Medievalist To Join Faculty

With the arrival of an unconventional and accomplished historian, the study of medieval history at Harvard may be more accessible not only to undergraduates concentrating in the field, but to a larger audience. Daniel L. Smail, currently a professor of history at Fordham University, will join Harvard’s Department of History on January 1.

At Fordham, where he teaches the political, legal, and social history of medieval Europe, Smail is unique in his anthropological approach.

“I tend to be less interested in looking at origins of such-and-such modern practice, and more interested in using the Middle Ages as a foil for modernity, as a mirror to understand our own culture,” Smail said.

Smail’s interests cut a wide swath through historical study, ranging from studies on fifteenth-to-sixteenth-century Marseille to European conquest.

In one of his courses, “A Natural History,” Smail attempts to frame the history of humanity within a timespan of several million years. Beginning from the Australopithecine genus, Smail traces human development from its early stages through the agricultural revolution to the early-modern period in Europe.

It is this broadness that Folger Fund Professor of History Andrew D. Gordon ’74, chair of the department, found appealing.

“I think that he’ll bring a combination of micro and macro history that’s really exciting,” Gordon said. “He has a real talent for taking the particulars of medieval history and presenting them in an interesting way to a large audience.”

While broadening the focus of history, Smail said he is also trying to foster ties across departments during his time at Harvard.

“[At Fordham,] it’s not easy to develop ties with people in other departments,” said Smail, who explained that he’s interested in fields like physiology and evolutionary biology. “Ties between faculty in different departments develop a lot more easily [at Harvard], and that’s just one of the many things I’m particularly looking forward to.”

Gordon said he can envision Smail’s creativity contributing to Harvard’s long history of intellectual leadership in the teaching of medieval history.

“[Smail] is at a relatively early stage in his career, but he’s already written two excellent books,” Gordon said. “He is very focused at a micro level on particular places and times, but he also asks large questions with big implications about culture and society generally and about the medieval world in general.”

To Smail, coming to Harvard will also be a little like coming home.

“My wife and I used to live in Cambridge, and we really liked living there,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the Boston area.”

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.