Joel Anderson

I am a historian of medieval Europe with broad interests in cultural history, religious history, and the Norse world. I received my bachelor’s degree from Bates College and subsequently studied at the University of Oslo, the University of Iceland, and Cornell University, where I completed my PhD.

My research revolves around issues of communication, imagination, and authority, particularly in the high and late medieval church. In my first book, Reimagining Christendom, I examined how clerics on the northern fringes of Europe refashioned and repurposed the legal principles and official documents of the Roman church for their own ends. In the process, these churchmen constructed visions of ecclesiastical order that underscore the diversity and dynamism of Christendom as a whole. My articles have appeared in Speculum, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, and elsewhere.

I regularly teach the History of Medieval Europe (HTY 105). I also offer courses on heresy and witchcraft (HTY 235), the Vikings (HTY 427), and a number of other subjects in European history. My recent upper-level seminars have examined the medieval papacy, the history of the book, and medieval historiography.

Major Grants and Fellowships

Summer Faculty Research Award, Office of Research Development (2020)

Pre-tenure Faculty Research and Creative Activity Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2018)

Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia (2014–16)

Andrew W. Mellon / ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2014–15)

Fulbright Grantee, Norwegian Fulbright Foundation (2006–07)