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Karen Frank

Announcements

Karen has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas.

Medieval Italian History


Graduate Student
B.A., University of Michigan Ann Arbor; M.A., University of Akron

Advisor: Carol Lansing

My dissertation uses notarial evidence from the central Italian town of Perugia in order to examine the relationships within late medieval Italian Jewish families. I also compare the activities of Jewish women from these families with their Christian counterparts in order to assess how much the Jews of this central Italian city had assimilated into their host society, at least in the aspect of female financial autonomy. With this is mind, I also explore Jewish notions of womanhood and familial obligations as presented in the Mishnah and the Talmud, as well as later texts, including Midrash and Responsa, and contrast these to similar notions propagated within the medieval Christian tradition. Finally, I present these findings against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile Christian civic community, and suggest that despite the existence of similar economic opportunities for women from both groups, Jewish families recognized women's customary right to financial autonomy not because they had acculturated this practice from their Christian neighbors, but as a survival technique in the face of growing social and legal oppression.

Dissertation Title

  • "Jewish Women in medieval Perugia”

Teaching Fields

  • Medieval Italy
    Medieval Marriage, Jewish History, Cultural and Social History
  • Medieval Europe
    Cultural and Social History from late Antiquity to the Early Modern Era, History of Christianity, Jewish History, Women's History
  • Mediterranean History
    Cultural and Social History from Late Antiquity through the Early Modern Period
  • Western & World Civilization
    Ancient world to the Modern Era

Courses Taught

  • History 102KF, Jewish Communities in the West: From the Classical to the Early Modern World

Teaching Assistantships

  • Western Civilization: 1715-Present
    Spring--2002, 2003, 2004
  • Western Civilization: 1050-1715
    Winter--2002, 2005 / Honors TA Winter 2003, 2004, 2006
  • Western Civilization: Prehistory to AD 1050
    Fall--2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 / Summer--2002
  • United States History to 1877 (University of Akron, Akron, OH)
    Fall--1999, 2000 / Spring--2001
  • United States History since 1877 (University of Akron, Akron, OH)
    Spring 2000 / Summer 2001

Publications

  • "From Egypt to Umbria: Jewish Women and Property in the
    Medieval Mediterranean," in California Italian Studies: Italy and the Mediterranean, Claudio Fogu and Lucia Re, eds. University of California e-Scholarship (California Digital Library with the Berkeley Electronic Press), Spring 2010.
  • “Jewish Women and Property in Fifteenth-Century Umbria,” in Across the
    Religious Divide: Women, Property, and Law in the Wider Mediterranean (ca. 1300-1800)    ), Jutta Gisela Sperling and Shona Kelly Wray, eds. New York: Routledge, 2010.
  • Review of The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000 - 1500
    by Robert Chazan, Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, 33.

Awards

  • Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship
    Fulbright Program for U.S. Students, U.S. Department of State, 2006 - 2007
  • C. Warren Hollister Memorial Fellowship for Outstanding Work in Medieval European History
    Department of History, UCSB, Spring 2006
  • Esme Frost Fellowship for Outstanding Work in Ancient, Medieval or Early Modern European History
    Department of History, UCSB, Spring 2007
  • Philip and Ann White Dissertation Fellowship
    Department of History, UCSB, 2007 - 2008
  • Richard K. Mayberry Award for Overall Scholarly Excellence
    Department of History, UCSB, Spring 2010

Selected Presentations

  • "Jewish Wives and Property in late Medieval Perugia,"
    The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies “To Have and to Hold: Marriage in Pre-modern Europe, 1200- 1700,” Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Toronto, 16-18 October 2009.
  • "From the Inside or the Outside: The Cultural Marking of Jewish women in late medieval Perugia,"
    Eighth Annual Medieval Studies Graduate Student Conference, UCSB, May 2009.
  • “A Matter of Cultural Accommodation? Female Financial Autonomy in Jewish Perugia,”
    Forty-third International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 8 May 2008.
  • "Jewish Families in Late Medieval and Renaissance Perugia"
    Seminar sponsored by the Medieval Studies Program, UCSB, 5 May 2006
  • "Jewish Women from the Mediterranean to Umbria in the Fifteenth Century"
    CICIS “Italy and the Mediterranean: An Interdisciplinary Conference,” UCLA, February 2006.

Languages

  • Biblical Hebrew
    Reading: Beginnner
  • French
    Reading, Writing, Speaking: Proficient
  • Italian
    Reading, Writing Speaking: Proficient
  • Latin
    Reading: Proficient
  • Spanish
    Reading: Proficient