Ellen Muehlberger is an American scholar of Christianity and late antiquity,

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of History and Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with appointments in Classical Studies and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.

Career

Muehlberger has taught at the University of Michigan since 2009. She was briefly a visiting assistant professor of Religious Studies at

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is ...

. Her scholarship focuses on

Christianity in late antiquity Christianity in late antiquity traces Christianity during the Christian Roman Empire – the period from the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine (c. 313), until the fall of the Western Roman Empire (c. 476). The end-date of this perio ...

(300-700 C.E.) and examines specifically "rhetorical and historiographical methods Christians adopted as Christian culture shifted from being in the minority to being dominant in the later Roman Empire." She specializes in topics such as

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

s, notorious heretics and their deaths (e.g.

Arius Arius (; grc-koi, Ἄρειος, ; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaic presbyter, ascetic, and priest best known for the doctrine of Arianism. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God the Father's un ...

shows up on the

list of people who died on the toilet Numerous individuals have died while using a toilet facility or in the process of defecation or urination. This includes confirmed or suspected historical figures as well as more recent notable cases. Pre-20th century 20th century 21st ce ...

) and has published on saintly women such as

Macrina the Younger Macrina the Younger (c. 327 – 19 July 379) was an early Christian consecrated virgin. She is regarded as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches. Macrina was elder sister of Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and P ...

. She has also published extensively in the growing field of the study of Syriac Christianity.

Scholarship and public engagement

Books

Muehlberger is a specialist in the late antique religious imagination. Her first book, ''Angels in Late Ancient Christianity'', was published in 2013. A review in ''Bryn Mawr Classic Review'' noted that "Muehlberger succeeds in demonstrating that angels were an important source of lively speculation and contestation within fourth and early-fifth century Christian discourse. The book also reveals how discourse on angels can provide an entry into other aspects of Christianity, like conceptualizations of the liturgy." The book has been reviewed in such journals as ''

Journal of Theological Studies ''The Journal of Theological Studies'' is an academic journal established in 1899 and now published by Oxford University Press in April and October each year. It publishes theological research, scholarship, and interpretation, and hitherto unpubli ...

'', the ''

American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

'', the '' Journal of Early Christian Studies'', '' Horizons'', and ''Marginalia Review of Books''. Muehlberger's second book, ''The moment of Reckoning: Imagined Death and Its Consequences in Late Ancient Christianity'', was published in 2019 has also been well received. Another reviewer during a book panel published on ''Ancient Jew Review'', remarked, "Muehlberger’s conclusions have significant implications for our research on the machine of narrative and ethics.

Select articles and editorial contributions

Muehlberger has also written numerous scholarly articles and chapters in collected volumes. She has edite
The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings
and sits on the editorial boards o
Studies of Late Antiquity

Bryn Mawr Classical Review ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' (''BMCR'') is an open access journal founded in 1990. It publishes reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies including classical archaeology.Early Christianity in the Context of Antiquity
* "The Will of Others: Coercion, Captivity, and Choice in Late Antiquity.” Co-written with Mira Balberg. ''Studies in Late Antiquity'' 2.3 (2018): 294-315. * “The Legend of Arius’s Death: Imagination, Space, and Filth in Late Ancient Historiography.” '' Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies'' 277 (2015): 3-29. * "Simeon and Other Women in Theodoret’s Religious History: Gender in the Representation of Late Ancient Christian Asceticism.” ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 23 (2015): 583-606. * "Salvage: Macrina and the Christian Project of Cultural Reclamation.” ''Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture'' 81 (2012): 273-97. * "Preserving the Divine: αυτο-Prefixed Generative Terms and the Untitled Treatise in the Bruce Codex.” ''Vigiliae Christianae'' 65 (2011): 311-28.

Public engagement

Muehlberger is an active contributor to public scholarship and has published in online publications such as ''Marginalia Review of Books'', where she has written on the "architecture of knowledge" in late antiquity and provided other editorial contributions as well. Muehlberger is an active public scholar on Twitter and has been credited as one of the popularizers of the term "doomscrolling."

Awards and honors

Muehlberger was a Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellow of the

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

(2014-2015). In 2015 she received the Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award at the University of Michigan. She was also awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2016-2017).

External links

* 'Imagining the Moment of Death, with Ellen Muehlberger', Byzantium & Friends Podcast, https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.com/e/imagining-the-moment-of-death-with-ellen-muehlberger/ * 'On Death and Repentance,' The Distant Pasts Podcast, https://soundcloud.com/university-of-exeter/death-and-repentance/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muehlberger, Ellen Living people University of Michigan faculty DePauw University faculty 21st-century American historians Year of birth missing (living people)