Jessica A. Boon

Assistant Professor of Church History

jboon@smu.edu
214.768.1980

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, History of Medieval Christian Thought, 2004; B.A., Yale University, Humanities, magna cum laude, 1998

Teaching Specialties

Medieval and early modern Christian thought (Europe), monotheistic religions, mystical traditions in all major religions, Spain and the New World, church history

Research Interests

Mystical texts and traditions (negative theology, visionary experience, Passion meditation) in Europe in general and early Golden Age Spain in particular, with attention to the influence of culture, gender, and religious/racial heritage

Selected Publications

“Mother Juana de la Cruz: Marian visions and Female Preaching,” Companion to Spanish Mysticism, ed. Hilaire Kallendorf (Brill Press, forthcoming); “Medical Bodies, Mystical Bodies: Medieval Physiological Theology in the Recollection Mysticism of Bernardino de Laredo,” Viator 39.2 (2008): 245-68; “Agonies of the Virgin: Mary Fainted, Mary Crucified in Sixteenth Century Castilian Passion Treatises,” Sixteenth Century Studies 38.1 (2007): 3-26; “A Mystic in the Age of the Inquisition: Bernardino de Laredo's Converso Environment and Christological Spirituality,” Medieval Encounters: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Confluence and Dialogue 12.2 (2006): 133-52; “Trinitarian Love Mysticism: Hadewijch, Ruusbroec, and the Gendered Experience of the Divine,” Church History 72 (2003): 484-503.

Professional Distinctions

2009 Charles Julian Bishko Memorial Prize, awarded by the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Studies for the best article published in 2007 in the field of medieval Iberian history by a North American scholar; awarded two Mellon postdoctoral positions at Duke University, 2004-2006; Javits fellowship for graduate study