By Gloria Vittadello
Correspondent
History professor and scholar Dina Boero won the acclaimed 2025 Hagiography Society Article Prize for her groundbreaking research article, “The Space of the Stylite: Columns and Their Topographical Contexts.”
The prize recognizes exceptional scholarly articles that bring major contributions to the study of saints, holy men and women, according to the Hagiography Societies' awards and prizes section. A winner is chosen biennially. Boero self-submitted her article to be considered for this year’s prize.
Boero’s award-winning article
Boero’s article not only discusses the traditional boundaries of hagiography, but she additionally emphasizes the physical spaces that saints inhabited and how those landscapes helped shape their perceived spirituality.
Hagiography, or the study of saints, often focuses only on written narratives of saints’ lives.
“We want to study the veneration of saints in the lots of different forms that it takes. So that might be through artwork, or it might be through visiting a pilgrimage site, or church,” Boero said.
Because studying saints involves numerous diverse elements, the Hagiography Society serves as a platform for scholars with a wide range of specialties to collaborate. The society includes historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and others, offering a platform where they can share their fieldwork methods and research approaches, according to Boero.
Boero said receiving the Hagiography Society award and her upcoming books are, “The big top of the mountain, and this is a really nice stepping stone to help make the top of the mountain more successful!”
Taking into account all the sections that shape a saint’s legacy is the approach Boero took in her years of research on Symeon the Stylite, a fifth-century Christian ascetic who famously lived atop a column in the Syrian desert.
When reflecting on the award, Boero said, “It wasn’t a total surprise … but there’s a big difference between me getting this award and a Pulitzer or a MacArthur.”
Research and early beginnings
When Boero started college, initially, she was drawn to studying religion, coming from a Christian background.
“I really wanted to study religion because I felt like religion was kind of really formative in history, and really formative in lots of people's lives,” Boero said.
Over time, her perspective shifted. She went from studying religion as a believer to examining religion through a historical lens. She emphasized that neither approach is wrong or bad; it just depends on the context. For her academic work, a historical perspective made more sense.
Boero began her archaeological work in Syria for her dissertation in 2008 and 2009. Like many archaeologists in 2010, she had to stop her pursuits when the Syrian Civil War began. But, during her time there, she spent her weeks visiting many archaeological sites and engaged herself in the region’s cultural and historical landscapes.
Boero began her work studying Symeon the Stylite during her dissertation on religious work in 2010.
She recalled a memory from when she visited Symeon’s column site in Syria, which she described as being in beautiful archaeological condition before the war. As she stood overlooking the landscape, feeling the sun and the warm summer breeze on her face, she said she suddenly understood why someone like Symeon would have wanted to spend his life there, even 1,500 years ago.
In that moment, a personal connection was sparked to the area of Coloxamon, where the article is based, becoming central to her research. She said that both her article and one of her books under contract are deeply rooted in this landscape she now feels such a strong connection to.
What’s especially interesting to Boero about Symeon and the group of Christian monks known as stylites is that they chose to live at the top of columns for decades, sometimes for 40 or 50 years,
Boero acknowledged that the idea may sound unbelievable today, but for some reason, it was really effective and meaningful to the people of his time. So much so, more than 100 stylites have been documented over the 700 years following Symeon’s life, not including the stylites that aren’t documented in historical records.
She said her article was grounded on one question: why? Why did this practice resonate so powerfully?
While some scholars have different answers, she believes much of it comes down to the topographical contexts. Symeon, being already on a hill, and then elevated even further on columns, created a very powerful image.
“It is this feature that’s raising the holy man higher into the heavens so that he can live amongst angels,” Boero said.
When she began working at the College, she felt an unexpected connection. Out of all the states, New Jersey has a large number of people who study Syriac, the ancient language of many early Christian texts. This has allowed her to pursue creative and collaborative projects involving Middle Eastern Christian communities.
When asked about her experience at the College, Boero talked about her college experience, attending a large public university. She noted that she wasn’t able to connect with professors in the same way students can at the College. One of her favorite classes to teach at the College is her course on early Christianity, which allows students to explore early Christian texts and the Bible from a historical perspective.
“One of the really special things about being an undergraduate for most students is that it is a time when a lot of students are really starting to come into their own with their ideas and their beliefs,” Boero articulated when connecting her own experience to the experiences of the students she teaches here at the College.
When offering advice to students, Boero stressed the value of studying history, the humanities and the social sciences. These fields help students develop strong critical thinking, logic, communication and evidence-based reasoning skills, all of which are extremely helpful and wanted in many careers.
She emphasized that the humanities and social sciences help prepare students with a flexible and often underrated set of skills. Leaning into this statement, she joked that she is a history professor by day, but by night she serves as the executive vice president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals.
She explained that this council is the umbrella organization for the unions at New Jersey’s four-year public colleges. Her training in history helped prepare her for this role, and she believes her ability to write clearly, persuade people, and advocate effectively comes directly from her academic and historical background.
Now that Boero has won the 2025 Hagiography Society Award, she can look forward to her books that are coming out with a brighter outlook on the future.
“I think the thing that made me most excited about getting this award was it’s…a really nice stepping stone to help make the top of the mountain more successful,” Boero said.
