Bio


Marisa Galvez specializes in the literature of the Middle Ages in France and Western Europe, especially the poetry and narrative literature written in Occitan and Old French. Her areas of interest include the troubadours, vernacular poetics, the intersection of performance and literary cultures, and the critical history of medieval studies as a discipline. At Stanford, she currently teaches courses on medieval and Renaissance French literature and love lyric, as well as interdisciplinary upper level courses on the medieval imaginary in modern literature, film, and art.

Her first book, Songbook: How Lyrics Became Poetry in Medieval Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2012, awarded John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of America), treats what poetry was before the emergence of the modern category, “poetry”: that is, how vernacular songbooks of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries shaped our modern understanding of poetry by establishing expectations of what is a poem, what is a poet, and what is lyric poetry itself. The first comparative study of songbooks, the book concerns three vernacular traditions—Occitan, Middle High German, and Castilian—and analyzes how the songbook emerged from its original performance context of oral publication, into a medium for preservation, and finally became a literary object that performs the interests of poets and readers.

Her second book, The Subject of Crusade:Lyric, Romance, and Materials, 1150-1500 (University of Chicago Press, 2020) examines how the crusader subject of vernacular literature sought to reconcile secular ideals about love and chivalry with crusade. This study places this literature in dialogue with new ideas about penance and confession that emerged from the second half of the twelfth century to the end of the thirteenth. Subject argues that poetic articulations are crucial for understanding the crusades as a complex cultural and historical phenomenon, and examines another version of speaking crusades, in which lyric, romance and materials such as tapestries, textiles, and tombstones manifest ambivalence about crusade ideals.

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, French and Italian
  • Professor (By courtesy), German Studies
  • Professor (By courtesy), Comparative Literature

Administrative Appointments


  • Assistant Professor by Courtesy, German Studies, Stanford University (2008 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor of French and Italian, Stanford University (2008 - Present)
  • Lecturer in Comparative Literature, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
  • Graduate Assistant, Bing Honors College (2005 - 2005)
  • Teaching Assistant, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (2002 - 2003)
  • Graduate Assistant, Stanford University (2002 - 2002)
  • Teaching Assistant, Stanford University (2001 - 2002)

Honors & Awards


  • John Nicholas Brown Prize, for a first book or monograph of outstanding quality, The Medieval Academy of America (2016)
  • Internal Faculty Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (2012-2013)
  • Charles Bernheimer Prize for the best dissertation in the field of comparative literature, American Comparative Literature Association (2008)
  • Geballe Dissertation Prize Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (2006-2007)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Project Manager, Division of Literature, Cultures and Languages (DLCL) Research Unit, Performing Trobar (2009 - Present)
  • Project Manager, Stanford Humanities Laboratory, Crowds Project (2002 - 2006)
  • Member, Modern Language Association (MLA), Executive Committee for the Discussion Group on Provençal Language and Literature (2009 - 2014)
  • Junior Faculty Member of the Executive Committee, Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Stanford University (2011 - 2012)
  • Member, Search Committee for Open-Rank Professor of Medieval English Literature, Department of English, Stanford University (2012 - 2012)
  • Evaluation Committee Member, Lopes Prize for Essays and Theses in Feminist Studies, Stanford University (2011 - 2011)
  • Evaluation Committee Member, Tenured Associate Professor in German Studies, Stanford University (2011 - 2011)
  • Member, Search Committee for Assistant Professor in Persian Literature and Culture, Department of Comparative Literature, Stanford University (2010 - 2010)
  • Member, Search Committee for Architectural Historian, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University (2010 - 2010)
  • Graduate Admissions Committee Member, Department of Comparative Literature, Stanford University (2002 - 2003)
  • Member, Société Guilhem IX
  • Member, Medieval Academy of America
  • Member, Modern Language Association of America
  • Member, International Courtly Literature Society (North American Branch)

Program Affiliations


  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Professional Education


  • Ph.D., Stanford University, Comparative Literature (2007)
  • B.A, Yale University, French (1999)

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Shards in hand: crystal dwelling as ecology POSTMEDIEVAL-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL CULTURAL STUDIES Galvez, M. 2022
  • Unthought Medievalism NEOPHILOLOGUS Galvez, M. 2021
  • Europe: A Literary History, 1348-1418 (Book Review) SPECULUM-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Galvez, M., Largier, N. 2018; 93 (1): 283–87

    View details for DOI 10.1086/696092

    View details for Web of Science ID 000418804200088

  • The Voice of the Unrepentant Crusader: "Aler m'estuet" by the Chatelain d'Arras Voice and Voicelessness in Medieval Europe Galvez, M. Palgrave Macmillan. 2015
  • Dark Transparencies: Crystal Poetics in Medieval Texts and Beyond Philological Quarterly Galvez, M. 2014; 93 (1): 15-42
  • Natureingang Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Wartburgkrieg Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Gai saber Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Decir Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Alba Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Poetic contests Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • Songbook Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics Galvez, M. University of Chicago Press. 2012
  • From the Costuma d’Agen to the Leys d’Amors: A Reflection on Customary Law, the University of Toulouse, and the Consistori de la sobregaia companhia del gay saber Tenso: Bulletin of the Société Guilhem IX Galvez, M. 2011; 26: 30-51
  • Mass Crowds Galvez, M. edited by Schnapp, J. T., Tiews, M. Stanford University Press. 2007: 88–90
  • People Crowds Galvez, M. edited by Schnapp, J. T., Tiews, M. Stanford University Press. 2007: 104–106
  • Crowd Crowds Galvez, M. edited by Schnapp, J. T., Tiews, M. Stanford University Press. 2007: 56–59
  • Ash Wednesday, 1515: Hans Sachs is accepted into the guild of Mastersingers at Würzburg: A cobbler-poet emerges as master-author A New History of German Literature Galvez, M., et al edited by Wellbery, D., et al Harvard University Press. 2004: 215–219