Department of History

Elizabeth Lapina

Position title: Professor of History

Email: lapina@wisc.edu

Phone: 608.263.1971

Address:
Office: 4131 Mosse Humanities
Mailbox: 4014 Mosse Humanities
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 9:15-10:15am

Elizabeth Lapina

Biography

I am a historian of the Middle Ages with a research focus on the history of the crusades. One of my main interests is the perceptions and representations of the crusading movement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. My first two monographs, Warfare and the Miraculous in the Chronicles of the First Crusade (Penn State, 2015) and Depicting the Holy War: Crusader Imagery in Programs of Mural Paintings in France and England in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Penn State, 2025), focused on the development of the concept of sacralization of warfare as reflected in, respectively, written and visual sources.

My current project, Crusaders and Things: Acquisition and Movement of Objects in the Twelfth Century, deals with two subjects: (1) acquisition of objects in the Middle East by crusaders, especially through gift-giving, and (2) the functions of these objects in Europe. The goal is to enhance our understanding of different types of interactions between crusaders and the peoples of the Middle East – friends, foes and those in-between, Muslims and Eastern Christians – as well as of the memory of these interactions.

Education

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
M.A., Johns Hopkins University; Maîtrise: University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
B.A., University of Wisconsin – Madison

Books

Selected Publications

  • “Celestial Phenomena of 1097/1098 in the Chronicles of the First Crusade,” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 54 (2023): 235-268.
  • “Medievalism, Misogyny, and Orientalism: The Representation of Queen Sibylla” in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven,” 6 (2020): 109-13.
  • “Crusader Chronicles,” in Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the Crusades, edited by Anthony Bale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2019): 11-24.
  • Depicting the Holy War: Crusader Imagery in Programs of Mural Paintings in France and England in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (in progress)
  • “Crusades, Memory and Visual Culture. Representations of the Miracle of Intervention of Saints in Battle,” in Remembering the Crusades and Crusading, edited by Megan Cassidy-Welch. London and New York: Routledge (2017): 49-72.
  • “Gambling and Gaming in the Holy Land: Chess, Dice and Other Games in the Sources of the Crusades,” Crusades 12 (2013), 121-132.
  • “Maccabees and the Battle of Antioch (1098).” Dying for the Faith, Killing for the Faith: Old-Testament Faith-Warriors (Maccabees 1 and 2) in Historical Perspective, ed. Gabriela Signori, 147-159. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
  • “St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki: Patron Saint of Crusaders.” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 40 (2009): 93-112.
  • “Anti-Jewish Rhetoric in Guibert of Nogent’s Dei Gesta Per Francos.” Journal of Medieval History 35 (2009):
    239-253.
  • “La représentation de la bataille d’Antioche (1098) sur les peintures murales de Poncé-sur-le-Loir.” Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale 52 (2009): 137-157.
  • “Nec signis nec testibus creditur: the Problem of Eyewitnesses in the Chronicles of the First Crusade.” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 38 (2007): 117-139.
  • “The Paintings of Berzé-la-Ville in the Context of the First Crusade and the Reconquista.” Journal of Medieval History 31 (2005): 309-326.

Advisor To

Selected Awards

  • Institute for Research in the Humanities, Resident Fellowship, University of Wisconsin – Madison (2019)
  • University Housing Honored Instructor Award, University of Wisconsin – Madison (Spring 2017, Fall 2017)
  • Vilas Associate Award, University of Wisconsin – Madison (2017)
  • Graduate School Fall Competition Grant, University of Wisconsin – Madison (2016)
  • Kent Union Teaching Award, University of Kent (2013)
  • Leverhulme Early-Career Research Fellowship, University of Kent (2012)
  • British Academy Overseas Conference Grant (2011)
  • Post-Doctoral Travel Award, Queen’s University (2008, 2010)
  • Marjorie McLean Oliver Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Queen’s University (2007)

History Courses