Defenestration of Prague in 1618

Although the European historians cover a range of research and teaching interests from the late ancient through the modern period, religious history is a significant strength of the European section as a whole.  Chronologically we range from Christianity in the ancient world to European Jewry in the Holocaust and beyond. Particular strengths include Christianization and missions, interaction between Byzantine and Latin Christianity, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, science and religion, empire and religion, and modern European Jewry.

We currently have a strong core of graduate students engaged in research on a variety of themes in religious history.  We encourage both MA and PhD applicants with research interests in this area to consider the history department at the University of Florida.

Faculty

European historians with a research and/or teaching specialty in religion include:

Premodernists
• Nina Caputo (Jews & Christians in the Middle Ages; medieval Jewish history & culture)
• Florin Curta (medieval archeology and material aspects of conversion)
• Howard Louthan (Reformation; late medieval to early modern religion & culture)
• Andrea Sterk (ancient & medieval Christianity; mission & Christianization, east & west)

Modernists
• Alice Freifeld (Jewish studies)
• Fred Gregory (science and religion in 18th-19th century central Europe)
• Jessica Harland-Jacobs (religion in the British Empire)
• Mitchell Hart (modern Jewish history)

European graduate students routinely work with other departmental faculty currently working on aspects of religious history. These include:

• Juliana Barr (early America, borderlands, women & religion in the Spanish southwest)
• Michelle Campos (modern Middle East)
• Sue O’Brien (Islam in Africa)
• Jon Sensbach (early America, African-American religion, religious awakenings in the early South and Atlantic world)

Christ Church, Simla, India

Recently Taught Graduate Seminars
Late Antiquity:  From Pagan Rome to Christian Europe
Holy War
Reformation Europe
Conversion in the Middle Ages

Undergraduate Courses with Graduate Sections
History of Christianity
Jewish History, 711-1492
“New Rome”: Church & Culture in the Byzantine Empire
Religion and Empire

Resources

Smathers Library at the University of Florida houses a solid collection of Latin and Greek patristic writings; rare book collection with a strength in early modern religion; and one of the best Judaica collections in the country on Central and East European Jewry.

Faculty who work in this area are also affiliated with other departments including religion, anthropology, and classics. Many also hold appointments in interdisciplinary centers such as the Center for Jewish Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS), the Center for European Studies (CES). Graduate students may apply to these centers for travel funds.

Recent and current students

Recent European History PhDs who worked on dissertations in religious history:

Mark Correll (2006)
Current Position: Assistant Professor of History, Spring Arbor University, Michigan
Dissertation: “Finding the Word of God: The Contest for Moral Authority in Germany’s Protestant Christian Community, 1890-1919”

Jace Stuckey (2006)
Current Position: Assistant Professor of History, Louisiana Tech University
Dissertation: “Charlemagne: The Making of an Image 1100-1300”

Steven Matthews (2004)
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Duluth
Dissertation: “Apocalypse and Experiment: The Theological Assumptions and Religious Motivations of Francis Bacon’s Instauration”

Current graduate students working in religious history:

Anna Lankina: Christianity in Late Antiquity

Reid Weber: Hussites, religion in late medieval/early modern central Europe

Alexandra de Padua: Christian-Muslim relations in medieval Iberia

Megan Walker: Crusades and gender

Robert McEachnie: Late Antique Christian Practices; Church and State issues

Javier Montoya: Interfaith relations in Iberia

Michael Cummings: German Reformation

Kathleen DeLuca: patristic and medieval preaching on women

Will Eriov: Christianization of Sicily, c.200-c.600

Charles Flowers: pagans & Christians; responses to the Corpus Hermeticum in late antiquity & the middle ages

Andrew Holt: the Crusades; religion and violence

Daniel Julich: science and religion in the work of Blaise Pascal

Matthew Michel: Spain and Erasmus

Daniel Watkins: peacemaking in the French wars of religion

Rachel Rothstein: 20th century Central and Eastern European Jewish life

Katalin Rac