Department of History

Welcome Dr. Jim Broomall!

Dr. Jim Broomall joined us this semester as the William Binford Vest Chair in History. Professor Broomall is a cultural historian of Nineteenth-Century America. He specializes in American Civil War and Reconstruction, Southern History, and Public History. He is the author of Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers, numerous articles and essays, and three major historic reports for the National Park Service.

For the past decade, Professor Broomall was on the faculty at Shepherd University, where he was the Director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. He has led tours of battlefields and historic sites across the country, and he delivers numerous public presentations each year. Professor Broomall earned his M.A. at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his Ph.D. at the University of Florida.

For spring semester 2025, Dr. Broomall is teaching HIST 204: The Civil War and Reconstruction. 

Cross-Dressing in the Middle Ages. A Journey Through Literature & History

Wednesday, February 5th, at 5:30pm in Brown Alley Room

Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages. A Journey Through Literature & History.

Marina Montesano, Visting Cornerstones Chair in History, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Messina, Italy, and fellow of Villa I Tatti at The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance, will be speaking.

Joan of Arc may be the most famous cross-dresser of the Middle Ages, but her story is “exemplary” in the Derridean sense, both the best and most typical case of cross-dressing and, paradoxically, a sort of exception. A broader examination of earlier cases, even if found in literary sources, helps to better contextualize the topic. In a world that prided itself on clear distinctions between male and female roles, cross-dressing challenged societal norms and sparked controversy. Someone’s garments were clear indication of where they stood in society: knight or cleric, Christian or Jew, peasant or citizen, man or woman, and so on. Medieval texts that feature cross-dressing—often more as literary fantasies than as historical accounts—offer a window into how clothing served as a powerful marker of identity, status, and belonging , while simultaneously revealing the ways such markers could be subverted or reimagined.

Light refreshments will be served.