Rebekkah Hart of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio is this year’s recipient of the $40,000 Fellowship.

The fellowship will support Rebekkah’s research project, “The Kiss of Peace: Materialities and Afterlives of Liturgical Paxes, or ‘Kissing Images,’ in Late Medieval England (c. 1250-1550).” While the “Kiss of Peace” was a common liturgical ritual in the Christian mass from at least the second century, this ritual became materially embodied around 1250 in the form of the “pax” object, first recorded in England. A pax (Latin for “peace”) is a small object that generally features a Christological, Marian, or hagiographic image, which the celebrant used to present to another person to kiss. Every church had at least one pax, as they were a central component of the mass. Thus, they survive today in significant numbers across museums and collections, and contain vast potential for understanding how medieval worshippers physically interacted with sacred and religious images.

Yet, paxes remain chronically understudied. Their wide-ranging visual and material forms complicate identification, and their censure at the Reformation further obscured their original contexts. An entire class of objects has fallen through the cracks. Rebekkah’s dissertation will be the first large-scale English-language study of paxes to rectify this oversight and mine these objects for what they can tell us about image veneration, sensorial functions, and the lived bodily experiences of worship in late medieval England.

“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and joy at receiving this honor,” says Rebekkah. “Being entrusted with this recognition by the Medieval Academy and the selection committee, and supported so generously by William B. and Maryloo Spooner Schallek and the Richard III Society–American Branch, means more to me than I can express. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. The support of the Schallek Fellowship is truly monumental for my research, and I am thrilled to devote my full attention to it in the coming year.”

The Schallek Fellowship & Awards Program of the American Branch has distributed more than $800,000 to qualified graduate students working in any discipline connected to late medieval England, the British Isles, and their interactions with the European continent. One $40,000 fellowship and five $5,000 research grants are awarded each year by the Medieval Academy of America, who administers the program. To learn more and to apply, go here.