April 7, 2014—The UO Center for the Study of Women in Society has awarded Lori Kruckenberg, associate professor of musicology, a $6,000 grant to support research on women and gender during the 2014-15 academic year.

Kruckenberg's project, “Beyond Hildegard: Female Cantors in the German-Speaking Lands, 900-1400,” presents new evidence on unknown or little-known musical practices of religious women in German communities of the early and central Middle Ages.

Much of Kruckenberg’s research overturns the conventional wisdom that cantrices (female singers) were neither seen nor heard outside of their convents, and shows that in some places, at special times of the year, women in fact partook in the sacred music of high-profile public events.

Kruckenberg's project also offers testimonies on women engaged in both learning and teaching song, as well as copying and composing music.