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CURRICULUM VITAE (Spring2018)
George Williamson Dameron
Professor of History
One Winooski Park Box 141
Saint Michael's College
Colchester, Vermont 05439;
Office Telephone (802) 654-2318/Web site:
DEGREES:
Ph.D., History (Medieval)
Harvard University, November, 1983
A.M., History
Harvard University, June, 1979
B.A., Honors (Summa Cum Laude)
Duke University (double Major:Medieval and Renaissance Studies, History; May, 1975)
EMPLOYMENT:
Professor of History, Saint Michael’s College, 1997-
Associate Professor of History, Saint Michael's College,1991-97
Assistant Professor of History, SaintMichael's College,198791
Assistant Professor of Humanities, Saint Michael's College, 198387
POSITIONS HELD:
Director (and founder), Saint Michael’s College Humanities Center, 2012-2015
Chair, Department of History; July, 2011-December, 2015; July, 2016-June, 2017
Interim Chair, Department of History; January-June, 2011
Coordinator, Medieval Studies Minor, 1999-2003, 2010-
Coordinator, Humanities Program, 2000-2005; Interim Coordinator (Jan.-June, 2011)
Grain Storage Specialist, United States Peace Corps, Mono Province, Republic of Benin, West Africa, 1975-77.
PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS:
Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005)
Episcopal Power and Florentine Society, 1000-1320 (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1991)
ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, OR ESSAYS (PUBLISHED)
"Feeding the Medieval Italian City-State: Grain, War, and Political Legitimacy in Tuscany, c. 1150-c. 1350," Speculum (A Journal of Medieval Studies), 92(4), October, 2017, 976-1019. (Peer-reviewed.)
“Church and Community in a Medieval City: The Place of San Lorenzo in Florentine Society from Late Antiquity to the Black Death.” In San Lorenzo: A Florentine Church, eds. Robert Gaston and Louis Waldman, 40-50 (Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2017). (Peer-reviewed.)
“Florence.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies. Ed. Paul E. Szarmach. New York: Oxford University Press, online ( (Peer-reviewed.)
“Identificazione di un killer: recenti scoperte scientifiche e storiche sulla natura della Pesta Nera,” trans. Elsa Filosa. In Boccaccio 1313-2013, eds. Francesco Ciabattoni, Kristina Olson, and Elsa Filosa, 57-70(Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2015).
"Church and Orthodoxy." In Dante in Context, edited by Lino Pertile and Zygmunt Baranski, 83-105 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015). (Peer-reviewed.)
“Angels, Monsters, and Hybridity in the Divine Comedy of Dante: Ancient Greek Cultural Legacies and Dante’s Critique of the Church.” In Dante and the Greeks. edited by Jan Ziolkowski, 247-264 (Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Humanities Series, 2014). (Peer-reviewed.)
“The Church as Lord.” In The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, ed. John Arnold, 457-472 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
“Purgatory and Modernity.” In Bridging the Medieval-Modern Divide: Medieval Themes in the World of the Reformation, edited by James Muldoon, 87-105 (Famham, U. K.: Ashgate, 2013).
“Appealing to Rome (and Avignon) Before the Black Death: ecclesiastical disputes and church patronage in medieval Tuscany.” In Rome across time and space. Cultural transmission and the exchange of ideas, c. 500-1400, edited by Claudia Bolgia, Rosamond McKitterick and John Osborne, 323-337 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). (Peer-reviewed.)
“Cathedral, Clergy, and Commune.” In Arnolfo’s Moment: Acts of an International Conference (Florence, Villa I Tatti, 26-27 May 2005), eds. David Friedman, Julian Gardner, Margaret Haines, 211-232 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2009). (Peer-reviewed.)
"A World of Its Own: Economy, Society, and Religious Life in the Tuscan Mugello.” In Beyond Florence: Rethinking Medieval and Early Modern Italy, edited by Paula Findlen, Duane Osheim, and Michelle Fontaine, 45-58 (Stanford, California.: Stanford University Press, 2003).
"Società e devozione nella Firenze medievale. Il caso del capitolo della cattedrale, 1250-1340," Ricerche Storiche 27 (1), January-April, 1997: 39-52.
"Patrimony and Clientage in the Florentine Countryside: The Formation of the Estate of the Cathedral Chapter, 950-1200." In Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living: Essays in Memory of David Herlihy, eds. Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., and Steven A. Epstein, 259-281 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,1996).
"Revisiting the Italian Magnates: Church Property, Social Conflict, and Political Legitimization in the Thirteenth Century Commune," Viator 23 (1992): 167-187. (Peer-reviewed.)
"Conflitto rituale e ceto dirigente fiorentino alla fine del Dugento: l'ingresso solenne del vescovo Jacopo Rainucci nel 1286", Ricerche Storiche, anno XX, nn. 2-3, May-December 1990: 263-286
"Manuscript and Published Versions of the Florentine Episcopal Register of 1323 (the Bullettone)," Manuscripta 33(1) March 1989: 40-46.
"The Cult of St.Minias and the Struggle for Power in the Diocese of Florence, 10111018," TheJournal of Medieval History June (1987): 125-141. (Peer-reviewed.)
"Episcopal Lordship in the Diocese of Florence and the Origins of the Commune of San Casciano in Valdipesa, 123047," The Journal of Medieval History June (1986): 135-154. (Peer-reviewed.)
Festschriften:
“Church and Commune in Thirteenth Century Pistoia: Grain and the Struggle for Political Legitimacy in Medieval Tuscany.” In The Late Medieval and Renaissance Italian City-State and Beyond: Essays in Honour of M. E. Bratchel , eds. C. I. Hamilton and Anita Virga, 23-39 (The Southern African Journal for Medieval and Renaissance Studies 22/23, 2012/2013).
"Becoming invisible: the role of economic history in medieval studies and in the historiography on medieval Italy," in Medieval Italy, Medieval and Early Modern Women: Essays in Honour of Christine Meek, edited by Conor Kostick, 25-38 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010).
Other Publications:
“The Future of the Past at the New England Historical Association,” NEHA NEWS (The Newsletter of the New England Historical Association), Fall issue, volume 33 (2), October 2007.
Translator of four documents in Medieval Italy: A Documentary Survey, edited by Joanna Drell, Katherine Jansen, and Frances Andrews, 7-9, 33-6, 42 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)
"David Herlihy" (obituary), in Renaissance Studies 10 (1) (March 1996), pp. 126-128.
“Florence,” "Guelfs," "Peruzzi," "Salimbeni," "Battle of Campaldino," "Pazzi," "Ordinances of Justice," "Ubaldini," and "Portinari" (9 encyclopedia articles in Medieval Italy: AnEncyclopedia, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz et al, Routledge, 2004).
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND LECTURES SINCE 2011
Invited Papers or Lectures:
“Feeding the Medieval Italian City-State,” presented at the second annual Vermont Medieval Midsummer Summit, Marlboro College (August 7, 2014)
“Identifying a Killer by Cracking the Teeth of the Dead: Recent Scientific and Historical Research into the Nature of the Black Death,” at the second triennial conference of the American Boccaccio Association, October 4, 2013 (Georgetown University, Washington, D. C.)
Invited lecturer, “Florence at the Time of Dante and Giotto,” The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), June 4, 2013 (invited public lecture to accompany exhibition)
Conference Papers:
"Famine or Dearth? The Language of Hunger in Tuscan Chronicles, 1150-1350,” New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 8, 2018 (Sarasota, Florida).
"Public Expenditure and War as Economic Stimulus in the Tuscan Communes, c. 1100-c. 1350," New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 12, 2016; Sarasota, Florida
“The Political Economy of Grain in the Tuscan City-State, 1200-1350,” Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America (Knoxville, Tennessee); April 4, 2013
“Feeding the Medieval Italian City-State: Grain and Political Legitimacy in the Tuscan Commune, 1200-1350,” Sixteenth Biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Sarasota, Florida, March 8, 2012
“Ecclesiastical Lordship on the European Continent in the Middle Ages: The Case of Italy,” panel organized for the Society for Italian Historical Studies, American Historical Association Annual Conference; Chicago, Illinois; January 7, 2012
Session Chair, Session Organizer, and/or Session Commentator:
Organized pane: "Change and Innovation in the Intellectual and Visual Cultures of Medieval Italy, c. 1150-c. 1350: Papers in Memory and Honor of Ronald G. Witt"; New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, March 8, 2018 (G. Dameron, C. Lansing, M. Ganz, chair; Dorothy Glass).
Invited chair and commentator, "Bringing the State Back In: New Perspectives to Italian Renaissance Governance," the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (Atlanta, Georgia), January 7, 2016
Invited comment on three-paper panel, “Civic Conflict,” The Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (The University of the South), April 10, 2015
Organizer and Chair of session: “Current Trends in Franciscan Studies: The Case of Medieval Italy,” 2014 Meeting of the American Historical Association (January 3, 2014, Washington, D. C.), organized at the invitation of the Society for Italian Historical Studies
Commentator on session, “The Ancient and Medieval World,” New England Historical Association Fall Meeting; Emmanuel College (Boston, Ma.); October 29, 2011
HONORS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS:
The Reverend Gerald E. Dupont Award (“for outstanding contributions to the Saint Michael’s College community”), presented by the Student Association of Saint Michael’s College; May, 2011
Norbert A. Kuntz Faculty Service Award, Saint Michael’s College, 2006
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Special Project Grant for international conference, "David Herlihy e la storia della Toscana del tardo medioevo e rinascimento", 1998 (conference held at Centro Studi sulla civiltà del tardo medioevo San Miniato, San Miniato al Tedesco, Italy)
Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award, Saint Michael’s College, 1995
Numerous Faculty Development Grants for Research, Saint Michael's College (most recently in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2007-2009, 2016)
American Philosophical Association Grant, 1991
National Endowment for Humanities, Travel to Collections
Grant, 1991
Fellowship, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
at the Villa I Tatti (Florence, Italy), 198788
Phi Beta Kappa, Beta of North Carolina (Duke University), 1975
SIGNIFICANT PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Reviewer of fellowship applications, American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship program, 2015-2017
Secretary, New England Medieval Conference, 2010-2013
President, New England Historical Association, 2006-2007