Shane Bobrycki

Shane Bobrycki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Iowa, within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research and teaching focus on late antique and early medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, particularly between 300 and 1100 CE.

Education:

• PhD in History, Harvard University (2016)
• MPhil in Medieval History, University of Cambridge
• BA in History, Williams College

His research explores collective behavior, demographic change, peasant life, manuscript culture, economic practices, and cultural transmission in the early medieval world. He investigates topics such as urban decline, resistance through food culture, gendered crowd actions, and comparative panegyric traditions across Carolingian, Umayyad, and English contexts. His work bridges social, economic, intellectual, and religious history.

Bobrycki’s recent publications, including articles in Early Medieval Europe, Past and Present, and Viator, reflect a strong trend toward microhistorical analysis of social practices and linguistic evidence to reconstruct non-elite experiences. His forthcoming book, The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2024), argues that despite urban and demographic decline, collective behavior remained central to political and religious life in post-Roman Europe.

His research has been supported by the American Academy in Rome and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. While no specific scientific awards are listed, his publication record and institutional affiliations reflect significant scholarly recognition.

Bobrycki has advised students through graduate programs and the Hawkeye History Corps, though individual student names are not provided. Prior to Iowa, he was a postdoc and lecturer at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard and MIT (2016–2018) and an assistant professor at the University of Vienna (2019–2024). He actively engages in public history and digital projects through departmental initiatives.

He is affiliated with research teams focused on digital projects, public history, and the Iowa Historical Review, contributing to the department’s outreach and engagement efforts.