James Naus

Title: Associate Professor and Chair

Office: 416 Varner Hall

Phone: (248) 370-3531

Fax: (248) 370-3528

Email:  naus@oakland.edu

Education:
Ph.D., Saint Louis University, 2011
M.A., Saint Louis University, 2006
B.A., Duquesne University, 2003

Major Fields:
Medieval Europe

Research: 
My research centers on the crusading movement and its impact on medieval society. I have written extensively on the cultural and political history of France, with particular attention to how royal association with crusading shaped the practice of kingship during the Central Middle Ages. More broadly, I am interested in the intersection of noble and popular culture and the role in religion in shaping the medieval experience. I am currently pursuing two major projects. The first is a biographical study of Bohemond of Antioch, one of the key leaders of the First Crusade. The second project, which diverges entirely from crusades history, is a study of medieval healing that seeks to reframe how historians understand and interpret miraculous events in the Middle Ages.

 

Teaching:
In addition to regularly teaching the general education survey, I offer upper-division courses on the Middle Ages, including specific classes on the crusades, Rome and Late Antiquity, and medieval noble culture. I also regularly teach graduate seminars and advise M.A. students.


Publications:

Books

Constructing Kingship: The Capetian Monarchs of France and the Early Crusades (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016).

The Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict, co-edited with Thomas F. Madden and Vincent Ryan (Burlington: Ashgate, 2010).

Articles and Chapters

"Royal Participation and Leadership in the Crusading Movement, 1095-1200," in The Cambridge History of the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Phillips, Andrew Jotischky, Thomas Madden, Cecilia Gaposhkin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press),  forthcoming.

"The Italian Context for Bohemond's Participation in the First Crusade," Crusades (2025), forthcoming.

"Philip Augustus and the Decision to Join the Third Crusade," in Third Crusade: New Interpretations, ed. John Hosler and Stephen Bennett (Woodbridge: Boydell), forthcoming.

"Royal Memory and the Crusades," in Remembering the Crusades and Crusading, ed. Megan Cassidy-Welch (London: Routledge, 2016), co-authored with Vince Ryan.

"The Historia Iherosolimitana of Robert the Monk and the Coronation of Louis VI," in Writing the Early Crusades: Text, Transmission and Memory, eds. Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2014), 105-15.

"Negotiating Kingship in France at the Time of the Early Crusades: Suger and the Gesta Ludovici Grossi," French Historical Studies 36 (2013): 525-41.

"The French Royal Court and the Memory of the First Crusade," Nottingham Medieval Studies 55 (2011): 49-78.

Work in Progress 

History of Bohemond of Antioch
Medieval healing miracles