Participant Info

First Name
Lisa
Last Name
Bitel
Country
United States
State
CA California
Affiliation
University of Southern California
Website URL
https://dornsife.usc.edu/bitel-homepage/
Keywords
medieval europe, history of religion, Ireland, Britain, celtic studies, gender
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a historian of earliest medieval Europe. I have written books about Irish monasticism, women and gender in medieval Europe, late antique religions, landscape and architecture, and modern Christian apparitions. Currently I am working on a book about the Christianization of Europe, the supernatural, and the invisible.

I also write short pieces for popular media and do occasional gigs as a consultant for film, television, and digital scholarship.

I teach in the Religion & History Departments at USC.

 

Recent Publications

“Secrets of the Síd,” in Small Gods, ed. Michael Ostling (Palgrave, 2017.)

“Seeing the Invisible God: Discerning the Supernatural in the History of Christian Visionary Experience,” in Supernatural Religion, ed. Jeffrey Kripal (Cengage, 2017).

Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert. With photographs by Matt Gainer. (Cornell University Press, Feb 2015.)

“Scripture in the Sky: Marian Photography at Our Lady of the Rock,” Material Religion (Winter 2015.)

“Gender and the Initial Christianization of Europe,” in Judith Bennet and Ruth Karras, eds., Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 2013).

“Material Environment of Christian Visions in Early Medieval Europe,” in Colum Hourihane, ed., Looking Beyond: Visions, Dreams and Insights in Medieval Art and History (Index of Christian Art, Princeton Univ Press, 2010).

“A Brief History of Valentine’s Day,” History Extra (BBC) (https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/valentine-day-history-saint-who-real-story-cured/)(Feb, 2019)

“10 Things You Should Know About Saint Patrick,” The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/10-things-to-know-about-the-real-st-patrick-92253) (March 12, 2018).

“The ‘real’ St. Valentine was no patron of love,” The Conversation  (https://theconversation.com) (February 13, 2018.)

“What a medieval love saga says about modern-day sexual harassment,” The Conversation (https://theconversation.com) (January 16, 2018.)

“We Remain: Polin, Museum of the History of Polish Jews,” Los Angeles Review of Books (Mar 31 2015.)

 

 

Media Coverage
http://zocalo-on.kcrw.com/2016/09/from-medieval-manuscripts-to-burning-man-we-use-art-to-get-closer-to-the-sacred/
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
British Isles, England, France, Ireland, Western Europe
Expertise by Chronology
Medieval
Expertise by Topic
Gender, Material Culture, Religion, Women