Bio
I am a historian of the European Middle Ages. My research focuses on 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.
I have written, edited, or co-edited nine books, including most recently Origins of the Witches’ Sabbath (2021) and A Cultural History of Magic in the Middle Ages (2025), 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 European Middle Ages and beyond, including: Hist 2010, Introduction to Western Civilization I; Hist 2120, Medieval Kingdoms, which surveys all of medieval Europe 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. I also teach Hist 3310, Islamic World to 1800.
Ask An Historian
What is a favorite document that you’ve found in the archives?
I once worked with a manuscript copy of a text from the early fifteenth century that contained a reference to Joan of Arc. The text was not primarily about Joan, it just referenced her as a famous contemporary event.