John Eldevik
Professor of History, Director of German Studies
John Eldevik holds the Licence in Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. His primary research and teaching interests are in medieval social and religious history, particularly the role of the bishop in the early Middle Ages, the Crusades, and the history of political and religious dissent.
Eldevik's first book, Episcopal Lordship and Ecclesiastical Reform in the German Empire, 950-1150, examines how medieval bishops used the collection of tithes to foster social and political relationships. He is working on a study of the manuscript transmission of texts on the Crusades and Islam in medieval Bavaria. He received his doctorate from UCLA.
Recent Courses Taught
Christianity to 1500
Myth and History of the Middle Ages
Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Europe and the Mediterranean 1000-1500
Gender and Violence in the Middle Ages
Distinctions
- Dean’s Scholarly Achievement Award, Hamilton College, 2013
- Research fellow, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2012
- Pomona College Faculty Research Grant, 2009-10
- NEH Summer Institute, Barcelona, Spain, 2008
- Center for the Study of Secularism and Society (Trinity College, CT), one-year course development and teaching grant, 2006-07
- Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies/University of Toronto, 2002-03
- UCLA History Department Dissertation-Year Fellowship, 1999-2000
- Fulbright Fellowship, University of Vienna, 1998-1999
- UCLA Summer Research Grant, 1998
- UCLA History Department Summer Grant, 1998
- UCLA History Department teaching assistantship, 1996-1998
- UCLA History Department fellowship (four-year), 1995
Selected Publications
- Episcopal Power and Ecclesiastical Reform in the German Empire: Tithes, Lordship and Community, 950-1150 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
- Medieval Germany: Research and Resources, GHI Research Guide 21, Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 2007.
- “Saints, Pagans, and the Wonders of the East: The Medieval Imaginary and its Manuscript Contexts,” in preparation.
- “We are all Maccabees now: Apocalyptic thought and the making of monastic community in 12th century Bavaria,” in preparation.
- “Manuscripts of the Vita Oudalrici and the ‘image’ of the Ottonian bishop,” in preparation.
- Warfare and Politics in Medieval Germany: On the Variety of Our Times by Alpert of Metz, trans. David S. Bachrach (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2012), The Medieval Review (October 2013).
- Eric Knibbs, Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2011), German Studies Review 36, nr. 1 (2013): 163-4.
- “Conrad II, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor (1024-1039)” in New International Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007).
- “Ecclesiastical Lordship and the Politics of Submitting Tithes in Medieval Germany: The Thuringian Tithe Dispute in Social Context,” Viator 34 (2003): 40-56.
- “New Studies in Medieval Law and Conflict Resolution,” Comitatus 36 (2005): 157-172.
- “Driving the Chariot of the Lord: Siegfried I of Mainz (1060-1084) and Episcopal Identity in an Age of Transition,” in The Bishop Re-Formed: Studies of Episcopal Power and Culture in the Central Middle Ages, ed. John S. Ott and Anna Trumbore Jones (London: Ashgate, 2007): 159-186.
- “Bishops in the Medieval Empire: New Perspectives on the Church, State, and Episcopal Office,” History Compass 9, no. 10 (October, 2011). DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00805.x.(with Christoph Sonnlechner) “An Interview with Herwig Wolfram,” Comitatus, 34 (2003): 187-195.
- “Eine unbekannte Kopie der Georgenberger Handfeste im Reiner Musterbuch, Cvp. 507,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 110 (2002): 263-280.
- “Recovering Willibrord’s Monastery at Echternach: Towards a New Approach to Archeological and Textual Evidence,” UCLA Historical Journal 18 (1999): 83-93.
College Service
Levitt Council, 2011-12
Couper Librarian Search Committee, 2011-12
Professional Affiliations
American Historical Association
Claremont Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Medieval Academy of America
Medieval Association of the Pacific
Appointed to the Faculty
2010Educational Background
Ph.D., University of California - Los Angeles
M.A., University of California - Los Angeles
B.A., Pomona College
