Samuel Collins, a candidate for the Ph.D. in the Department of History, is writing a dissertation entitled Asylum Seekers of the Early Middle Ages: Law, Sacred Space, and the Right of Sanctuary 400-1000. Reconsidering the well-known medieval right of asylum, wherein fugitives of all kinds could claim sanctuary from pursuers at the altars of Christian churches, Collins argues that viewing asylum as primarily a legal problem, as has been the traditional practice, occludes the rich topographical and liturgical context in which the rite was played out. In fact, the dissertation emphasizes, the right of asylum should not be dissociated from the extent and development of early medieval thinking about the nature of sacred architecture and holy places.