For CJ Jones, the joy of research is not the answers but the journey. And the next step on that journey is a fellowship with the National Humanities Center.

The NHC is a private nonprofit institute dedicated to the advanced study of the humanities, and Jones, a professor of German studies at the University of Notre Dame, has won a place in its 48th class of fellows.

Along with 31 humanitarian scholars, Jones will spend the coming academic year working on an individual research project that aims to bring to light women’s roles in religious history.

Fellows become resident scholars at the NHC’s idyllic, tree-ringed facility in North Carolina. While many organizations require fellows to prepare lectures or attend symposia, the NHC only asks that its scholars eat lunch together every day, taking a social approach to academic collaboration. That — plus the Center’s prestigious reputation and top-notch book request service — is why Jones is excited and grateful to pursue their research at the NHC.

Jones has published books, articles, and more on religious culture and literature in late medieval Germany with previous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Their current academic interests center on the daily lives of those who are often overlooked in history — medieval women.

“People think we don’t have a lot of evidence about women because they were not very involved in producing culture in the Middle Ages, but increasingly, researchers have begun to demonstrate that this just isn’t true,” said Jones, who is the incoming Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute.

Though medieval women were not composing their own texts at the same rate men were, Jones said they had other ways of producing culture. Many rituals in medieval liturgy were designed for men, and when they were passed down, small but consequential restrictions placed on women — such as not being allowed to handle incense — were often not taken into account.

So women had to make their own adjustments, fitting together sometimes-competing sets of rules. Sources showing these adjustments — accounts by women and about their lives — are rarer in medieval studies, but for Jones, the disadvantage is more enticing than limiting.

“Women present a special challenge,” Jones said. “It’s this sort of exciting test, you know?”

Having previously studied medieval nuns through their diaries, Jones will take the research to the next level with their NHC project. Tentatively titled “Binding Ritual: Enclosed Women, Cultural Authority, and Liturgical Books in Late Medieval Germany,” Jones will examine the books women owned for signs of use and alteration.

“Are there patterns of wear? Are pages torn out?” Jones said. “Are there signs that something has been cleaned? Have they made notes in the margins? Has a book been taken apart and put back together again?”

Each manuscript requires a different kind of attention and skills to be understood, but Jones has experience in expanding boundaries to find answers about the past.

In January 2024, Jones traveled to Rome to take a class on codicology, the study of manuscripts as physical artifacts, and paleography, the study of ancient writing systems. They’ve returned to the Italian city for the summer, this time learning about hagiography, medieval writings on saints, and textual editing. Later in July 2025, Jones will also teach a course about monastic education in the Middle Ages and lead a conference on medieval religious women at Notre Dame Rome.

“The reason you get into this business is that you don’t want to stop learning,” Jones said. “Being a professor, you can just learn forever.”

Jones hopes the insights of the “Binding Rituals” project will increase appreciation for the amount of effort medieval women put into preparing religious services and following regulations that were designed largely by and for men.

While many today may not face the exact same issues, Jones said, they can still confront conflicts of tradition and individual community needs.

“Understanding history gives us hope in our own time,” Jones said, “to seize the agency to make our own better future.”

Originally published by Adah McMillan at al.nd.edu on July 07, 2025.