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Michael Hanaghan awarded prestigious KU Leuven Fellowship

Associate Professor Michael Hanaghan has received a prestigious research fellowship to KU Leuven’s LECTIO Institute.

LECTIO is dedicated to the study of the intellectual history of pre-modern and early modern Europe and offers research stays for international scholars.

Associate Professor Hanaghan, a scholar of Classical and Late Antiquity at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, will use the visiting fellowship to research the translation techniques employed by historian and theologian Rufinus of Aquileia.

Rufinus was a prominent Late Antique Christian thinker and monk, best known for translating significant Christian works from Greek into Latin, including the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea and homilies and commentaries by Origen of Alexandria.

Associate Professor Hanaghan’s preliminary research into Rufinus’ translation techniques has helped change the way historians understand the movement and transformation of languages in the Mediterranean world.

“Researchers once thought that Rufinus was translating for early Christians who didn’t understand Greek, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Greek continued to be taught and learnt in the Latin west well into the fifth century,” Associate Professor Hanaghan said.

“My research has contributed to our understanding of how Rufinus uses the opportunities provided by translation to alter his source texts in subtle but important ways.”

Associate Professor Hanaghan said he was excited to conduct his research at KU Leuven alongside internationally renowned scholars in philosophy, arts, theology and law.

“I was attracted by the opportunity because of the standing of KU Leuven and its outstanding concentration of expertise for the study of early Christianity and Late Antiquity,” Associate Professor Hanaghan said.

“I’m really looking forward to working alongside the faculty at KU Leuven, including my host Associate Professor Philip Forness.”

Associate Professor Hanaghan’s research on Rufinus is part of a larger study he is leading with fellow IRCI scholar Associate Professor Stephen Carlson, Professor Bronwen Neil from Macquarie University and Professor Andy Cain from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

That project explores the transformative role of translation in Late Antiquity and will uncover new translation methods and newly translated texts that shaped knowledge and culture in parts of Europe and the Near East.

Funded by the Australian Research Council, Associate Professor Hanaghan is exploring the proliferation of translated texts during the fourth to eighth centuries.

“Translations composed in Late Antiquity revolutionised the transmission of knowledge and culture,” Associate Professor Hanaghan said.

“The ARC Discovery Project will analyse the translations that proliferated in the Late Antique world across a wide range of language groups, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian.

“As these cultures were transformed by numerous translated texts, the texts themselves subsequently took on second and third lives, as living communities of readers who previously only exchanged restricted knowledge, began broadening their social and geographic circles.”