George Greenia: From Tourism to Transcendence: Sacred Journeys in a Global World

George Greenia is professor emeritus at William and Mary College. He is a specialist in the languages, literatures, and linguistics of medieval Spain. He also is an expert on global pilgrimage and the Camino de Santiago. He co-founded the William and Mary Program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies and is the founder of the William and Mary Institute for Pilgrimage Studies. He has taken students abroad to conduct interdisciplinary research on pilgrimage trails and has trekked over 4,000 miles by foot and bike on pilgrimage routes in Spain. His work on world pilgrimage has spanned many times, territories, and traditions.

Dr. Greenia was recognized as the Distinguished Editor of the year by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and was knighted by order of the king of Spain and awarded the Cross of the Order of Isabel the Catholic. He is a recipient of the President's Medal from the Phi Beta Kappa Society and of the Compostela Prize for preservation of European heritage awarded by the Compostela Group of Universities.

Dr. Greenia’s talk will focus on pilgrimage as a historic and modern phenomenon. He will focus on the history of religious journeys and their dynamics in modern global societies. He will spend time discussing the Camino de Santiago as a model for modern global pilgrimage with its values focused on hospitality, self-integration, and access to transcendence.

Proposed by Joe Pritchett

This event is sponsored by the F&M Mindfulness Program and the Department of Spanish

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