Ruth Mazo Karras (born February 23, 1957) is an American historian and author of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

whose interests are masculinity and sexuality in Christian and Jewish society during the Middle Ages. Her book, ''Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages,'' was named co-winner of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

's Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History for 2012. Since 2018, Ruth Mazo Karras has held an appointment as the

Lecky Professor of History The Lecky Professorship of History, previously the Lecky Professorship of Modern History is a chair at Trinity College Dublin. The professorship was founded in 1913 in memory of William Edward Hartpole Lecky, with an endowment from his widow. Le ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. She was also the President of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

in 2019–20. In spring 2018, she was a visiting fellow at the St. Andrews Institute for Medieval Studies. Prior to taking up her post in Dublin, she served as Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. She earned a PhD and an MPhil in History from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, an MPhil in European Archaeology from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and a BA in History from Yale.

Selected publications

* dited_volume_with_Elisheva_Baumgarten_and_Katelyn_Mesler.html" ;"title="Elisheva_Baumgarten.html" ;"title="dited volume with Elisheva Baumgarten">dited volume with Elisheva Baumgarten and Katelyn Mesler">Elisheva_Baumgarten.html" ;"title="dited volume with Elisheva Baumgarten">dited volume with Elisheva Baumgarten and Katelyn Mesler
Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century
' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017).
''Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others'' 3rd edition
(London: Routledge, 2017). *[Edited volume with Judith Bennett],
Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). *

' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). *“The Regulation of Sexuality in the Late Middle Ages: England and France,” ''Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies'' 86 (2011) 1010–1039. * iffany Vann Sprecher and Ruth Mazo Karras,“The Midwife and the Church: Ecclesiastical Regulation of Midwives in Brie, 1499-1504,” ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'' 85 (2011), 171–192. * ameron Bradley and Ruth Mazo Karras,“Masculine Sexuality and a Double Standard in Early Thirteenth-Century Flanders?” ''Leidschrift'' 25 (2010), 63–77. * uth Mazo Karras and Jacqueline Murray,“The Sexual Body,” in ''A Cultural History of the Human Body'', vol. 2, In the Medieval Age, ed. Linda Kalof (

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

: Berg, 2010), 59–75. *“Marriage, Concubinage, and the Law,” in ''Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe'', ed. Ruth Mazo Karras, Joel Kaye, and E. Ann Matter (Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...

, 2008), 117–129. * dited volume with Joel Kaye and E. Ann Matter,
Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe
' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). *

' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003). *
Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England
' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). *
Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia
' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988).

References

University of Minnesota faculty American women historians 1957 births Living people Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers American medievalists Women medievalists {{US-historian-stub