ALEXANDRA CUFFEL
History Dept.
308 Old
e-mail: cuffel@macalester.edu
EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor of pre-modern World History,
Visiting Assistant Professor of
Medieval History, Adjunct in Near Eastern and Jewish Studies Dept.,
Assistant Professor of Medieval History, Affiliated faculty in Religious
Studies Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
Adjunct Instructor in History, The College of
Research and Editorial Assistant, Geniza Project,
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Medieval History:
Awarded May,
2002.
Dissertation: “Filthy Words/Filthy Bodies: Gendering Disgust in Twelfth- and
Thirteenth-century Jewish-Christian Polemic”
Major fields: Medieval Europe (Jewish-Christian relations)
Minor field: Medieval Islam (Fatimid and Mamluk Cultural History)
MPhil in Medieval History:
Thesis: "Petrus Alfonsi and Joseph ibn Zabara: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Relations in the Twelfth Century"
Christian Albrechts Universität zu
October 1988 to July 1989.
BA with Departmental Honors:
Individualized Major in Medieval Studies.
HONORS
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Jan. 2007-Dec. 2007
Women’s Studies in Religion Fellowship, Harvard Divinity School AY 2006-2007
Wallace
Research Grant,
Humanities
Summer Stipend Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
Jewish Caucus Scholarship. National Women’s
Studies Association. June 1998.
Teaching Assistantship.
Inter-University Fellowship.
Dorot Foundation Scholarship.
Participant in Summer N.E.H. Seminar "Change in Societies," at
Two fellowships for Graduate Study through Skirball Department of Hebrew and
Judaic Studies,
F.L.A.S. (Foreign Language and Area Studies) award for summer study at
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Summer
1992.
PUBLICATIONS
Filthy Words/Filthy Bodies: Gendering Disgust in Medieval Religious
Polemic. Forthcoming from
Crossing Boundaries in Religion, Gender, and Culture in the pre-modern world, ed. Brian Britt and Alexandra Cuffel. Forthcoming from Palgrave Press.
“Reorienting Christian ‘Amazons’: Christian women warriors in medieval Islamic literature in the context of the crusades” Forthcoming in Crossing Boundaries in Religion, Gender, and Culture in the pre-modern world, ed. Brian Britt and Alexandra Cuffel.
“Does this smell okay to you? Hygiene and
Invented Illness in medieval and early modern Christian-Muslim travelogues.”
Forthcoming in Medievalia
“From Practice to Polemic: shared saints and
festivals as ‘women’s religion’ in the medieval
“Immaculate Conception.” Dictionary of the Middle Ages
Supplement, vol. 14 ed. William
“‘Henceforward All Generations
Will Call Me Blessed’: Medieval Christian Tales of Non-Christian Marian
Veneration.”
“Call and Response: European Jewish
Emigration to
BOOK REVIEWS
Intersections of Sexuality and the
Divine in Medieval Culture, The Word Made Flesh. Ed. Susannah Mary Chewing
(Ashgate, 2005) Forthcoming in Sixteenth
Century Journal
Gender in the Early Medieval World East
and West 300-900, Ed. Leslie
Brubaker and Julia H. Smith (Cambridge, 2004) Forthcoming in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Nelly Hanna, In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of
Ross Brann, Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims
in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic
WORKS IN
PROGRESS OR UNDER CONSIDERATION
“The Matter of Others: Menstrual Blood and
Uncontrolled Semen in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Kabbalists’ polemic
against Christians, “bad” Jews, and Muslims.”
Jewish Warriors in Distant Lands: Imagining
the Ten Lost Tribes. Co-authored with Adam Knobler of The
Shared Saints and Festivals among Jews, Christians, and
Muslims in the Mediterranean 1100-1650
PAPERS
PRESENTED
“The Matter of Others:
Menstrual Blood and Uncontrolled Semen in twelfth- and thirteenth-century
Kabbalists’ polemic against Christians, “bad” Jews, and Muslims.” To be presented at the International Congress
on Medieval Studies,
“Undesirable Geneologies:” Transformations of the Toledot Jesu in medieval Muslim apocalyptic and Shi’i -Sunni polemic” To be presented at the 39th Annual Middle Eastern Studies Association for Nov. 2005
Panelist speaker
in “Researching Women’s Lives.” National
Women’s Studies Association,
“Does this smell
okay to you? Hygiene and Invented Illness in medieval and early modern
Christian-Muslim travelogues.” Presented
at the Interdisciplinary Conference "Science, Literature, and the Arts in
the Medieval and Early Modern World" at SUNY
“Self, history,
and the autobiographical impulse among Renaissance Jews” Presented at the
Renaissance Center of University of
“From Procession to
Polemic: Plague, environment, and disease in medieval Jewish, Christian, and
Muslim relations” Presented at the University of
“The Physiognomy
of Polemic: Color in Medieval Jewish-Christian Relations” Presented at the
History Faculty Seminar,
“From Practice to
Polemic: shared saints and festivals as ‘women’s religion’ in the medieval
Mediterranean” Presented at the New England Medieval Conference,
“Songs and Tales
of the Enemy? The role of orality in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relations.”
Presented at the 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies at
"Rewriting the Bestiary: Jewish Appropriations of Christian Animal Traditions"
Presented at the International Medieval Congress at the University of
"From
“Biology meets
Theology: The Body of the Virgin Mary in
medieval Jewish-Christian Polemic.”
Presented to the Science & Technology Studies Seminar, Virginia
Tech,
"'Henceforward All Generations will call me Blessed' Medieval European reactions to
Muslim Marian Devotion."
Presented as part of the speaker series "Crossing Boundaries in Gender,
Faith, and Culture in the Pre-Modern World," Virginia Tech,
“Narrative Strategies of Entertainment and Power in Sippur David ha-Reuveni”
Presented at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish
Studies,
"Plagues, Saints, and
Charity: Definitions of Religious Power and Communal Boundaries in the Medieval
Near East.” Presented at the 40th annual Midwest Medieval History
Conference,
“The ‘Trampled Corpse’ and
Other Maledictions of Resistance in Medieval Hebrew liturgical poetry”
Presented at the 35th International Congress on Medieval Studies,
“Jewish Warriors
in Distant Lands: The Scepter of
"The
Other as Witness to Truth: Shared Saints and Festivals in Late Medieval
"A Most Evil
Matter: Menstruation and the Godhead in Medieval Jewish Mysticism."
Presented to the
"Bloody
Prose and the Poetry of Blood: Menstruation in Medieval Jewish Polemic and
Mysticism." Presented to the 29th International Congress on Medieval
Studies,
"The Curse
of Ham: Petrus Alfonsi and Medieval Jewish Attitudes Towards Black
Africans." Presented at the 28th International Congress on Medieval
Studies,
"Petrus
Alfonsi and Joseph Ibn Zabara: Jewish-Christian-Muslim interaction in the
Twelfth Century" Presented at the 26th International Congress on Medieval
Studies,
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Medieval and early modern religious polemic in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Shared saints' cults and festivals in the
medieval and early modern
Medieval medicine and views of the body.
Women’s religious practices and attitudes toward women in medieval Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
Racial attitudes in the Middle Ages.
TEACHING FIELDS
Interfaith Relations (Jewish-Christian-Muslim, Late Antiquity to Early Modern).
Medieval History.
History of Pre-Modern Medicine
Jewish Culture (
Gender and Sexuality (Late Antiquity to Early Modern).
Medieval Islam
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT:
Early Middle Ages
Later Middle Ages
History of Islam from the Prophet to 1517
History of pre-Modern Medicine
Ancient and Medieval Christianity
Medieval Women: Perceptions and Realities
Jews, Christians and Muslims in the: a) Pre-Modern World; b) Middle Ages
Wars, Rabbis, and Messiahs: Jews in
the
Jews in the Medieval and Early Modern World
Gender and the Divinity in Late Antique and Medieval Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
From Jewish Messiah to the Antichrist/Dajjal: Medieval Views of the
Apocalypse
Environment, Disease, and Culture in the Middle Ages
From Ancient Magic to Early Modern Witchcraft
Women in Jewish History
Topics in the History of Western Sexuality
Hebrew Language
History of Western Thought to 1600
Problems in World History, Part 1
Changes in Society:
Introduction to the Humanities
European Civilization Part One
(Middle Ages and Early Modern
GRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT:
Popular Culture in the
Medieval and Early Modern Era:
Approaches
Exploration and the Rise of Museums (Independent Readings course)
European
relations with
LANGUAGES
Reading and spoken: French; German; Hebrew
Reading only: Latin; Arabic; Spanish; Italian; some Ge’ez (medieval Ethiopic) and some Greek
ACTIVITIES
Member of the editorial board for Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal
http://www.women-in-judaism.com
Co-organizer: Lecture series “Crossing Boundaries in Gender, Faith, and Culture in the Pre-Modern World.” Virginia Tech. AY 2001-2002.
MEMBERSHIPS
American Historical Association
Association for Jewish Studies
Medieval
Mediterranean Studies Association
Middle Eastern Studies Association
National Women’s Studies Association
Society for Judeo-Arabic Studies