Adam Davis is a historian of medieval Europe with particular interests in the medieval church and religious life, preaching, the history of scholarship and education, Jewish-Christian relations, and the history of charity. He teaches survey courses on late antiquity and medieval Europe, as well as upper-level courses on religion and society in medieval Europe; the Crusades; Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages; the renaissance/reformation of the twelfth century; and Renaissance Italy.

Dr. Davis's research explores the interplay between medieval ideas and institutions, social values and practices. His first book, The Holy Bureaucrat: Eudes Rigaud and Religious Reform in Thirteenth-Century Normandy (Cornell University Press, 2006), explored the impact of a learned elite on the daily life of the medieval church. The book brought together the intellectual and theological world of the University of Paris with the administrative and moral challenges a Franciscan archbishop faced while trying both to reform the French clergy and laity and to reconcile his evangelical devotion with the institutional power and wealth of the church. Dr. Davis is currently writing a book about hospitals and the formation of a charitable society in 12^th and 13^th century northern France. His recent publications include a special issue of French Historical Studies he co-edited (with Bertrand Taithe), “Towards a French History of Universal Values: Charity, Human Rights and Humanitarianism” (2011), as well as an article in the Journal of Medieval History on “Preaching in Thirteenth-Century Hospitals” (2010). Dr. Davis has been the recipient of a Bourse Chateaubriand (given by the French Embassy), a Robert C. Good Fellowship, as well as grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Lilly Endowment.

Dr. Davis received his B.A. from Yale University (1995) and his Ph.D. (2001) from Princeton University. Prior to coming to Denison in 2003, he taught as a Lecturer in the History Department at Yale.