COURSES
I arrived at Belmont in 1998 as an Associate Professor of Honors. My major teaching assignment is the central portion of the Honors humanities and social science sequence. This sequence is divided into four six-hour courses, which are normally taken by Honors students during their first two years at Belmont. These are designed and taught as interdisciplinary courses within a chronological framework. Honors 1220 covers the development of Europe and the Mediterranean basin from the decline of the Roman Empire to the Black Death, including major developments and monuments in art, architecture, literature, philosophy, religion, music and social and political history. Honors 2210 begins with the Black Death and traces developments in the same areas down to the French Revolution. Students in 221 have five main projects to complete as well as extensive reading. In 2000 I initiated the artists' websites project, for which each student designs a website for an artist of the period of his or her choice. As a model, I spent the summer of 2000 constructing a site on Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337). I have also chosen to put several of my power point presentations on line for the convenience of my students.  In Fall of 2001 I taught an art history seminar on Early Christian and Byzantine Art, whose syllabus and student websites contents page is linked here. In the fall term of 2002 I taught a course on Renaissance Italian Art for the Art Department, and taught an Honors Seminar in spring 2003 to accompany the writing of my book  The Black Death. During spring 2006 I taught a seminar on Early Christianity, and returned to London to lead a course on world religions -- Sacred London -- during the winter break 2006/2007.

 
 
 
 

PROFESSIONAL
Much of my work as an historian has focused on fourteenth and early fifteenth-century Italy, and especially on the Tuscan merchant Francesco di Marco Datini da Prato (1335-1410). My translations of his last will and that of his father Marco, are on line for the use of scholars and students. I retain all rights to these translations. This work led to my compilation of a bibliography of several thousand printed works on wills and probate inventories. In the interest of sharing this with scholars and students, I have posted this here. It covers all of Europe from the Roman Empire to 1700 I invite comments, corrections and additions.  I have personally seen most of the works cited here, but errors of transcription do creep in.

In the summer of 1999 I was privileged to participate in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on Anglo-Saxon England held at Western Michigan University and directed by Paul E. Szarmach. As part of my contribution to the program he suggested that I compile a directory of websites that contain images of things Anglo-Saxon.

While in Rome on a National Endowment for the Humanities program on Renaissance and Baroque architecture and urban planning, I spent much of my spare time studying the catacombs and have created a site that might serve as an introduction to these remarkable places. I have a packaged slide show program on the catacombs that I have presented to a number of Nashville area church groups, and this site serves as something of an introduction to that program as well.

Also linked above is the notice for my 2004 monograph on the Black Death written for Greenwood Press. Greenwood has also just published my Daily Life during the Black Death. I conducted much of the research for both works while on a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute held at Harvard University in 2002. I also enjoyed the hospitality of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies while on an NEH summer institute during summer 2006. This was directed by Irving Resnick of University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and focused on the representations of Jews in medieval Christendom.  I am currently serving as editor for Greenwood Press's forthcoming Encyclopedia of Plagues, Pestilence and Pandemics, with the assistance of a stellar editorial board.