RYAN MCDERMOTT
Ryan McDermott is founder and faculty director of Beatrice Institute and associate professor of medieval literature and culture in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his Ph.D. in English from University of Virginia after completing an M.T.S. at Duke Divinity School. His first book, Tropologies: Ethics and Invention in England, c. 1350-1600 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016), tracks changes and continuities in vernacular religious literature across the intellectual and cultural watershed of the English Reformation. Ryan directs the cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional project Genealogies of Modernity, and is working on a second book, Theology of Incorruptibility: On Dead Bodies and the Eschatology of Traditions.
James DeMasi
James DeMasi is the Executive Director of Beatrice Institute. James DeMasi earned a Ph.D. in Literature from the Institute for Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas. He received his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, and his M.A. in English from the University of Dallas. His dissertation, which he defended in September 2021, focused on sixteenth century courtesy theory in Shakespeare's middle comedies and the Italian dialogue, The Book of the Courtier. His research interests include Shakespeare and the Italian Renaissance, Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, and Shakespeare's afterlife in early to mid-nineteenth century American Romanticism.
weston sims
Weston Sims is the Operations Manager of Beatrice Institute. He graduated with his bachelor’s at Auburn University, where he studied philosophy, political theory, and German. Following this, he left Sweet Home Alabama and earned a Master of Divinity at Yale in 2023, where he took a wide variety of courses, with subjects ranging from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy to mystical theology. A grandpa at heart, he loves to fill his free time with movie nights, Flannery O’Connor short stories, and well-lit trees.
Abby Eicher
Abby Eicher is the Program Coordinator and Media Officer at Beatrice Institute. Abby graduated with her B.A. in English from Grove City College, where she cultivated a love for American literature and took advantage of any opportunity for travel. After graduating, she was accepted into the Pittsburgh Fellowship program, where she actively invested in the city of Pittsburgh, her community, and her faith. In her free time, Abby loves to learn about personality assessments, try new hobbies, find good coffee shops, lift weights, and plan activities with her family and friends.
Kate Meyer
Kate Meyer graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2020, where she studied Romance Languages and was a fellow in the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture. When not editing the Beatrice Institute Podcast, she can be found farming at her friends' homestead in Toronto, Ohio.
Susanna Britton
Susanna Britton is senior program assistant at Beatrice Institute and a junior at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Helayna Baer
Helayna Baer is a junior program assistant and sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a double major in Chemical Engineering and French Language. As a cellist of 10 years, she is also a member of the University of Pittsburgh Orchestra. After a long day of problem solving and definitely too much coffee, she can be found at mass, reading, milling about Oakland, making more coffee, or dreaming of new far-away places for her next adventure.