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Northern Illinois University

Department of History

Brian Sandberg
Assistant Professor

Fields of Study: Early Modern Europe, Atlantic World, Gender, Sexuality, and Women, Religion, Violence

E-mail: bsandberg@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-6813
Office: Zulauf 706

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001

Current Research: My current research focuses on intersections of religion, violence, and political culture in early modern history, especially during the European wars of religion. I have performed extensive archival research in French and Tuscan archives. I recently served as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Medici Archive Project, and held a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute. I have published several articles on religious violence, gender, and noble culture during the French Wars of Religion, and am currently revising a monograph entitled, Heroic Souls: French Nobles and Religious Conflict after the Edict of Nantes, 1598-1635.

Major/Recent Publications:

  • "Beyond Encounters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Violence in the Early Modern Atlantic World, 1450-1700,” Journal of World History 17 (March 2006): 1-25.
  • "Generous Amazons Came to the Breach’: Besieged Women in the French Wars of Religion,” Gender and History 16 (November 2004): 654-688.
  • “The Infection of Heresy: Religious Conquest and Confessional Violence in Early Modern France,” in (Re)Constructing Cultures of Violence and Peace, ed. Richard Jackson (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004), 17-30.
  • “Financing the Counterreformation: Noble Credit and Construction Projects in Southern France during the Early Seventeenth Century,” in L'edilizia prima della rivoluzione industriale secc. XIII-XVIII: Atti della "Trentaseiesima Settimana di studi", 26-30 aprile 2004, ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi (Prato: Le Monnier, 2004).
  • “‘The Furious Persecutions that God’s Churches Suffer in This Region’: Religious Violence and Coercion in Early Seventeenth-Century France,” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 29 (2003): 42-52.

Teaching Interests: My teaching interests revolve around issues of violence, religion, gender, and culture in early modern European and Mediterranean societies. I teach a range of courses on Renaissance humanism, Reformation movements, European Wars of Religion, European state development, and early modern cultural history. Much of my teaching relates directly to my research on religious violence, gender, and noble culture in early modern France and Tuscany. I am also interested in the comparative thematic study of religious violence, civil conflict, state development, Mediterranean history, and globalization. I previously taught European and global history at Simpson College and Millikin University.

Courses Taught:

  • HIST 111 Western Civilization, 1500-1800
  • HIST 420 The Renaissance
  • HIST 421 The Catholic and Protestant Reformations
  • HIST 422 Early Modern Europe
  • HIST 458 Mediterranean World, 1450-1750
  • HIST 540 Reading Seminar in Early Modern Europe

Link to CV | Link to Personal Webpage