About
Pamela Beattie is Chair and Associate Professor of Medieval Studies in the Department of Comparative Humanities and is an affiliate member of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She has taught at the University of Louisville since 1995.
She is a specialist on the life and works of the thirteenth-century Catalan polymath Ramon Llull (1232–1316) through which lens she conducts research on the history and culture(s) of the medieval Mediterranean; interreligious dialogue and polemic between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Iberia; vernacular theology; and late medieval religious culture with an emphasis on the intersection between scholastic and lay theology. Her recent research has focused on two main areas: (1) translation, vernacular literature, and questions of religious orthodoxy and heresy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and (2) points of contact between classical, medieval, and post-colonial literatures and visual cultures.
Teaching Areas
Professor Beattie teaches a range of interdisciplinary courses at all levels (from freshman to graduate) for the Department of Comparative Humanities. She teaches regularly for the Honors Program (both introductory level courses and Honors Seminars). Besides teaching the department’s staple courses in the medieval period, she has collaborated on the development of the innovative HUM 105: Introduction to Comparative Humanities; she team-teaches in the Humanities PhD core courses: Historical Perspectives on the Arts and Culture I (with Prof. Jennifer Westerfeld, History) and Introduction to Global Humanities (with Prof. Simona Bertacco, Comparative Humanities); and enjoys offering special topics courses in her areas of research. She also teaches regularly for U of L’s Panama Program.
Courses she has recently taught include:
- HUM 660: Introduction to the Global Humanities (team taught)
- HUM 383: The Mediterranean and Culture
- HUM 105: Introduction to Comparative Humanities
- HUM 596: Representations of ‘Others’ in Medieval Art and Literature
- HUM 661: Historical Perspectives on the Arts and Culture I (team taught)
- HUM 216: Introduction to World Religions (Panama)
- HUM 361: Jews in Medieval Art and Literature
- HUM 515/615/WGST 593/692: Women’s Voices: Ancient and Medieval (team taught)
- HON 436/446: Medieval Arthurian Romance