Frank Bezner Joins Faculty

May 14, 2008

After an extensive interdepartmental search to bolster support for teaching and research in Medieval Latin, Dr. Frank Bezner of the University of Tübingen has been appointed to a joint position in Classics and Comparative Literature. 

Bezner was educated at the University of Tübingen, with undergraduate work in Latin Philology, Greek Philology, Medieval Latin Philology and German Philology, an MA in Greek, Latin, and Medieval Latin (1996), and a PhD in Medieval Latin (2000 summa cum laude). He has held a Junior Research Fellowship at Tübingen (1996-1999), the position of Research Associate at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1999), and Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Warburg Institute (2000-2002) and at the University of Cologne (2002-2003). Since 2003 he has been the equivalent of an assistant professor of Medieval Latin at Tübingen, teaching their entire curriculum since the loss of the medieval Latin professorship, in a position temporarily funded by the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. 

Bezner’s major publication to date is Vela Veritatis: Hermeneutik, Wissen und Sprache in der Intellectual History des 12. Jahrhunderts, a comprehensive study devoted to 12th century developments of the medieval concept of integumentum (the veiling of truth through language and images). He has three co-edited or co-authored works set to appear in 2008, and is currently working on a monograph on the historiographic tradition of Ferrara under the Este family, based on archival research into previously neglected sources.

Dr. Bezner will take up his appointment as Assistant Professor in January 2009.