Scott Wells, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
and Coordinator of the Religious Studies Program
Contact Information
Office: King Hall A4026
Phone: (323) 343-2025
Fax: (323) 343-6431
Email: swells2@calstatela.edu
Educational Background
Ph.D. in History, 2003: New York University, NY, NY
B.A., 1992: Columbia University, NY, NY
Research Interests
systems of thought in medieval and early modern Europe and their relationship to cultural, social and political contexts
histories of the body, including gender studies and disability studies
medieval spirituality and devotional practices, including those associated with mysticism and with relic veneration
cultural, political and institutional development of religious communties, especially in Germany from the Carolingian era through the twelfth century
Publications
Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom. Essays in honor of Penelope D. Johnson, co-edited with Katherine Allen Smith. Brill, 2009.
"The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity in East Francia: The Case of Gandersheim, ca. 850-950." In Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe.
"The Exemplary Blindness of Francis of Assisi." In Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations, edited by Joshua Eyler. Ashgate, 2010.
"The Warrior Habitus: Militant Masculinity and Monasticism in the Henrician Reform Movement." In Negotiating Clerical Identities: Priests, Monks and Masculinity in the Middle Ages, edited by Jennifer Thibodeaux. Palgrave, 2010.
Teaching Fields
medieval and early modern Europe
world history to 1700
comparative religion
historiography and critical theory
Spring 2013 Courses
RELS 311 Seeking the Holy: Ancient Traditions, Modern Practices
HIST 450B Viking Societies and Culture
Spring 2013 Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:15-4:15pm
Wednesdays 5:20-6:00pm