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Elizabeth Freeman

University of Tasmania, School of Humanities, Faculty Member

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I am Senior Lecturer in Medieval European History at the University of Tasmania. My research focuses on the medieval histories of the Cistercian monastic order, especially the histories of Cistercian nuns in England, the interactions between communities of nuns and communities of monks, and the interactions between communities of nuns and wider medieval society.

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Journal Articles - Medieval Research by Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Nuns and the Organization of the Order", Cistercian Studies Quarterly 55: 4 (2020), pp. 433-456.

Paper presented at 'Colloquium on the Charter of Charity', at Cistercian Abbey Our Lady of Dallas... more

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, the Prohibition against New Religious Orders, and Religious Women", Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 44: 1 (2018), pp. 1-23.

This article investigates canon 13 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), arguing that scholars ha... more This article investigates canon 13 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), arguing that scholars have been too ready to interpret the canon as a prohibition against new religious orders. By examining the difference between 'religio' and 'ordo', and by examining the broader context of reform movements within western Christendom in the long twelfth century, including Innocent III's actions as well as grassroots initiatives, this article notes that canon 13 did not ban new orders and that it was not as restrictive as it has been considered. While this article is not the first to note this, the implications of such a reassessment still deserve more scrutiny, including the implications for women in particular. A more flexible appreciation of the context of corporate religious life out of which canon 13 grew, and to which it contributed, helps us to understand better the religious lives of thirteenth-century women, including Beguines. http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_jmrc.html

Elizabeth Freeman, "Gilbert of Hoyland's Sermons for Nuns: A Cistercian Abbot and the cura monialium in Twelfth-Century Lincolnshire", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 50 (2015), pp. 267-91.

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Priory of Hampole and its Literary Culture: English Religious Women and Books in the Age of Richard Rolle", Parergon, 29 (2012), pp. 1-25.

The Cistercian priory of Hampole is known for the links that it had to the English hermit and mys... more The Cistercian priory of Hampole is known for the links that it had to the English hermit and mystic writer Richard Rolle (d. 1349). Medieval manuscripts regularly refer to Rolle as a hermit 'of Hampole'. But what exactly were the links between the nunnery and Rolle? A small number of manuscripts suggest that Rolle wrote for a nun or nuns of Hampole, although this evidence seems destined to remain ambiguous. On the other hand, in the late fourteenth century and into the fifteenth century, we find references to Hampole nunnery as a place both familiar with Rolle's writings and, also, as a repository of his writings. By the fifteenth century, a growing textual culture can be identified at Hampole, one that can teach us not only about Rolle's writings and their popularity but also about the book collections of nuns and the role of nunneries as promoters of cults and protectors of religious orthodoxy.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Aelred of Rievaulx's Pastoral Care of Religious Women, with Special Reference to De institutione inclusarum", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 46 (2011), pp. 13-26.

Elizabeth Freeman, "A Cistercian Monk Writes to a Cistercian Nun: John Godard's Treatise for the Abbess of Tarrant, England, c.1250", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 45 (2010), pp. 331-51.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns in Medieval England: The Gendering of Geographic Marginalization", Medieval Feminist Forum, 43: 2 (2007), pp. 26-39.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns, Cause Papers, and the York Consistory Court in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries", Australia & New Zealand Law & History E-Journal (2006), Refereed Paper No. 16.

Elizabeth Freeman, "'Houses of a Peculiar Order': Cistercian Nunneries in Medieval England with Special Attention to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", Cîteaux: Commentarii Cistercienses 55: 3-4 (2004), pp. 245-87.

Elizabeth Freeman, "What Makes a Monastic Order? Issues of Methodology in The Cistercian Evolution", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 37:4 (2002), pp. 245-87.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Models for Cistercian Life in Jocelin of Furness's Vita Waldevi", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 37:2 (2002), pp. 107-21.

Journal Articles - Teaching by Elizabeth Freeman

Cathy Stone, Elizabeth Freeman, Janet E. Dyment, Tracey Muir, and Naomi Milthorpe, “Equal or Equitable? The Role of Flexibility Within Online Education”, Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, vol. 29: 2 (2019), pp. 26-40.

Abstract: Online study is generally associated with the terms flexible and flexibility. Many stud... more Abstract: Online study is generally associated with the terms flexible and flexibility. Many students choose to study online specifically for the flexibility that is offered, hoping they can combine their studies with multiple other responsibilities in their lives. For students living in regional and rural areas, such flexibility can be even more important, given the additional difficulties they face in accessing campus facilities. While a flexible learning environment has the potential to contribute positively towards equity in higher education, this equity can be compromised when university policies and processes that have been designed for on-campus students are applied equally to online students. This paper examines the experiences of a group of regional and rural Education students who have chosen to study online, to a large extent because of online learning’s promised flexibility. Their experiences demonstrate that equal treatment may in fact undermine flexibility and result in an inequitable student experience.
https://journal.spera.asn.au/index.php/AIJRE/article/view/221

Tracey Muir, Naomi Milthorpe, Cathy Stone, Janet Dyment, Elizabeth Freeman, Belinda Hopwood, "Chronicling Engagement: Students’ Experience of Online Learning over Time", Distance Education, 40: 2 (2019), pp. 262-77.

Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investi... more Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investigates the student experience through surveys administered at a fixed point in time, usually at the exit point of a single unit of study or course. The study described in this paper, by contrast, aimed to understand online student engagement over a whole semester, guided by two overarching questions: What factors impact students’ engagement over a semester? What factors account for fluctuation in engagement levels over time? This paper presents results from weekly feedback on online education students’ engagement over the length of one semester at a regional Australian university. It also chronicles in more depth the experiences of one student across the same semester. The findings offer longitudinal accounts of student engagement, demonstrating that levels of engagement fluctuate and are influenced by a variety of factors.
10.1080/01587919.2019.1600367

Elizabeth Freeman, "Charles the Great, or Just Plain Charles: Was Charlemagne a Great Medieval Leader?", Agora: Journal of the History Teachers' Association of Victoria, 52:1 (2017), pp. 10-19.

Charlemagne literally means 'Charles the Great,' but what exactly did greatness mean in the early... more

Book Chapters by Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman, "Medieval English Nuns and the Benedictine Rule: The Evidence and Example of Wintney Priory", in Carmel Posa, ed., A Not-So-Unexciting Life: Essays on Benedictine History and Spirituality in Honor of Michael Casey, OCSO (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2017), pp. 233-266.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Aelred as a Historian Among Historians", in Marsha L. Dutton (ed.), A Companion to Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017), pp. 113-46.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Le monache cisterciensi e l'arte nel medioevo", in Terryl N. Kinder and Roberto Cassanelli (eds), Cisterciensi Arte e Storia (Milan: Jaca Book, 2015), pp. 175-86, 420.

This is an Italian translation of my chapter "Cistercian Nuns and Art" from Kinder and Cassanelli... more

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns and Art in the Middle Ages", in Terryl N. Kinder and Roberto Cassanelli (eds), The Cistercian Arts: From the 12th to the 21st Century (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014), pp. 175-86, 421.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Nuns", in Mette Birkedal Bruun (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Cistercians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 100-111.

Elizabeth Freeman, “Cistercian Nuns in Medieval England: Unofficial Meets Official”, in Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory (eds), Elite and Popular Religion, Studies in Church History 42 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2006), pp. 110-19.

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Nuns and the Organization of the Order", Cistercian Studies Quarterly 55: 4 (2020), pp. 433-456.

Paper presented at 'Colloquium on the Charter of Charity', at Cistercian Abbey Our Lady of Dallas... more

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, the Prohibition against New Religious Orders, and Religious Women", Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 44: 1 (2018), pp. 1-23.

This article investigates canon 13 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), arguing that scholars ha... more This article investigates canon 13 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), arguing that scholars have been too ready to interpret the canon as a prohibition against new religious orders. By examining the difference between 'religio' and 'ordo', and by examining the broader context of reform movements within western Christendom in the long twelfth century, including Innocent III's actions as well as grassroots initiatives, this article notes that canon 13 did not ban new orders and that it was not as restrictive as it has been considered. While this article is not the first to note this, the implications of such a reassessment still deserve more scrutiny, including the implications for women in particular. A more flexible appreciation of the context of corporate religious life out of which canon 13 grew, and to which it contributed, helps us to understand better the religious lives of thirteenth-century women, including Beguines. http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_jmrc.html

Elizabeth Freeman, "Gilbert of Hoyland's Sermons for Nuns: A Cistercian Abbot and the cura monialium in Twelfth-Century Lincolnshire", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 50 (2015), pp. 267-91.

Elizabeth Freeman, "The Priory of Hampole and its Literary Culture: English Religious Women and Books in the Age of Richard Rolle", Parergon, 29 (2012), pp. 1-25.

The Cistercian priory of Hampole is known for the links that it had to the English hermit and mys... more The Cistercian priory of Hampole is known for the links that it had to the English hermit and mystic writer Richard Rolle (d. 1349). Medieval manuscripts regularly refer to Rolle as a hermit 'of Hampole'. But what exactly were the links between the nunnery and Rolle? A small number of manuscripts suggest that Rolle wrote for a nun or nuns of Hampole, although this evidence seems destined to remain ambiguous. On the other hand, in the late fourteenth century and into the fifteenth century, we find references to Hampole nunnery as a place both familiar with Rolle's writings and, also, as a repository of his writings. By the fifteenth century, a growing textual culture can be identified at Hampole, one that can teach us not only about Rolle's writings and their popularity but also about the book collections of nuns and the role of nunneries as promoters of cults and protectors of religious orthodoxy.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Aelred of Rievaulx's Pastoral Care of Religious Women, with Special Reference to De institutione inclusarum", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 46 (2011), pp. 13-26.

Elizabeth Freeman, "A Cistercian Monk Writes to a Cistercian Nun: John Godard's Treatise for the Abbess of Tarrant, England, c.1250", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 45 (2010), pp. 331-51.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns in Medieval England: The Gendering of Geographic Marginalization", Medieval Feminist Forum, 43: 2 (2007), pp. 26-39.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns, Cause Papers, and the York Consistory Court in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries", Australia & New Zealand Law & History E-Journal (2006), Refereed Paper No. 16.

Elizabeth Freeman, "'Houses of a Peculiar Order': Cistercian Nunneries in Medieval England with Special Attention to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", Cîteaux: Commentarii Cistercienses 55: 3-4 (2004), pp. 245-87.

Elizabeth Freeman, "What Makes a Monastic Order? Issues of Methodology in The Cistercian Evolution", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 37:4 (2002), pp. 245-87.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Models for Cistercian Life in Jocelin of Furness's Vita Waldevi", Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 37:2 (2002), pp. 107-21.

Cathy Stone, Elizabeth Freeman, Janet E. Dyment, Tracey Muir, and Naomi Milthorpe, “Equal or Equitable? The Role of Flexibility Within Online Education”, Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, vol. 29: 2 (2019), pp. 26-40.

Abstract: Online study is generally associated with the terms flexible and flexibility. Many stud... more Abstract: Online study is generally associated with the terms flexible and flexibility. Many students choose to study online specifically for the flexibility that is offered, hoping they can combine their studies with multiple other responsibilities in their lives. For students living in regional and rural areas, such flexibility can be even more important, given the additional difficulties they face in accessing campus facilities. While a flexible learning environment has the potential to contribute positively towards equity in higher education, this equity can be compromised when university policies and processes that have been designed for on-campus students are applied equally to online students. This paper examines the experiences of a group of regional and rural Education students who have chosen to study online, to a large extent because of online learning’s promised flexibility. Their experiences demonstrate that equal treatment may in fact undermine flexibility and result in an inequitable student experience.
https://journal.spera.asn.au/index.php/AIJRE/article/view/221

Tracey Muir, Naomi Milthorpe, Cathy Stone, Janet Dyment, Elizabeth Freeman, Belinda Hopwood, "Chronicling Engagement: Students’ Experience of Online Learning over Time", Distance Education, 40: 2 (2019), pp. 262-77.

Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investi... more Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investigates the student experience through surveys administered at a fixed point in time, usually at the exit point of a single unit of study or course. The study described in this paper, by contrast, aimed to understand online student engagement over a whole semester, guided by two overarching questions: What factors impact students’ engagement over a semester? What factors account for fluctuation in engagement levels over time? This paper presents results from weekly feedback on online education students’ engagement over the length of one semester at a regional Australian university. It also chronicles in more depth the experiences of one student across the same semester. The findings offer longitudinal accounts of student engagement, demonstrating that levels of engagement fluctuate and are influenced by a variety of factors.
10.1080/01587919.2019.1600367

Elizabeth Freeman, "Charles the Great, or Just Plain Charles: Was Charlemagne a Great Medieval Leader?", Agora: Journal of the History Teachers' Association of Victoria, 52:1 (2017), pp. 10-19.

Charlemagne literally means 'Charles the Great,' but what exactly did greatness mean in the early... more

Elizabeth Freeman, "Medieval English Nuns and the Benedictine Rule: The Evidence and Example of Wintney Priory", in Carmel Posa, ed., A Not-So-Unexciting Life: Essays on Benedictine History and Spirituality in Honor of Michael Casey, OCSO (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2017), pp. 233-266.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Aelred as a Historian Among Historians", in Marsha L. Dutton (ed.), A Companion to Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017), pp. 113-46.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Le monache cisterciensi e l'arte nel medioevo", in Terryl N. Kinder and Roberto Cassanelli (eds), Cisterciensi Arte e Storia (Milan: Jaca Book, 2015), pp. 175-86, 420.

This is an Italian translation of my chapter "Cistercian Nuns and Art" from Kinder and Cassanelli... more

Elizabeth Freeman, "Cistercian Nuns and Art in the Middle Ages", in Terryl N. Kinder and Roberto Cassanelli (eds), The Cistercian Arts: From the 12th to the 21st Century (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014), pp. 175-86, 421.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Nuns", in Mette Birkedal Bruun (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Cistercians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 100-111.

Elizabeth Freeman, “Cistercian Nuns in Medieval England: Unofficial Meets Official”, in Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory (eds), Elite and Popular Religion, Studies in Church History 42 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2006), pp. 110-19.

Elizabeth Freeman, "Male and Female Cistercians and their Gendered Experiences of the Margins, the Wilderness and the Periphery", in L. Herbert McAvoy and M. Hughes-Edwards (eds) Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs (Cardiff: U of Wales Press, 2005), pp. 65-76.

Elizabeth Freeman, “Section 6: Case Studies: Lacock Abbey”, in Dee Dyas (ed.), English Cathedrals and Monasteries through the Centuries (York: Christianity and Culture, University of York, 2013), interactive DVD-ROM .

Elizabeth Freeman, “Section 6: Case Studies: Hampole Priory”, in Dee Dyas (ed.), English Cathedrals and Monasteries through the Centuries (York: Christianity and Culture, University of York, 2013), interactive DVD-ROM .

Elizabeth Freeman, “Section 3: Cathedrals and Monasteries c.1100-c.1538: Organisation and Daily Life: Monasteries: Daily Life”, in Dee Dyas (ed.), English Cathedrals and Monasteries through the Centuries (York: Christianity and Culture, University of York, 2013), interactive DVD-ROM .

Elizabeth Freeman, “Patterns of Pilgrimage in England c.1100-1500: Monasticism”, in Dee Dyas (ed.), Pilgrims and Pilgrimage: Journey, Spirituality and Daily Life Through the Centuries (York and Nottingham: Christianity and Culture, York, and St. John’s College, 2007), interactive DVD-ROM .

Elizabeth Freeman, Narratives of a New Order: Cistercian Historical Writing in England, 1150-1220, Medieval Church Studies 2 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002).