Zoe Senecal
Lecturer
BIO
Zoe Senecal was born and raised in Burlington but left the Green Mountains to become a student of the liberal arts at Saint Olaf College in Minnesota. While studying abroad at Oxford University she fell in love with the literature of the Middle Ages and decided to work toward a profession that would enable her to continue learning and teaching about this period and its people. To complete her master’s degree in medieval history at Trinity College Dublin, she presented a thesis on the practice of spiritual friendship among Cistercian monks. She continued her research on monasticism at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Richard Kieckhefer, where she earned her doctorate in 2024. Zoe’s dissertation is about medieval nuns and their surprising impact in the legal systems and the wider juridical culture of Paris in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries.
Although she hopes to expand her research on the nuns of Paris into a monograph, Zoe’s first commitment is to her teaching and her students. Her classes offer both broad and focused perspectives on Europe in the premodern world, exploring themes such as medieval travel and the global development of witch hunts from the late medieval period through the present. In addition to her academic research, Zoe also has over a decade of experience as a professional canoe guide in the summers and dog sled musher in the winters. Anticipated courses in premodern wilderness exploration and theorization will draw upon this experience. Whatever the topic or period, Zoe strives to make the past accessible and urgent for her students and give them the tools to use historical narrative empathetically and effectively in their everyday lives.
Bio
Zoe Senecal was born and raised in Burlington but left the Green Mountains to become a student of the liberal arts at Saint Olaf College in Minnesota. While studying abroad at Oxford University she fell in love with the literature of the Middle Ages and decided to work toward a profession that would enable her to continue learning and teaching about this period and its people. To complete her master’s degree in medieval history at Trinity College Dublin, she presented a thesis on the practice of spiritual friendship among Cistercian monks. She continued her research on monasticism at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Richard Kieckhefer, where she earned her doctorate in 2024. Zoe’s dissertation is about medieval nuns and their surprising impact in the legal systems and the wider juridical culture of Paris in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries.
Although she hopes to expand her research on the nuns of Paris into a monograph, Zoe’s first commitment is to her teaching and her students. Her classes offer both broad and focused perspectives on Europe in the premodern world, exploring themes such as medieval travel and the global development of witch hunts from the late medieval period through the present. In addition to her academic research, Zoe also has over a decade of experience as a professional canoe guide in the summers and dog sled musher in the winters. Anticipated courses in premodern wilderness exploration and theorization will draw upon this experience. Whatever the topic or period, Zoe strives to make the past accessible and urgent for her students and give them the tools to use historical narrative empathetically and effectively in their everyday lives.