A lecture and Q&A by Dawn LaValle Norman (Cornell Society for the Humanities).

Philosopher, mother, teacher, slave. Monica is a character who fills a variety of roles in the early works of Augustine. This lecture will explore her complex characterization across the three texts in which she is given a substantial part: as a philosophical dialogue partner in De Beata Vita and De Ordine, and as the subject of a mini-biography in Book 9 of Augustine’s Confessions. Through paying particular attention to how Augustine places her in relationship with the important men in his life, we can observe Augustine struggling with the puzzle and appeal of his mother as he moves from new convert to established Christian authority.

Dawn LaValle Norman is Assistant Professor of Classics at Baylor University and a ‘24-’25 Fellow at the Society for the Humanities. Before her appointment at Baylor, she was a researcher at Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry for 7 years and a post-doctoral fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford in Classics. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago, The University of Notre Dame, and Princeton University (PhD). Dawn’s work focuses on Greek literature in late antiquity, especially the philosophical dialogue as a literary genre. She has published two books, the first on an innovative Christian dialogue writer (and imitator of Plato) named Methodius of Olympus, and the second on early Christian women philosophers. Her current project, with funding from the Australian Research Council, is on the role that the female voice plays in philosophical dialogues from Plato to Augustine.