Head, Special Collections and Rare Book Room, Waldo Library

PhD, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2001); MLS, Indiana University (2006)
Medieval and Early Modern Europe, women and religion, social history


---

Office: 3015 Waldo Library
Email: susan.steuer@wmich.edu
Phone: (269) 387-5221

Teaching

I teach sessions using rare materials for courses ranging from engineering to medieval studies. I also teach one course on Special Collections and Archives with Dr. Sharon Carlson, WMU's archivist.

Research

My research covers historical and library-related topics including widows in late medieval England, ecclesiastical history, library security and the description of digital objects.

Publications

Collaborative Books

The Catalog of the Dom Edmond Obrecht Manuscript Collection of Gethsemani Abbey on permanent loan to Western Michigan University. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press, 2012.

Articles

"Accessing Resources in Cistercian Studies," with Sheila Bair, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 44:2 (May 2011).

"Instruction and Experimentation in the Library: A Case Study," with Matthew T. Brodhead, The Journal of Library Innovation, 2:1 (2011), Spring 2011 at http://www.libraryinnovation.org/.

"Identifying Chaste Widows: Linking individual women to religious vocation," book chapter accepted for festschrift for Dr. Barbara Hanawalt, forthcoming with Ashgate, anticipated publication date of Spring 2010

"Practical Pastoral Care: Vowesses in Northern England in the Later Middle Ages," book chapter accepted for Pastoral Care in the Later Middle Ages, a volume in the Companions to the Christian Tradition series at Brill, May 2009.

Medieval Studies Subject Area Checklist, Research for College Libraries, Association for College and Research Libraries, http://www.rclweb.net/ (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 editions).

"Family Strategies: Financial Planning and the Urban Widow, 1100-1500." Essays in Medieval Studies 12 (1995). Available on-line at http://www.illinoismedieval.org/EMS/VOL12/steuer.html

Collaborative Electronic Publications

Cistercian Liturgical Research Resources from the Cistercian Studies Collection at WMU, including the Cistercian Liturgy Series and Liturgy OCSO digital collections, with Sheila Bair, Paul Howell, Rozanne Elder, Michael Whang and Neil Chase (http://www.wmich.edu/library/digi/collections/liturgy/).

The World War II Propaganda Digital Collections at Western Michigan University from holdings in Special Collections and Rare Books, Waldo Library with Melissa Braman, Sheila Bair, Michael Whang and Paul Howell (http://www.wmich.edu/library/digi/collections/mowen/).