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