PhD Candidate
Medieval Europe
I am historian of power and legitimacy in the medieval Mediterranean. My dissertation, Bishops and Their Rights: The Archdiocese of Bari in the Central Middle Ages, examines how a local church and its archbishops in the Kingdom of Sicily navigated shifting relationships with the papacy and a series of secular authorities between 900 and 1300. By tracing the acquisition, defense, and reconsolidation of episcopal fiscal and property rights, the project offers a grounded way to study enduring conflicts between church and state. Under Byzantine rule, the diocese possessed few territorial or fiscal rights; these emerged only with Norman patronage in the eleventh century and provided the primary material foundation for the cathedral’s pastoral mission. As the Normans and their successors became less generous, the archbishops increasingly turned to the papal courts to vindicate their long-standing rights.
Research Interests
- History of Southern Italy
- History of Christianity
- Comparative history of northern and southern Europe
- Notarial culture
