Contact
| Dept: | History |
| Email: | mdbailey@iastate.edu |
| Office: | 649 Ross 527 Farm House Ln. Ames IA 50011-1054 |
| Phone: | 515-294-1284 |
Bio
I am a historian of the European Middle Ages, having received my PhD from Northwestern University in 1998. My research focuses on late medieval religious history, particularly the history of magic, witchcraft, and superstition, as well as heresy and religious reform. I also study the history of magic globally from antiquity to the present day.
I have written, edited, or co-edited eight books, including most recently Magic: The Basics (2018) and Origins of the Witches' Sabbath (2021), and I have published more than twenty-five articles in academic journals and edited volumes. I also serve as an associate editor of the interdisciplinary journal Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, which I helped to found in 2006. In 2023 I was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and in 2024 I was appointed a Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State.
I regularly teach courses covering the whole of the European Middle Ages and beyond, including: Hist 2010, Introduction to Western Civilization I; Hist 2120, Medieval Kingdoms, which surveys the all of medieval history in one class; and a series of upper-level classes (Hist 4050, 4060, and 4070), which cover the early, high, and late Middle Ages respectively, and which, while still presenting broad coverage, allow students to engage in more focused ways with historical sources, themes, and scholarship. Beyond Europe, I also teach Hist 3310, Islamic World to 1800.