"I made friendships that will last beyond the two months I spend in Innsbruck. My impression of the University is that of a focussed and thoughtful leisureliness [...]."

 

I am visiting the University of Innsbruck because…

... I want to develop new research projects after having completed a monograph on concepts of community and normativity in early medieval monasticism. I want to spend my time with reading, thinking, exchanging ideas with students and colleagues, but also enjoying the city and the breathtakingly beautiful landscape around Innsbruck

 

What surprised me about Innsbruck was...

... the wonderful hospitality and genuine curiosity of my colleagues and students. I expected to be offered just a desk and a library pass. What I got were many joyful encounters with colleagues and conversations about our research and about plans for future collaboration. I made friendships that will last beyond the two months I spend in Innsbruck. My impression of the University is that of a focussed and thoughtful leisureliness (Gemächlichkeit): colleagues who love their work, enjoy sharing ideas and listening and who were little affected by the stress and frenzy that is taking over academia at so many places.

 

For my students I give the following advice...

... the words of Hugh of St. Victor that were inscribed on the tomb of Father Leonard Boyle, the former prefect of the Vatican Library and one of the greatest scholars in my field: Omnia disce, videbis postea, nullum esse superfluum. Coarctata scientia iucunda non est. (Learn everything, later you will see that nothing is superfluous. There is no joy in restrained science). As students you have a chance to be as interdisciplinary as all of us would like to be. If I write a letter of recommendation, I want to be able to use the words curious and intellectually playful.

 

What fascinates me about scientific work is...

... to be constantly proven wrong in my assumptions: the excitement of a result that does not fit with my expectations and the thought processes triggered by my error. I think this is what most of us share, regardless of whether we analyze a medieval text (as I do) or conduct a chemical experiment or a statistical analysis.