Nichola E. Harris

Professor of European History, Coordinator of History & Political Science

Nichola Harris

845-688-1577

Stone Ridge Campus, VAN 212D

Resume

Degree Information

B.A.  Gonzaga University
M.A.  Washington State University
Ph.D.  Rutgers

Courses Taught

  • Western Civilization I & II
  • Honors History I & II
  • The Early Middle Ages
  • The Later Middle Ages
  • Ancient Rome: Republic and Empire
  • England in the Middle Ages
  • Paleography

Primary Area of Expertise 

  • History of premodern medicine, specific focus on the use of lapidary medicine in medieval and early modern Europe
  • Premodern pharmacology
  • History of the Book
  • Social and cultural history of medieval and early modern England and France

Publications

  • Book manuscript:  The Virtue of Stones: A Natural History of Lapidary Medicine from the Ancient World to the Present, the first natural history of the practice of lapidary medicine from the ancient Near East to the modern day.  Work in Progress.

  • “The Protection of Innocents: Red Coral as a Lapidary Cure for the ‘Children’s Disease’ and Conditions Related to Childbirth in Medieval and Early Modern England,” in Death and Disease in the Medieval and Early Modern World, eds., Lori Jones & Nükhet Varlik (York Medieval Press, 2022).

  • "Loadstones are a Girl’s Best Friend: Lapidary Cures, Midwives, and Manuals of Popular Healing in Medieval and Early Modern England," in The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing: Sites, Objects, and Texts (AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science and Art), eds. Barbara S. Bowers, Linda Migl Keyser (New York: Routledge, 2016)

  • The Idea of Lapidary Medicine: Its Circulation and Practical Applications in Medieval and Early Modern England, 1000-1750 (PhD diss., Rutgers University, 2009)

Presentations and Invited Talks

"Mineral Materia Medica: Sources & Methods of the Lapidary Trade in Medieval and Early Modern England," Exploring Medieval Health Crises, II: Materia Medica, Summer 2024

Breaking Down Bodies, presider, International Congress of Medieval Studies, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Spring 2024

I Want to Sex (Ed) You Up: From Conception to Postpartum, presider and organizer, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Spring 2024

“From the Battlefield to the Bedroom: Lapidary Aids for Medieval Masculinity,” I Want to Sex (Ed) You Up: From Infection to Impotence; International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Spring 2024

Medical Recipes and Household Science in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, panel organizer and presider, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Spring 2023

Networks of Non-Traditional Healing and Knowledge, organizer & moderator, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK, Summer 2023 

“The Virtues of Stones:  Lapidary Medicine and the Treatment of Disease in Medieval and Early Modern England,” Invited lecture, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Medieval Studies and Renaissance Program, Fall 2022.

 “Saints, Stones and Secrets: The Rebranding of Medieval Lapidary Knowledge for Early Modern Audiences,” at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK (remote), Summer 2022.

 “Shop of Wonders: Apothecaries and Globalization in the Medieval Pharmacopoeia.” Paper at the Paper presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, Spring 2022

“Fertility and Faithlessness: Medieval Aphrodisiacs Repurposed as Treatments for Venereal Diseases in Early Modern England.” Paper presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, - Spring 2022

“Lapidary Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern England.” Invited lecture Rutgers. - Spring 2020

 “Mineral Pharmacology within the Medical Marketplace of Early Modern England.” Invited lecture for the Beaumont Club, Yale School of Medicine. - Fall 2019

“Lapidary Medicine and the Treatment of Disease in Medieval and Early Modern England.”  Paper presented at the 92nd annual meeting of the American Association of the History of Medicine, Columbus, OH. -Spring 2019

“Hildegard’s Heterodoxy: sources and the application of lapidary knowledge in Physica.”  Paper presented as part of a Medica sponsored panel on women authors at the 54th Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI. -Spring 2019

“Stones, Saints & Friars:  The Popular Transmission of Classical Pharmacology via Mendicant Texts.” Paper Presented at the 52nd Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI. - Spring 2017

"Early Modern Medical Consumerism and the ‘Secret’ Lapidary of Nicholas Culpeper."  Paper presented at the annual meeting for the American Association for the History of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN, 2016

“Popular Medical Advice & the Formulation of Herbal Remedies in Early Modern England.”  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Boston, MA. - Spring 2016  

"An Anatomy of a Medieval Childbirth."  Presentation made as an invited speaker at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, 2015

"Manuscripts, Manuals, and Masters: The Role of the Lapidary within the Medical Market Place of Early Modern Europe." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting, American Association for the History of Medicine at Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2015

"Remedies, Recipes, and Registers: Apothecaries in Seventeenth-Century London and the Popular Practice of Physick." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting, American Association for the History of Medicine, University of Chicago, 2014

Volunteer Work, Academic Societies or Group Affiliations

  • Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages
  • The American Association for the History of Medicine
  • The Medieval Academy of America
  • The Renaissance Society of America