Recipients are
awarded a stipend, workspace and room and board at the academy’s campus in
Rome, where they can conduct research and write on the subjects of their
choice. The academy describes the prize as “the gift of time and space to think
and work.”
To Gallant, the opportunity is valuable even beyond that. After the isolation caused by the COVID pandemic, she said, the ability to live in Rome from September until next summer also gives her the ability to meet and interact with other scholars.
Her work centers on Naples, which further limits her opportunities for collaboration while living in the U.S.
"The Rome Prize is an unbelievable opportunity," she said. "It gives you space to study and learn and be in a community. It's hard to find research collaborators internationally when you can't travel, and this will allow me to connect to a larger community."
The academy, she said, asks prize recipients about connections they'd like to make while in Rome and often facilitates introductions to other scholars and access to research sites.
Gallant plans to visit the Vatican often during her stay, as she works on her current book project, Illustrating the Vitae partum: The Rise of the Eremitic Ideal in Fourteenth-Century Italy, which examines an illuminated manuscript, Vitae partum (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS.M.626). That book, written and decorated in Naples during the 14th century, recounts the lives of a group known as the Desert Fathers and Mothers, men and women from the Middle East who withdrew from their families and society in the fourth century to live in the desert as a sacrifice to God and a test of their faith.
This group became
the model for monasticism, Gallant said, and although it remained influential
in Christianity, there was a significant rise in interest during the 14th
century, when religious leaders frequently preached about the example of these
hermit saints to the laity.
“My book is about
the illuminated book,” she said. “I especially want to look at what impact the
images had on those unable to withdraw to the desert as the Desert Fathers and
Mothers had.”
In addition to
working on her book, Gallant hopes to make contacts with senior scholars while
in Rome and conduct additional research that could launch a new project.