DIRECTORY OF FLORIDA MEDIEVALISTS


CARRIE BENES
(Ph.D., UCLA, 2004), Assistant Professor of Medieval and Renaissance History, New College of Florida in Sarasota. She is a cultural historian specializing in late medieval Italy; her dissertation entitled Roman Foundations: Constructing Civic Identity in Late Medieval Italy explores the use of the classical Roman past as political propaganda in the medieval Italian city-states. Her main research interests involve intellectual networks, the classical tradition,
and the construction of history and collective memory. Along with revising her dissertation for publication, she is currently working on projects on the medieval resurrection of the classical Roman SPQR acronym and on the status of the Roman rebel Catiline as a local hero in the Tuscan town of Pistoia. Other academic interests include urban history, book history (palaeography, codicology, illumination, and the history of libraries), Italian humanism, the history and historiography of the Renaissance, Norman Sicily, and historical epidemiology (especially of the Black Death).  She teaches courses on these subjects as well as medieval and early modern European history more generally.
ALEX BRUCE, Associate Professor of English, Florida Southern College
JOHN SCOTT CAMPBELL (Ph.D., Classical Philology, Brown University, 1979), Associate Professor of Latin and Greek, University of South Florida
NINA CAPUTO (Ph.D., History, University of California, Berkeley, 1999), Assistant Professor of History, University of Florida
DAVID R. CARR (Ph.D., University of Nebraska Lincoln, 1971) teaches medieval and Renaissance history at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.  Carr has edited The First General Entry Book of the City of Salisbury 1387-1452 for the Wiltshire Record Society and currently serves as the editor of The Historian, the journal of the national history honorary Phi Alpha Theta.  His research focuses of medieval urban history, and he is currently working on medieval English municipal environmental regulations.
FLORIN CURTA, Associate Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology, University of Florida. His recent studies include color perception and color vocabulary in the twelfth-century French literature; ethnic stereotypes in Suger's Deeds of Louis the Fat; the relationship between cave monasticism and frontiers in tenth-century Spain, Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire; female dress and "Slavic" bow fibulae in early seventh-century Greece. Ethnicity is a major theme in his recent book entitled The Making of the Slavs. History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, A.D. 500-700 (Cambridge University Press, 2001), which won the Herbert Baxter Adams Award of the American Historical Association in 2003. His second book, a history of medieval Southeast Europe between 500 and 1250, is now in print. He is now working on a third book, a study of state formation and representation of power in ninth-century Moravia and Bulgaria, as compared with contemporary developments within the Carolingian Empire. Two collections of essays on East Central Europe in the Middle Ages and frontiers in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, respectively, are also in print. He has published extensively in such journals as Hesperia, Speculum, Early Medieval Europe, and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. He is the recent recipient of a Andrew Mellon visiting fellowship at the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame.
MICHAEL DECKER (Ph.D., Oxford University, 2001), Maroulis Professor of Byzantine History, University of South Florida.
JAMES D'EMILIO (Ph.D., Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1989), Associate Professor of Humanities, University of South Florida. His research interests include art, culture, and the church in  medieval Galicia (Spain); Romanesque architecture and sculpture; and monasticism in medieval Iberia. Recent articles include “The Legend of Bishop Odoario and the Early Medieval Church in Galicia,” in Church, State, Vellum and Stone: Essays...in Honor of John Williams, ed. J. Harris and T. Martin (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005); “The Royal Convent of Las Huelgas: Dynastic Politics, Religious Reform and Artistic Change in Medieval Castile”, Studies in Cistercian Art and Architecture, ed. M. P. Lillich, VI (2005); “The Cistercians and the Romanesque Churches of Galicia: Compostela or Clairvaux?”, in Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude. Essays...in Honour of Peter Fergusson, ed. T. Kinder (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), and “Writing is the Precious Treasury of Memory: Scribes and Notaries in Lugo (1150-1240)” in La collaboration dans la production de l’écrit médiéval..., ed., H. Spilling (Paris: École des Chartes, 2003). He has held grants or fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
NICOLE GUENTHER DISCENZA (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 1996), Associate Professor of English, University of South Florida. Her research focuses mainly on the Anglo-Saxon era, especially Alfredian translations, on which she has published several articles and a book, The King's English: Strategies of Translation in the Old English Boethius (State U of NY Press, 2005). Her interests also include Anglo-Saxon conceptions of the world and the universe, and she is currently working on a book tentatively titled A Boss on the Shield of the Universe: Geography and Cosmology in Anglo-Saxon England. In addition, she contributes annual reviews to the Prose section of Year’s Work in Old English in the Old English NewsletterShe enjoys teaching British Literature to 1616, History of the English Language, Chaucer, and graduate courses that include Beowulf, the Pearl-poet, and Middle English Romance.
RICHARD K. EMMERSON (Ph.D., English and medieval studies, Stanford University, 1977), since 1999 Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America and Editor of Speculum. In August 2006 he will join the faculty of Florida State University to chair the Department of Art History. Emmerson chaired the Department of English at Western Washington University, and has taught at Georgetown University, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Walla Walla College. At the National Endowment for the Humanities he held the positions of Program Officer for Summer Seminars for College Teachers (1983-85) and Deputy Director of the Division of Fellowships and Seminars (1987-90). In addition to editing Speculum, he has served as a co-editor of Studies in Iconography (1993-2004) and Traditio (1989-99). His publications include numerous articles and reviews on medieval apocalypticism, drama, illustrated manuscripts, and visionary literature, and six books: Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (1981), Approaches to Teaching Medieval English Drama (1990), The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature (1992), The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (1992), Antichrist and Doomsday: The Middle French “Jour du Jugement” (1998), and Key Figures in Medieval Europe (2006)
MARIA ESFORMES (Ph.D., University of Colorado), Associate Professor of Spanish, University of South Florida
PAULA GERSON (Ph.D., Columbia University), Professor of Medieval Art, Chair of Department of Art History, Florida State University
THOMAS GOODMANN (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1990), Associate Professor of English, University of Miami
WILL HASTY, Professor of German Studies and co-founder and co-director of the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Florida. Among his book publications are Art of Arms: Studies of Aggression and Dominance in Medieval German Court Poetry (Winter, 2002) and Adventures in Interpretation: The Works of Hartmann von Aue and Their Critical Reception (Camden House, 1996). His edited volumes include A Companion to Gottfried von Strassburg's 'Tristan' and A Companion to Wolfram von Eschenbach's 'Parzival' (Camden House, 2003 and 1999 respectively). His research and teaching interests are mainly in medieval and early modern German literature and culture and the Arthurian tradition.
ANDREW HOLT (M.A., History, University of North Florida, 2005). Andrew is spending the 2005-2006 academic year as an
Adjunct Professor at both the University of North Florida and Florida Community College at Jacksonville. He is co-author, with Dr. James Muldoon, of Fighting Words: Competing Voices from the Crusades, under contract with Greenwood Press, and he is working on another book with Dr. Alfred Andrea
(co-editors and contributors) on Crusade Myths. He is also the author of  a number of minor publications for the forthcoming Handbook of Medieval Studies (de Gruyter) edited by Dr. Albrecht Classen and the forthcoming World History Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio) edited by Dr. Alfred Andrea. He has presented several
papers on the crusades at numerous conferences throughout the United States and is the editor and originator of the www.crusades-encyclopedia.com. Andrew hopes to continue his studies of the crusades by securing acceptance into a PhD program in the Fall of 2006.
DAVID F. JOHNSON, originally a native of upstate New York (Rochester), he earned a kandidaats (roughly MA) in English Language and Literature (Historical Linguistics) at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 1986. After 11 years living in Holland, he returned to the States in 1987 and earned a PhD in English (Medieval Studies) from Cornell University. He has taught at Florida State University since 1993. His main teaching and scholarly interests include Old and Middle English language and literature, and Middle Dutch Arthurian romance. In addition to a number of articles on those subjects he has published three co-edited collections of articles (Rome and the North. The Reception of the Works of Gregory the Great in the Early Germanic Vernaculars. Ed. Rolf Bremmer, Jr., Kees Dekker, and David F. Johnson. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001; King Arthur in the Medieval Low Countries. Ed. Geert H.M. Claassens and David F. Johnson. Medievalia Lovaniensia 28. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000; and Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature, Ed. David F. Johnson and Elaine M. Treharne. Oxford University Press, 2005), and edited and translated three volumes of Middle Dutch Arthurian romances (of a series of six, all in the Arthurian Archives series, published by : D.S. Brewer , co-edited with Geert H. M. Claassens)): Dutch Romances I: Roman van Walewein (2000); Dutch Romances II: Ferguut (2000); and Dutch Romances III: Five Interpolated Romances from the Lancelot Compilation (2003). In addition to the Arthurian romances, he is currently working on a new critical edition of the Old English translation of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues. He is an Executive Advisory Council member of the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch, and have served as Executive Director of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists since 2000.
ANNE LATOWSKY (Ph.D, University of Washington, Seattle, 2004), Visiting Assistant Professor of French, University of South Florida. She previously taught as
a lecturer at New College of Florida and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Professor Latowsky specializes in Medieval French literature and its relationship to Frankish and Anglo-Norman historiographical traditions. She is working on a book, The Medieval French Emperor of Constantinople: 800-1400, in which she studies the literary figure of the Byzantine emperor as a tool for understanding the interplay of Latin prose and vernacular verse texts. Her course offerings include Medieval French literature, Old French, French Linguistics, Introduction to French Drama and Poetry, Readings in French Literature and Culture, French Civilization, Contemporary France, French for Reading, and French Composition.
FELICE LIFSHITZ (Ph.D., History, Columbia University, 1988), Associate Professor of History, Florida International University. She was born and raised in New York City, where she attended Hunter College High School (class of ’76), Barnard College (B.A., Medieval Studies, 1981) and Columbia University (M.A. and Ph.D. in History, 1983 and 1988). She has taught at Florida International University in Miami since 1989. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, she is the author of The Norman Conquest of Pious Neustria: Historiographic Discourse and Saintly Relics, 684 – 1090 (Pontifical Institute of  Mediaeval Studies Press, Toronto, 1995), of an English translation of Dudo of St. Quentin’s Gesta Normannorum, and of The Name of the Saint: The Martyrology of Jerome and Access to the Sacred in Francia, 627-827 (U Notre Dame P, 2005). Her research is currently focused above all on ideas about gender during the early Middle Ages, especially as those ideas are evidenced in a variety of Rhine-Main area manuscript sources of the 8th and 9th centuries. She serves on the editorial boards of the Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (ODMA) and the Medieval Feminist Forum, and she is the Section Editor for Medieval Europe for The History Compass.
KATHRYN MCKINLEY (Ph.D., University of Delaware), Associate Professor of English, Florida International University
MARCELLA MUNSON, Assistant Professor of French, Florida Atlantic University
MARIE NELSON, Professor Emerita, University of Florida. She teaches Old English (for the Linguistics Program) and Writing about Language (for the Honors Program). She has published two books, Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems (Rodopi B.V. Editions, 1989) and Judith, Juliana, and Elene: Three Fighting Saints (Peter Lang, 1991), and a number of essays on Old, Middle, and Modern English literature.  Essays currently in process are "John Gardner: Master of Transformation" and "Knowing and Not-Knowing in Beowulf."
TISON PUGH, Assistant Professor of English, University of Central Florida. He specializes in medieval and Arthurian literatures and gender/queer theory. He is the author of Queering Medieval Genres and the co-editor of Approaches to Teaching Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and the Shorter Poems (with Angela Jane Weisl) and Filming the Other Middle Ages: Race, Class, and Gender in 'Medieval' Cinema (with Lynn Tarte Ramey). He has won teaching awards at the University of Oregon and the University of California at Irvine, as well as a University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.
DAVID ROHRBACHER (Ph.D. University of Washington, 1998), Assistant Professor of Classics, New College of Florida. He teaches Latin at all levels and classical civilization in all periods. He is also active in the program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New College, and helps to organize the biennial New College conference in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is the author of The Historians of Late Antiquity (Routledge, 2002) and articles and book chapters on late Roman historians, especially Ammianus Marcellinus. His current research focuses on source criticism and literary culture in late antique historiography.
ROMAN ROMANCHUK (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1999), Assistant Professor of Modern Slavic Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University
MARYLOU RUUD (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1989), Associate Professor of History, University of West Florida.
MARY JANE SCHENCK
, Professor of English, University of Tampa, has published The Fabliaux: Tales of Wit and Deception (Purdue U Monograph Series in Romance Languages, 1987), co-edited Echoes of the Epic: Essays in Honor of Gerard J. Brault (Summa, 1997), and articles in Comparative Literature, Romanic Review, Reinardus, Olifant, Meleus, and the South Atlantic Review. Early work was on fabliaux and other short Old French narratives forms. A series of recent articles on Philippe de Beaumanoir’s Coutumes, The Roman de Renart, and the Song of Roland are part of a manuscript in preparation on customary law and literary trials entitled The Imaginary and the Law: Medieval Negotiations. Her article on the Baligant episode will appear in a new MLA Approaches to Teaching the Song of Roland and an article re-interpreting the Charlemagne window at Chartres is currently being revised. She has held fellowships from NEH, faculty research grants, awards from UT for teaching and scholarship, and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in both Togo and South Africa.
SHIRA SCHWAM-BAIRD (Ph.D., Tulane University, 1994), Associate Professor of French, University of North Florida
JUDY SHOAF (Ph.D., Cornell University, 1978), Director, University of Florida Language Learning Center; managing editor, Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her translation, in verse, of eight of Marie de France's Lais has been available on the Web for some ten years. She has been the moderator of the Arthurnet email discussion list, in association with the journal Arthuriana, since 1997.
R. ALLEN SHOAF (Ph.D., Cornell University, 1977), Professor of English, University of Florida.
LESLEY STONE (M.A., Art History, University of South Florida, 2005), Special Collections, University of South Florida Library
JACE STUCKEY (Ph.D. candidate, University of Florida)
HUGH THOMAS (Ph.D., Yale University, 1988), Professor of History, University of Miami, author of Vassals, Crusaders, Heiresses, and Thugs: The Gentry of Angevin Yorkshire (U. Pennsylvania P, 1993) and The English and the Normans: Ethnic Hostility, Assimilation and Identity after the Norman Conquest, 1066-c. 1220 (Oxford UP, 2003).
RALPH TURNER (Ph.D. the Johns Hopkins University), Distinguished Research Professor of History (emeritus), Florida State University. He taught medieval and English history, Renaissance and Reformation for over thirty years at Florida State University and served the History Department for several years as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. He has done research at major British libraries, centering around Henry II, his sons Richard Lionheart and John, their administration of justice and the common law, as well as the transformation of royal servants into professionals. His studieshave resulted in numerous papers presented at conferences in both the United Kingdom and the United States, some forty articles and six books. He has written both individual biographies of thirteenth-century figures and collective biographical studies of royal officials.  Among his books are The Origins of the English Judiciary (1985), Men Raised from the Dust (1988), King John (1994), The Reign of Richard Lionheart, co-authored with R.R. Heiser (2000), and Magna Carta through the Ages (2003).  Prof. Turner has remained in Tallahassee, Florida, after his retirement where he continues to do research and write on his favourite topics, and he travels widely in Britain and in France, attending scholarly meetings. His current project is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
MICHELLE R. WARREN (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1993), Associate Professor of French and Director of the Ph.D. in Romance Studies,
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Miami. She teaches courses in French language and culture, and medieval
and early modern studies.  Her research areas include French medieval literature, romance philology, Arthurian studies, translation theory, and
postcolonial theory.  She is the author of History on the Edge: Excalibur and the Borders of Britain (1100-1300) (U Minnesota P,
2000) and co-editor of Postcolonial Moves: Medieval through Modern (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and Arts of Calculation: Quantifying Thought
in Early Modern Europe
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).  She has two projects in development, one on the colonial formation of French medieval studies
and the other on French translation in fifteenth-century London.
NANCY WARREN (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1997), Associate Professor of English, Florida State University, author of Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England (U Pennsylvania P, 2001) and Women of God and Arms: Female Spirituality and Political Conflict, 1380-1600 (U Pennsylvania P, 2005).
MARY A. WATT (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1998), Assistant Professor of Italian and Co-Director of the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Florida.  She is the author of several articles on Dante and medieval Italian culture, as well as the book The Cross that Dante Bears (UP of Florida, 2005). She is interested in pilgrimage and crusading imagery in medieval and early Modern Italian literature.

Revised Feb. 27, 2006

FLORIDA MEDIEVALIST HOMEPAGE