Public Humanities Faculty Fellow
Irina Dumitrescu (English, University of Bonn; Ph.D. English Language & Literature, Yale University, 2009) is Professor and Chair of English, American and Celtic Studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. She is a scholar of medieval English literature and her research focuses on education, celebrity, and women’s power in the Middle Ages. She also writes essays and book reviews for the public on topics such as food, dance, migration, and literature.
What I'm working on: Imperfection
This project places memoir and scholarship in conversation in a philosophical exploration that moves between medieval ideas and contemporary experiences. Motherhood, the body, language, food, play, and the making of art each provide sites for explorations of the meaning of perfection and imperfection. How do conceptions of purity and perfection (then and now) play out in the tumble of real-life experiences that leave us scarred and doubting? Can we contest the assumption that perfection is required in all things, and find pleasure in imperfection?