Dawn Marie Hayes, now Professor of History, Montclair State University, was the recipient of the 2018 Bonnie Wheeler Fellowship. She used her award to support the completion of her new book, Roger II of Sicily: Strategies of Identity and Power in the Twelfth-Century Mediterranean World. A special feature of the Fellowships is the designation of a mentor who is responsible for reading the work-in-progress of the Fellow and for offering criticism and encouragement. David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History in the University of Cambridge and Papathomas Professorial Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, mentored this project.

 

Hayes earned her Ph.D. at NYU in 1998 and joined the faculty of the Department of History of Montclair State University (MSU) in 2003, where she was promoted to associate professor in 2006. While at this rank, she has carried significant teaching and service burdens, including serving as Founder and Director of MSU’s Summer Institute in Sicily. She is also mother of seven children. A few years after the publication of her first book, Body and Sacred Place in Medieval Europe: Interpreting the Case of Chartres Cathedral, 1100-1389, she began to train herself in a new subfield – medieval Mediterranean history – an effort from which this is the first book-length study. Roger II of Sicily draws on sources of political, social, religious, and art history to help better understand a complex historical narrative that grows out of the life of an extraordinary medieval ruler. And because Roger’s seat of power was situated in the crossroads of numerous cultures, the monograph speaks to a number of regions within the greater Mediterranean, calling attention to their interconnectedness. Sicily and Southern Italy emerge from the study as important players in a tangled and vibrant Mediterranean world in which they played vital roles.

 

 

Update from Fellow: "The generous fellowship helped me by relieving me of summer teaching duties, which in turn enabled me to complete my most recent book: Roger II of Sicily: Family, Faith and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World (Brepols,2020). As a teacher/scholar, wife and mother of 7, this was desperately needed respite! During this time, I had the pleasure of working with Prof. David Abulafia, who provided feedback as the manuscript neared publication. The publication of the book undoubtedly played a significant role in the success of my application to full professor, which I have been since September 2019."