Neel writes about medieval spiritual life, working lately on imageries of bodily confinement and liberation in relation to the realities of the experience of medieval monks, sisters, and the sick folk for whom they cared. She has a number of small projects going, including an article on the medieval background of Mennonite pacifism, while completing a monograph entitled “The Eagle’s Youth: The Canons of Prémontré and the 12th-Century Church.”