Bio
I am a historian of western Europe and the Mediterranean, primarily during the high and late Middle Ages. Much of my research tries to understand how law and society interact with each other, especially where legal norms conflict with social practices. Another strand of my research explores the history of economic life and economic thought, especially medieval debates over usury and moneylending. I have also written on the circulation of goods, people, and ideas in the medieval Mediterranean.
My first book (No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe, Princeton University Press) uses the banishment of Jewish and Christian moneylenders to explore the rise of mass expulsion as a widespread practice in the later Middle Ages. A second ongoing project examines the ways in which medieval canon law was adapted, reinterpreted, or resisted in local contexts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The latter builds on Corpus Synodalium, a prize-winning full-text database of late medieval local ecclesiastical legislation that I have been developing since 2016, with assistance from colleagues around the world.
Born and raised in western Canada, I did my undergraduate and doctoral work at Harvard University, earning an MPhil in Medieval History from the University of Cambridge along the way. Before coming to Stanford, I was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Academic Appointments
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Associate Professor, History
Administrative Appointments
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Director, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (2023 - Present)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Comitato scientifico, Fondazione per le scienze religiose, Bologna (2022 - Present)
Professional Education
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Ph.D., Harvard University, History (2015)
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M.Phil., University of Cambridge, Medieval History (2009)
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AB (Hon.), Harvard College, History (2007)
2024-25 Courses
- Citizenship in the 21st Century
COLLEGE 102 (Win) - Core Colloquium: Graduate Readings in Medieval History
HISTORY 313 (Aut) - Crisis and Community in the Jewish Tradition
HISTORY 18C, JEWISHST 117 (Spr) - Introduction to the Sources of Medieval History
HISTORY 317 (Spr) - Junior Honors Colloquium
HISTORY 299H (Win) - New Directions in Medieval and Early Modern Studies
HISTORY 311M (Aut, Win, Spr) - Research Seminar for Majors
HISTORY 209S (Aut) -
Independent Studies (7)
- Curricular Practical Training
HISTORY 299F (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Graduate Directed Reading
HISTORY 399W (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Graduate Research
HISTORY 499X (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Senior Research I
HISTORY 299A (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Research II
HISTORY 299B (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Research III
HISTORY 299C (Aut, Win, Spr) - Undergraduate Directed Research and Writing
HISTORY 299S (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Curricular Practical Training
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Prior Year Courses
2023-24 Courses
- Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism
HISTORY 86Q, JEWISHST 86Q (Win) - Doing Legal History
HISTORY 200A (Win) - Medieval Paris
OSPPARIS 73 (Spr)
2021-22 Courses
- Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism
HISTORY 86Q, JEWISHST 86Q (Win) - Introduction to the Sources of Medieval History
HISTORY 317 (Spr)
- Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Lauren Adams, Ana Nunez -
Orals Evaluator
Joe Amato, Amanda Coate, Lauren Urbont -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Lane Baker -
Doctoral (Program)
Lane Baker, Lauren Urbont
All Publications
- No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe Histories of Economic Life Princeton University Press. 2023
- Corpus Synodalium: Medieval Canon Law in the Digital Age Digital Medieval Studies: Practice and Preservation edited by Morreale, L. K., Gilsdorf, S. ARC Humanities. 2022: 49-75
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THE BISHOP AS LAWMAKER IN LATE MEDIEVAL EUROPE
PAST & PRESENT
2021: 45-82
View details for DOI 10.1093/pastj/gtaa045
View details for Web of Science ID 000728393800002
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Usury and Restitution in Late Medieval Episcopal Statutes: A Case Study in the Local Reception of Conciliar Decrees
BULLETIN OF MEDIEVAL CANON LAW-NEW SERIES
2021; 38: 309-359
View details for Web of Science ID 000773364700012
- Migrant Moneylenders and the Threat of Expulsion in Late Medieval Europe L’expérience de la mobilité, de l’Antiquité à nos jours. Entre précarité et confiance edited by Moatti, C., Chevreau, E. Ausonius. 2021: 49-66
- Diffusion des normes dans l’église de la fin du moyen âge: Les législations ecclésiastiques locales, 1215-1500. Introduction Revue de droit canonique 2021; 71 (1): 5-17
- Order and Disorder: The Documentary Additions to the Liber Ordinarius of Nivelles The Liber ordinarius of Nivelles (Houghton Library, MS Lat 422): Liturgy as Interdisciplinary Intersection edited by Hamburger, J. F. Mohr Siebeck. 2019: 133-150
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"Once the Jews have been Expelled": Intent and Interpretation in Late Medieval Canon Law
LAW AND HISTORY REVIEW
2016; 34 (2): 335-362
View details for DOI 10.1017/S0738248016000043
View details for Web of Science ID 000376143900004
- Les maîtres parisiens et les Juifs (fin XIIIe siècle): Perspectives nouvelles sur un dossier d’avis concernant le regimen judaeorum Journal des Savants 2016: 241-282
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Canon law and the problem of expulsion: The origins and interpretation of Usurarum voraginem (VI 5.5.1)
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung
2013; 99: 129-161
View details for DOI 10.7767/zrgka.2013.99.1.129
- Adriatic Trade Networks in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Trade and Markets in Byzantium Harvard University Press. 2012: 235-279