Jotham Parsons
Department of History
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA 15282
(412) 396-6476
[email protected]
Positions Held
Duquesne University
Associate professor of history
Assistant professor of history
2007-present
2003-2007
Roosevelt University
Assistant professor of history
2000-2003
University of Delaware
Assistant professor of history: one-year fixed-term position, renewed twice.
1997–2000
Degrees
Ph. D. (history), Johns Hopkins University
M. A. (history), Johns Hopkins University
A. B. (history), Harvard College
1997
1993
1990
Publications
Books
“Making Money in Sixteenth-Century France: Currency, Culture, and the Modern State,” work in
progress.
The Church in the Republic: Gallicanism and Political Ideology in Renaissance France (Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Papauté, histoire, et mémoire gallicane au XVIe siècle,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 29 (2009): 31528.
“Money and Merit in French Renaissance Comedy,” Renaissance Quarterly 60 (2007): 852-82.
“Assemblies of the French Clergy from Philip the Fair to Louis XIII,” Parliaments, Estates and
Representation 23 (2003): 1-16.
“Governing Sixteenth-Century France: The Monetary Reforms of 1577,” French Historical Studies 26
(2003): 1-30.
“The Roman Censors in the Renaissance Political Imagination,” History of Political Thought 22 (2001):
565-86.
“Money and Sovereignty in Early Modern France,” Journal of the History of Ideas 62 (2001): 59-79.
“The Political Vision of Antoine Loisel,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 26 (1996): 453-76.
Other Publications
“Defining the History of Ideas,” review article, Journal of the History of Ideas 68 (2007): 683-99.
“Gallicanism,” signed article, in Paul Grendel, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999) 3: 9-12.
“The Edict of Nantes,” translation, in Richard L. Goodbar, ed., The Edict of Nantes: Five Essays and a
New Translation (Bloomington, Minn.: The National Huguenot Society, 1998), 41-70.
“Church and Magistrate in Early Modern France: Politics, Ideology and the Gallican Liberties, 15501615” (Ph. D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1997).
Book reviews for American Historical Review, Catholic Historical Review, H-France Review, The Historian,
Sixteenth Century Journal, and Social History.
Honors and Awards
Wimmer Foundation Faculty Development Grant (Duquesne University)
For research in France
2009
Gustave Gimon Visiting Scholar Fellowship (Stanford University Libraries)
For research in the Gustave Gimon Collection at the Stanford University Libraries
2008
Wimmer Foundation Faculty Development Grant (Duquesne University)
To develop a core curriculum course on “The History of Christianity”
2007
N.E.H. Summer Stipend (external award)
To write two chapters of “Making Money in Sixteenth-Century France”
2007
Wimmer Foundation Service-Learning Grant (Duquesne University)
To develop service-learning component for the “Fides” Learning Community
2006-2007
N.E.H. Endowment Summer Research Grant (Duquesne University)
For research in France
2006
Wimmer Foundation Faculty Summer Research Grant (Duquesne University)
For completion of an article on money and society in French Renaissance comedy
2005
Wimmer Foundation Summer Seminar (Duquesne University)
Using writing portfolios in interdisciplinary learning communities
2004
Russo Family Faculty Development Fellowship (Duquesne University)
Course release for final preparation of book manuscript
2004
N.E.H. Summer Seminar (external award)
“Surveying Paris: Urban Space and Urban Culture in the Early Modern City,” Karen Newman, director
2003
Faculty Summer Research Grants (Roosevelt University)
For research in France
2001, 2002
William Koren, Jr. Prize (Society for French Historical Studies)
2001
Best article on French history published by a North American author in 2001, for "Money and Sovereignty in
Early Modern France"
Dean’s Teaching Fellowship (Johns Hopkins University)
To teach an undergraduate seminar on "Printing and Society from Gutenberg to Franklin"
Bourse Chateaubriand (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France)
1996
1994-1995
Nine-month fellowship for dissertation research in France
Andrew W. Mellon Summer Dissertation Grant and Seminar (Johns Hopkins University)
1994
Butler Prize (Department of History, Johns Hopkins University)
1992
Best paper by a first-year student in 1991-92, for "The Becoming Literal of the Literary: Humanism and Letters
in Paris, c. 1530”
Courses Currently Taught
“Medieval Europe”
“Early Modern Europe”
“Reason and Revolution”
“Courts and Nobles in Renaissance Europe”
Upper level undergraduate/graduate courses
“Crime and Criminality in Early Modern Europe”
“The Catholic Church to 1800”
“War in the Pre-Modern Era”
Undergraduate courses
“Writing History”
Sophomore methods seminar for history/history education majors
“Western Civilization to 1715”
“Western Civilization since 1715”
“Shaping of the Modern World”
“History of Christianity”
Introductory lecture courses
Papers Presented
“Alchemy, Coinage, and Criminality in Sixteenth-Century France”
Sixteenth Century Studies Conference 2009, Geneva, Switzerland
May 29, 2009
“Picaresque and Counterfeit in the Early Comic Novel”
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference 2007, Minneapolis, MN
October 28, 2007
“After the League: Politics and Religion in Early Bourbon France”
(panel chair)
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference 2007, Minneapolis, MN
October 27, 2007
“Collapse and Reconstruction of Sovereignty”
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference 2006, Salt Lake City, UT
October 28, 2006
“Papauté, histoire, et mémoire gallicane au XVIe siècle”
Colloque “Références et modèles dans la culture gallicane: droit, théologie, histoire,” Paris, France.
Invited participant.
“Money and Merit in French Renaissance Comedy”
Pittsburgh Area Early Modern Group, Pittsburgh, PA
“Why did Gallicans Not Reject the Papacy?”
Russo Lecture, Duquesne University
May 12, 2006
December 3, 2005
November 18, 2005
Chair and discussant, Roundtable on Separation of Church and State
September 19, 2005
Symposium on Faith and Politics: Conversations about Values in the Public Sphere, Duquesne University
“Why Did Gallicans Not Reject the Papacy?”
Renaissance Society of America 2005 meeting, Cambridge, U.K.
April 8, 2005
“Excommunicating the King of France”
Society for French Historical Studies 2003 meeting, Milwaukee, WI
April 5, 2003
“Sovereign Power, Urban Culture, and the Cour des monnaies”
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference 2002, San Antonio, TX
“French Assemblies of the Clergy, 1300-1600”
American Catholic Historical Association 2002 meeting, San Francisco, CA
October 24, 2002
January 5, 2002
“Alchemy and Religious Conflict in France, 1560-1630”
Western Society for French History 2001 meeting, Indianapolis, IN
November 1, 2001
“The Censor in the Sixteenth-Century Political Imagination”
Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference 2000, Cleveland, OH
November 6, 2000
“Edmond Richer: Politics and the Memory of Theology”
34th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI
“The Parlements and the Clergy of France after the Religious Wars”
Society for French Historical Studies 1998 meeting, Ottawa, Canada
May 6, 1999
March 27, 1998
“The Becoming Literal of the Literary: Humanism and Letters”
Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing 1996 meeting, Worcester, MA
July 20, 1996
“The Political Vision of Antoine Loisel”
Conference on “Authority, Politics and Reform,” Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
March 4, 1994
Service and Administration
Faculty Senate Representative
2008-
Director, Fides Learning Community
2008-
Roland H. Bainton Book Prize Committee (Sixteenth Century Studies Society)
2007-
British Empire Search Committee (chair)
2006-2007
College Core Curriculum Revision Committee
2006-2007
History Department Graduate Curriculum Revision Committee
2006-2007
History Representative, School of Education accreditation
2006
Russo Award Committee, McAnulty College
2005-2006
“Faith and Politics” Symposium Organizing Committee
2004-2005
Graduate Program Assessment Committee, History
2004-2005
Outcomes Assessment Committee, Undergraduate History
2003-2004
Task Force on First Year Seminar (Roosevelt U.)
2003
Program Coordinator, History (Roosevelt U.)
2002-2003
Faculty Senate Representative (Roosevelt U.)
2002-2003
Program Review and Assessment, History (Roosevelt U.)
2002