I am an associate professor of History at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), with a specialization in medieval cultural history.

While at Carleton I have encouraged my students to view the Ancient and Medieval worlds as a window on the present. In the “History of Western Civilization” and “Early Medieval Thought” we investigate forms of social organization and mental space so different from our own, but which are also foundational for structuring present day culture. In the course, "The History of Historical Thought", my students and I explore the construction of the idea of "history" and how the past has been subject to many uses and abuses over time. As part of these courses, my students have been creating, editing and updating wikipedia articles on classical and medieval writers ... in part to see what happens when academic style history goes public.

Like many other academics in my field, my love of the Middle Ages grew from medievalisms, like die-cast knights, historical fiction and a few years spent around medieval German castles. Years later, I found myself in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba, soaking up mediævalia from ex-missionaries, Byzantinists and the new historicists in the English department. But choice encounters with a charismatic Victorianist and a committed researcher of Latin American history drew me into the worlds of the égouts, class identity and cultural power dynamics.

My interest in medieval cultural history led me to pursue a M.A. and Ph.D. at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and postdoctoral study at the Université Laval (Québec). My curiosity in identity construction influenced my fascination with the monks of an obscure Burgundian monastery and, of course, their powerful, charismatic (if also somewhat problematic) abbot Peter. I continue to pursue the Venerable Peter and his political agenda as it emerges from his own writings and those of his monks (e.g. Peter of Poitiers, Richard of Poitiers). At present I am looking at the twelfth-century chronicle of Richard of Poitiers and exploring how discourses of lineage, religion and “national” identity come together to justify the idea of Christendom as the dominant world power.

Teaching Interests

• Early Medieval Thought • History of Historical Thought

Research Interests

• Peter the Venerable • Richard of Poitiers • Peter of Poitiers • Abbey of Cluny (Ecclesia Cluniacensis)

Contributions to Wikipedia

• Richard of Poitiers

External Links

• "Department of History, Carleton University".