This year, the Institute of Sacred Music welcomes three new post-doctoral associates to its community:

and completed his dissertation in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame under the direction of Professor Daniel Sheerin: “Gospel Books in Eleventh-Century Montecassino: An Archaeology of the Liturgical Book.” His current research project, entitled “The Altar and the Book,” explores the relationship between the material format of the highly complex and extremely widely used 12th-century book product, the Roman missal, and the texts that this product contained. He seeks to shed new light on the development and dominance of the plenary missal in the context of broader transformation in contemporary book technologies. At the same time, his work proposes new models for understanding these wider developments in the light of transformation in the material features of the 12th-century missal. B.A., B.Theol., University of Auckland, New Zealand; M.T.S., M.M.S., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.

Deborah Justice's research interests focus on the phenomenological intersections between individual and social creation of meaning through music, the role of musical experience in creating community, and how practitioners interact with globalizing flows of music and media to transform local traditions over time. Much of her recent ethnographic work has addressed middle-class white communities in the United States, but previous research in Morocco and her current residence in Würzburg, Bavaria have helped to develop a more transnational perspective on currents within evangelical Christian worship. During her postdoctoral year, she will prepare a book manuscript exploring how mainline Protestants have been engaging with the musical dichotomy of guitar-driven “contemporary” against the organ-and-choir-based “traditional” worship style in order to cultivate both spiritual authenticity and broader societal vitality within the United States. B.A., The College of William and Mary; M.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., Indiana University.

Orgu Dalgic's research interests focus on the visual culture of the early Christian and Byzantine Mediterranean, particularly Asia Minor; floor mosaics; topography and monuments of Constantinople; and cross-cultural encounters in the Mediterranean, with a particular focus on interactions of Greco-Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic visual cultures. She most recently held a Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Byzantine Arts and Archaeology at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. She also served as a Distinguished Lecturer at Catholic University, Department of Art. B.A., Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey; M.A., Ph.D. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

Program in Liturgical Studies

Postdoctoral Fellows 2012-2013