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Ellen Kittell

Professor

Office

311D Administration Building

Phone

208-885-6218

Mailing Address

History Department
University of Idaho
875 Perimeter Drive MS 3175
Moscow, Idaho 83844-3175

Ellen Kittell is a professor of history. Her research interests are pre-modern Europe (medieval, renaissance, reformation), women's history, social and legal history of Europe.

  • Ph.D., History, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 1983
  • M.A., History, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 1977
  • B.A., History and English, Lewis and Clark College, 1973

Ellen E. Kittell is a professor of history at University of Idaho. She studied at the University of Illinois where she met and debated history with a particularly talented group of graduate students and in 1983 she received her doctorate. Initially interested in the dynamics undergirding the evolution of bureaucracy, particularly in medieval Flanders, she was startled to find a number of women listed in administrative positions of the count of Flanders. Curious, she has been investigating women in medieval Flanders ever since.

Among her publications on this subject are "Guardianship over Women in Medieval Flanders" and "Whether man or woman: Gender Inclusivity in the Town Ordinances of Medieval Douai." She is currently mining financial and judicial accounts for information on how medieval Flemish women identified themselves.

  • Africa before Colonialism
  • English Constitutional History
  • European Women
  • Pre-Modern Europe (medieval, Renaissance, Reformation)

  • “What’s in a First Name? The Correlation of Personal Identity with Economic Autonomy in Medieval Flanders” Journal of Women’s History 35, n. 2 (Summer, 2023), 11-29.
  • “Widows and wives in medieval Flanders” with Kurt Queller Social History 41 n. 4 (2016), 436-454.
  • “Death and taxes: mortmain payments and the authority of the Count in fourteenth-century Flanders” Continuity and Change 28 n. 2 (2013), 187-211.
  • “Half as much as a man”? Gender ideology and practice in medieval Flanders” Journal of Women’s History. 23 n. 1 (Spring, 2011), 132-154.
  • “Patriarchal imperialism and the narrative of women’s history” in L. Timmel Duchamp, ed. Narrative Power: Encounters, Celebrations, Struggles. Seattle: Aqueduct Press, 2010, 40-58.
  • “Whether man or woman": Gender inclusivity in the town ordinances of medieval Douai” with Kurt Queller Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 n. 1 (Winter 2000), 63-100.
  • "Testaments of two cities: A comparative analysis of the wills of medieval Genoa and Douai" European Review of History 5 n. 1 (1998), 47-82.
  • "Guardianship over Women in medieval Flanders: A reappraisal" Journal of Social History Vol. 13 n. 4 (Summer, 1998), 897-930.
  • "Women, audience and public acts in medieval Flanders” Journal of Women's History 10 n. 3 (Autumn, 1998), 74-96.

  • Exchange Teaching, Pau, France 2014
  • Participant, 21st Annual Mellon Colloquium, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame, April 2023

  • 2016 Idaho Humanities Council Fellowship
  • 2014 Council on International Educational Exchange Professional Development Grant, “Modern Debates Along an Ancient Way”
  • Seven University of Idaho Alumni Association Awards for Faculty Excellence, 2001-2019.
  • University of Idaho Teaching Excellence Award.

History

Physical Address:
315 Administration Building

Mailing Address:
History Department
University of Idaho
875 Perimeter Drive MS 3175
Moscow, ID 83844-3175

Phone: 208-885-6253

Fax: 208-885-5221

Email: history@uidaho.edu

Web: History Department

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