E. Ann Matter

E. Ann Matter is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she retired in 2014 following a career of nearly four decades in academia. She received her B.A. in Religion from Oberlin College in 1971, followed by M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in Religious Studies from Yale University in 1975 and 1976. Her doctoral dissertation, "The De partu Virginis of Paschasius Radbertus: Text and Monographic Study," was advised by Jaroslav Pelikan. Matter began at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, progressing to Associate Professor in 1982, Professor in 1990, R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor from 1996 to 2001, and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in 2005. She held a secondary appointment in the Department of History from 1996 onward and served as Associate Dean for Arts and Letters from 2006, overseeing the university's humanities departments. Additional appointments include Visiting Associate Professor at Haverford College on multiple occasions and Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi di Trento in 1993.

Matter's research focuses on the history of Christianity in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods, emphasizing spirituality and devotion, biblical exegesis, women's roles, sexuality in Christian history, and textual studies in Latin and Italian traditions. Her major publications include the monograph The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990); edited volumes such as Creative Women in Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Religious and Artistic Renaissance (with John Coakley, 1994), The Liturgy of the Medieval Church (with Thomas Heffernan, 2001, revised 2005), Law and the Illicit in Medieval Society (with Ruth Mazo Karras and Joel Kaye, 2008), and Mind Matters: Studies of Medieval and Early Modern Intellectual History in Honour of Marcia Colish (with others, 2009); and critical editions like Paschasii Radberti, De partu Virginis (1985). She has authored numerous articles on medieval exegesis, visionary women, and related topics. Matter received awards including the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (1981), Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), Leonore H. Williams Award (1999), and was elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (2004). She served on editorial boards for University of Pennsylvania Press, TEAMS Commentary Series, Journal of Medieval Latin, and others.