Recent from talks
Ruth Mazo Karras
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ruth Mazo Karras
Ruth Mazo Karras (born in 1957) is an American historian and medievalist, whose academic research and publications are on religion, sexuality, marriage, slavery, and the history of women in the late Middle Ages. She earned a BA, an MPhil, and a PhD in history from Yale University, and an MPhil in European archaeology from the University of Oxford. Among the most cited medieval historians, Karras was the President of the Medieval Academy of America in 2019–20, and is currently the Lecky Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin.
Karras is an author and scholar of the Middle Ages, whose interests include masculinity and sexuality in Christian and Jewish societies. Her book Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages, was named co-winner of the American Historical Association's Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History in 2012. Her other notable works include From Boys to Men and Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others.
She was an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1993, and in 2018, was appointed a visiting fellow at the University of St Andrews' Institute for Medieval Studies. Before taking up her post in Dublin, Karras was also the Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.
Ruth Mazo Karras was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 23, 1957. Karras attended Yale University, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1979, Master of Philosophy in 1983 and Doctor of Philosophy in History in 1985. She completed a Master of Philosophy in European Archaeology at the University of Oxford in 1981.
She was assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia from 1985 to 1993. While teaching at Temple University, she was associate professor from 1993-1996, professor of history from 1996-2000, director of the Intellectual Heritage Program from 1999-2000 and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1999-2000. Karras spent eighteen years (2000-2018) at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis as professor of history and was named Distinguished Teaching Professor for her work with postgraduates. Since 2018, she has been the Lecky Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin, teaching courses on medieval sources, marriages, and Christianity and Judaism during the Middle Ages.
In the field of medieval studies, Karras has spent her professional career studying medieval masculinity, sexuality, gender roles and the history of women. The research foundations of her work are focused on the intersections of social, legal and cultural history in medieval societies. As primary sources, Karras employs court records, hagiography, prescriptive texts, administrative documents, and Icelandic sagas to inform her analysis. Her current research is focused on the masculine figure of King David in medieval Christian and Jewish cultures. She works with dissertation and thesis students whose work is based on the central to late Middle Ages; Karras also works with postgraduates focusing on the cultural and social histories of women and sexuality.
Select publications from her research on masculinity include: the book From Boys to Men (2003), “Young Knights Under the Feminine Gaze” (2002), "Separating the Men from the Goats" (1999), "Sharing Wine, Women, and Song" (1997), and the fourth edition of her book, Sexuality in Medieval Europe (2005). Select publications from her research on women and sexuality include: Common Women (1996), “Women’s Labors” (2004), Unmarriages (2012), and “Royal Masculinity in Kingless Societies (2016). She also co-edited, with medieval scholar Judith Bennett, The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe (2013). Karras also has published works focused on the institution of medieval marriage such as “Marriage” (2012), Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe (2008) and “Marriage and the Creation of Kin in the Sagas” (2003).
Karras has received praise for her innovative research approaches when considering medieval masculinities and analyzing the sexual unions of marriage and prostitution during the Middle Ages. Some medieval scholars have found From Boys to Men to be a founding document in the study of men's history and a success in medieval scholarship for its development of social class expectations and experiences of socialization as being critical to how male masculinities formed separate from women. Several other medieval scholars have praised Unmarriages for its fresh research complied with unpublished church court records and the intersectionality between legal, sexual and economic histories.
Hub AI
Ruth Mazo Karras AI simulator
(@Ruth Mazo Karras_simulator)
Ruth Mazo Karras
Ruth Mazo Karras (born in 1957) is an American historian and medievalist, whose academic research and publications are on religion, sexuality, marriage, slavery, and the history of women in the late Middle Ages. She earned a BA, an MPhil, and a PhD in history from Yale University, and an MPhil in European archaeology from the University of Oxford. Among the most cited medieval historians, Karras was the President of the Medieval Academy of America in 2019–20, and is currently the Lecky Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin.
Karras is an author and scholar of the Middle Ages, whose interests include masculinity and sexuality in Christian and Jewish societies. Her book Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages, was named co-winner of the American Historical Association's Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History in 2012. Her other notable works include From Boys to Men and Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others.
She was an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1993, and in 2018, was appointed a visiting fellow at the University of St Andrews' Institute for Medieval Studies. Before taking up her post in Dublin, Karras was also the Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.
Ruth Mazo Karras was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 23, 1957. Karras attended Yale University, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1979, Master of Philosophy in 1983 and Doctor of Philosophy in History in 1985. She completed a Master of Philosophy in European Archaeology at the University of Oxford in 1981.
She was assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia from 1985 to 1993. While teaching at Temple University, she was associate professor from 1993-1996, professor of history from 1996-2000, director of the Intellectual Heritage Program from 1999-2000 and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1999-2000. Karras spent eighteen years (2000-2018) at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis as professor of history and was named Distinguished Teaching Professor for her work with postgraduates. Since 2018, she has been the Lecky Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin, teaching courses on medieval sources, marriages, and Christianity and Judaism during the Middle Ages.
In the field of medieval studies, Karras has spent her professional career studying medieval masculinity, sexuality, gender roles and the history of women. The research foundations of her work are focused on the intersections of social, legal and cultural history in medieval societies. As primary sources, Karras employs court records, hagiography, prescriptive texts, administrative documents, and Icelandic sagas to inform her analysis. Her current research is focused on the masculine figure of King David in medieval Christian and Jewish cultures. She works with dissertation and thesis students whose work is based on the central to late Middle Ages; Karras also works with postgraduates focusing on the cultural and social histories of women and sexuality.
Select publications from her research on masculinity include: the book From Boys to Men (2003), “Young Knights Under the Feminine Gaze” (2002), "Separating the Men from the Goats" (1999), "Sharing Wine, Women, and Song" (1997), and the fourth edition of her book, Sexuality in Medieval Europe (2005). Select publications from her research on women and sexuality include: Common Women (1996), “Women’s Labors” (2004), Unmarriages (2012), and “Royal Masculinity in Kingless Societies (2016). She also co-edited, with medieval scholar Judith Bennett, The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe (2013). Karras also has published works focused on the institution of medieval marriage such as “Marriage” (2012), Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe (2008) and “Marriage and the Creation of Kin in the Sagas” (2003).
Karras has received praise for her innovative research approaches when considering medieval masculinities and analyzing the sexual unions of marriage and prostitution during the Middle Ages. Some medieval scholars have found From Boys to Men to be a founding document in the study of men's history and a success in medieval scholarship for its development of social class expectations and experiences of socialization as being critical to how male masculinities formed separate from women. Several other medieval scholars have praised Unmarriages for its fresh research complied with unpublished church court records and the intersectionality between legal, sexual and economic histories.
Recent media