Tovah Bender
Education:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN Sept. 2004 - present
PhD candidate in History, concentration in Medieval Europe
Dissertation: Negotiating Marriage: Artisan women in fifteenth-century Florentine Society
Preliminary exams completed May 11, 2006
Advisors: Ruth Mazo Karras and Kathryn Reyerson
Fordham University, Bronx NY MA in History, Aug. 2004
Concentration in Medieval Europe
Thesis: Overlaying in Later Medieval England: A Second Look at the Sources
Advisors: Daniel Lord Smail and Maryanne Kowaleski
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI BA, May 2001
Majors: Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Anthropology
Thesis: A Poor Girl’s Dilemma: Servanthood in Renaissance Florence
Graduated with High Honors and with Distinction
European University Institute, Florence Italy Dec. 2007 – July 2008
Visiting Doctoral Student
St. Andrews University, Scotland Sept. 1999 – June 2000
Junior Year Abroad (JYA)
Castell Henlly Field School of Archaeology, University of York Summer 1999
Teaching:
World History to 1500 Summer 2007
Independent Instructor, University of Minnesota
Women in Medieval Europe January 2007
Independent Instructor, St. Olaf College
The History of Britain to the 17th century (writing intensive) Fall 2006
Independent Instructor, University of Minnesota
Islam: Religion and Culture Fall 2005
Reader-Grader under Prof. Caesar Farah, University of Minnesota
World History to 1500 (writing intensive) Winter 2005
Teaching Assistant under Prof. Kathryn Reyerson, University of Minnesota
Other Employment:
Editorial Assistant, Jan. 2006-present
Center for Early Modern History, University of Minnesota
Writing Consultant Sept. 2005 – May 2006
Center for Writing, University of Minnesota
Research Assistant for Prof. Karras June-Aug 2005; Jan. 2007-present
Department of History, University of Minnesota
Assistant to the Director of American Studies August 2003-June 2004
Fordham University
Museum Educator June 2002-Aug 2003
Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT
Publications:
“Kinship” in The Encyclopedia of Women in World History. (Oxford University Press, 2008).
“The Middle Ages” in The Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. (Thomson Gale, 2007).
Presentations:
“The Case of the Missing Women: Sex Ratios in Fifteenth Century Florence” Paper presentation for a panel I organized, Discovering Women’s Lives amidst Premodern Numbers: The application of demography to premodern Europe and North America at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Minneapolis, MN. June 2008
Food and the Econonomy. Co-organized panel (along with John Wing) at the International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamzoo, MI. May 2008
“Creating Unions: Social Networks and Artisan Marriages in fifteenth-century Florentine Notarial Records” Paper Presentation at the European Social Sciences History Conference, Lisbon Portugal. February 2008
“Didacticism in the Heptameron: A Gendered Exploration in Sixteenth Century Literature” Paper Presentation at the Gender, Genre, and Political Transformation Conference, Minneapolis, MN. November 2006.
“The Honorable Bourgeois Wife: Practical Honor in the Menagier de Paris” Paper presentation at the International Conference on Medieval Studies, Kalamzoo. May 2006.
Awards and Honors:
· 2007-2008 Fulbright Fellow to Italy
· Dr. Elka Klein Memorial Travel Grant, American Jewish University; May 2007 (declined)
· Center for Early Modern History Union Pacific Travel Grant, University of Minnesota; 2007
· Myrna Smith Doctoral Dissertation Travel Grant, University of Minnesota; December 2006 (declined)
· Participant, Mellon Dissertation Seminar in Early Modern History; June-August 2006
· Center for Early Modern History Union Pacific Travel Grant, University of Minnesota; 2006
· Summer Language Grant for Italian Language Study; June 2005
· Hedley Donovan History Fellowship, University of Minnesota; Fall 2004
· Presidential Scholar, Fordham University; September 2003-May 2004