Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Lisabeth Buchelt
- published: 2019/02/04
- contact: Justin Garrison - English
- search keywords:
- English Department
- Medievalist
- Humanity
- Ordo Virtutum
- Cosmos and Creation
Dr. Buchelt’s office is compact in a cozy fashion. Book shelves teeming with writings spanning ancient to modern loom opposite a well-organized sitting space. Her desk, surrounded by studying materials, is partitioned further back in the room. She rests her feet on an ottoman in the sitting area as she speaks. As the resident Medievalist in the English Department, she cautions against thinking about the people of the past as something different from ourselves. A recurring theme arises through conversation: “Technologies change, people don’t.”
This semester, she is teaching both English 2310 British Literature I and English 3280 Irish Literature I, two general education courses that she has cycled between in the past. With the courses, she aims to connect students with the past and other cultures through literature. She recounts that, though some students fear they won’t have anything to say, the “conversations have been very complex.” The critical approaches fostered in English courses allow students to bring interpretations she never thought of herself. Even in well know texts, students are still finding new perspectives. One fundamental reason for her teaching, is the ever-pervasive question: “Why does humanity keep making the same mistakes?” She suggests that the answer is an unwillingness to accept the humanity of the past, a behavior she tries to alleviate through her courses. She teaches students to see where humanity has been, so they can start thinking about the future.
This semester, Dr. Buchelt is also teaching English 4960/8966 Medieval Women Writers, a course that explores not only women writers of the Medieval era, but also how women and their rights were written about at the time. Students, she explains, think “the medieval is incredibly foreign,” but she battles that by contextualizing what her classes read. She expresses that, in many ways, the Middle Ages are not what people normally think they are. She focuses on the idea of the Abbey and how, from a modern preconception, it was constraining to women. She explains that, in some ways, becoming a nun is a compromise that empowers women via the political and educational tools available to those working for the church. One such woman discussed in the class is Hildegard of Bingen.
Hildegard was a 12th century abbess, mystic, writer, and composer that created the play know as Ordo Virtutum. In the play, Hildegard uses song, traditionally sung by an all-female cast, and ballet to convey her vision of the universe and the order of the virtues. Dr. Buchelt aligned her unit on Hildegard with a collaborative effort between The College of Saint Mary and the Omaha Academy of Ballet to perform Ordo Virtutum. The performance, conducted by Dr. Christopher Krampe, is referred to as “Ordo in Motion” and will be occurring on February 22 at St. Cecilia's Cathedral. On February 21, Hildegard Scholar Margot Fassler will be presenting the world debut of “Cosmos & Creation” at UNO’s Mallory Kountze Planetarium. The event features Hildegard’s Scivias, which are artwork created from her visions. The renditions at the event were created by digital artist Christian Jara. The event will feature her artworks as compared to the cosmos and a discussion of where the two overlap. Dr. Buchelt has been working closely with both projects, and she is excited for the performance. She says that “although much of the vocab is couched in the 12th century,” the cosmos and Hildegard’s visions lineup in fascinating ways. Registration and more information can be found at www.csm.edu/ordo.