Samantha Slaubaugh
Email: sslaubau@nd.edu
Primary Field of Study: Liturgical Studies
Research Interests
Medieval liturgy, Christian mysticism, hagiography, gender, ritual formationEducation
B.A., University of Sioux Falls, M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary, Ph.D. University of Notre Dame
Profile
Samantha Slaubaugh studies the relationship between Christian liturgy and experiences of union with God. She is interested broadly in medieval liturgy, Christian mysticism, hagiography, and ritual formation. She is particularly drawn to texts by and about women in the Middle Ages. Her dissertation examines the hagiography for Douceline of Digne, the founder of the first beguine communities in Provence in the thirteenth century. This female-authored saint's life presented descriptions of Douceline in ecstatic union with God as a liturgical gloss and model for the community. When Douceline’s ecstasies are read alongside contemporary liturgical and devotional texts, practices, and art, her hagiography provides rare evidence of beguine liturgical practice. Both her research and teaching are especially attentive to communal formation and its impact on religious beliefs and practices.
Dissertation
Liturgy and Ecstasy among the Beguines of Roubaud: Douceline of Digne's Vida as Liturgical Commentary and Customary