David Morris, Classics and Research and Information Services Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been awarded an International Research Travel Grant from Illinois International Programs.

This award will support Morris’s research entitled Visions of the Apocalypse: Understanding the Textual Legacy of Joachim of Fiore. Morris will undertake archival manuscript research in Rome and Prague in the summer of 2017. He plans to work with unique manuscripts associated with Joachim of Fiore, an Italian theologian from the middle ages whose influential and controversial ideas connect medieval and early modern Europe. This project is an extension of discoveries Morris made while completing his doctoral research.

Morris’s prior work on Joachite thought has earned him fellowships and grants from other organizations, including the Medieval Academy of America and the American Academy in Rome. Morris joined the University Library as a faculty member in the fall of 2016. After completing his Master’s in Library Science at University of Illinois in 2014, he worked as a Bibliographic Consultant at the American Academy in Rome before returning to the University of Illinois in his current role. His PhD in history is anticipated from the University of Notre Dame this coming May.

Illinois International Programs offers International Research Travel Grants to current University of Illinois tenure-track faculty members wishing to complete research abroad. International programs is committed to supporting research and scholarship with a global impact. The program is overseen by Professor Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies.