Most of my past research has concentrated on the social and cultural history of the city of Marseille in the later middle ages. I have a published on a variety of subjects ranging from women, Jews, and demography to law, violence, and space. Lately I have been moving into late medieval Italian history, notably the city of Lucca, where I have been doing research with court registers for a history of material culture and courts of law (the working title is "Goods and Debts in Medieval Mediterranean Europe"). I have taught a variety of medieval subject matters at the graduate and undergraduate level, including law, society, politics, conquest and colonization, and medieval historiography. I also teach the modern historiography of medieval Europe. Many of my research interests grow out of my teaching; some of my future research plans include topics that I first addressed in the classroom.

My second field addresses the subject of deep history or early global history. My recent book, On Deep History and the Brain, tackled some of the philosophical or methodological issues associated with deep history. In addition to this, a long-term project is to write a deep history itself. I have been working with group of historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and other paleohistorians in an effort to define some of the domains around which deep historical narratives can coalesce. I teach related courses on a regular basis and hope to establish a graduate exam field in deep history.

Selected Publications

• Vengeance and Emotion in Medieval Europe: A Reader. Coedited with Kelly Lyn Gibson. Forthcoming (2010)
• On Deep History and the Brain Berkeley: University of California Press (2008)
• Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe in co-edited with Thelma Fenster
  Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2003)
• The Consumption of Justice: Emotions, Publicity, and Legal Culture in Marseille, 1264-1423 Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2003)
• Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille Ithaca: Cornell University Press (1999)
• Various articles in journals that include the American Historical Review, Annales, French Historical Studies, Hispania, Past and Present, and Speculum

 

Contact Info

Robinson Hall

Room 210

35 Quincy Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

smail (at) fas.harvard.edu

617.496.0149

Office Hours: Monday 1:00-3:00

Course(s): 91r, 80b, Medieval Studies 290

Curriculum Vitae