معرفی
Sarah Whitten is Assistant Professor of History at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she has been a faculty member since 2013. She holds a B.A. from UC San Diego and earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA. Her academic work is centered on the political, legal, and cultural history of medieval southern Italy, with a particular focus on borderlands, sovereignty, and legal culture.
- B.A., UC San Diego, 2005
- M.A., UCLA, 2010
- Ph.D., UCLA, 2010
Her research explores the complex interactions between religious, ethnic, and political identities in the multi-ethnic Mediterranean borderlands of southern Italy during the ninth and twelfth centuries. She investigates how monastic communities used legal manuscripts and cartularies to assert land claims and sovereignty, and challenges traditional narratives of religious conflict by emphasizing political and territorial motivations.
Her publications, appearing in journals like Early Medieval Europe and Viator, and in edited volumes such as Designing Norman Sicily, reflect a consistent scholarly focus on legal performance, memory, gender, and slavery in pre-modern Mediterranean societies. Her current book project, Law across Jurisdictions, promises to deepen understanding of how legal pluralism shaped social and political life in medieval southern Italy.
- Peer-reviewed articles: Published in Early Medieval Europe, Viator
- Book chapters: Contributions to Designing Norman Sicily, The Future of Medieval Studies, and A Companion to Early Medieval Rome
Professor Whitten teaches a wide range of courses including Violence in the Sea of Faith, History of Medieval Women, Early Medieval Europe, and Law in the Pre-modern Mediterranean, demonstrating her commitment to interdisciplinary and student-centered pedagogy.
She advises undergraduate research and mentors students in historical methodology, legal studies, and Mediterranean history. While no formal grants are mentioned, her ongoing manuscript and invited publications suggest active scholarly engagement and institutional support.
She is affiliated with the Department of History and contributes to the broader academic mission of the college through her teaching and research. Her work bridges legal, social, and cultural history, offering nuanced interpretations of power, identity, and conflict in the medieval world.
