I teach and write on the religious, intellectual, and cultural history of medieval Europe. My current research traces the long history of proxy penance in the Middle Ages, where one person completed another's penance. I have also written about pilgrimage, female spirituality, twelfth-century clerical spirituality, and the search for the earthly Paradise.​My historical interests are grounded in a study of basic human emotions, like empathy and nostalgia, and I am motivated by understanding how human experiences, bodies, ideas, and institutions express those emotions in various manifestations.www.gavinfort.com