written extensively about the history of apocalyptic thought and, most recently, about spirituality and mysticism. His current long-range project is a seven-volume history of Christian mysticism in the West under the general title The Presence of God, five volumes of which have already been published: The Origins of Mysticism; The Growth of Mysticism; The Flowering of Mysticism; The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany; and The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism.

As Curator of Digital Research Services in the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Dot Porter participates in a wide-ranging digital humanities research and development team within the context of a special collections department. Dot's projects focus on the digitization and visualization of medieval manuscripts.

Dot holds Master's degrees in Medieval Studies and Library Science and started her career working on image-based digital editions of medieval manuscripts. She has worked on a variety of digital humanities projects over a decade-long career, focusing on materials as diverse as ancient texts and Russian religious folklore, providing both technical support and scholarly expertise. Prior to coming to Penn, she was the Associate Director for Digital Library Content and Services at the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, where she led in planning and implementing new services to support librarians and faculty in the creation of digital projects.