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James Naus

Headshot - James Naus

Title: Associate Professor and Chair
Office: 416 Varner Hall
Phone: (248) 370-3531
Fax: (248) 370-3528
 
Education:
Ph.D., Saint Louis University, 2011
M.A., Saint Louis University, 2006
B.A., Duquesne University, 2003

Major Fields:
Medieval Europe

Research: 
My research interests are focused in the cultural and political history of medieval France. My primary interest is how royal association with the crusades shaped the valuation and operation of power and the practice of kingship in the Middle Ages. I am also interested in the broader history of the crusading movement, noble and popular culture, and the role of religion in shaping the medieval experience. My current book project  examines the crisis of political authority caused by the First Crusade (c. 1095-1099) that confronted the French ruling elite in the first half of the twelfth century. In addition to several articles, I have co-authored an edited volume (2010).

Teaching:
In addition to teaching the core Western Civilization course, I have also taught general surveys of the Middle Ages, as well as specific classes on the crusading movement, Rome and Late Antiquity, and medieval noble culture.  I am currently developing two classes for deployment in the coming semesters: one on the High Middle Ages and one on medieval masculinity.

Publications:

Books

Constructing Kingship: The Capetian Monarchs of France and the Early Crusades (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016).

The Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict, co-edited with Thomas F. Madden and Vincent Ryan (Burlington: Ashgate, 2010).

Articles and Chapters

"Royal Memory and the Crusades," in Remembering the Crusades and Crusading, ed. Megan Cassidy-Welch (London: Routledge, 2016), co-authored with Vince Ryan.

"The Historia Iherosolimitana of Robert the Monk and the Coronation of Louis VI," in Writing the Early Crusades: Text, Transmission and Memory, eds. Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2014), 105-15.

" Negotiating Kingship in France at the Time of the Early Crusades: Suger and the Gesta Ludovici Grossi," French Historical Studies 36 (2013): 525-41.

" The French Royal Court and the Memory of the First Crusade," Nottingham Medieval Studies 55 (2011): 49-78.

Work in Progress 

"Kingship and the Crusades," invited contribution for the Cambridge History of the Crusades (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Department of History

Varner Hall, Room 415
371 Varner Dr.
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
(location map)
(248) 370-3510
fax: (248) 370-3528