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History

Christian Raffensperger, Ph.D.

Christian RaffenspergerProfessor of History and Chair of the Department
Kenneth E. Wray Chair in the Humanities
Director, Ermarth Institute for the Public Humanities
Medieval Europe, Russia, Ukraine
craffensperger@wittenberg.edu
(937) 327-7843
Hollenbeck Hall 311

Christian Raffensperger鈥檚 academic goal has remained the same since the completion of his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago (2006)鈥攖he integration of the medieval polity of Rus into the larger medieval European world. This theme is present throughout his research and teaching.

His first book, released by Harvard University Press in 2012, won the Ohio Academy of History Publication Award in 2013 and is titled, Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus鈥 in the Medieval World, 988鈥1146. It focuses on the multiplicity of connections between the ruling family of Rus and the other ruling families of medieval Europe; including dynastic marriages, religious ties, and trading relationships among other topics.

The marital connections of the Rusian royal family are the subject of his second book entitled, Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus' (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2016) which also provides a complete genealogy for the Volodimerovichi (often known as the Riurikids) through the mid鈥搕welfth century. This project has a parallel digital humanities component that was developed with Professor David Birnbaum at the University of Pittsburgh鈥攖he . Additionally, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute helped fund and develop a mapping component to the project which visually displays the marriages as part of their MAPA project鈥.

During his sabbatical in 2013-2014, Professor Raffensperger was resident at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and was able to complete formative work on two new book projects. The first of those, The Kingdom of Rus鈥 (ARC Humanities Press 2017) shifts the discussion about Rus鈥 from a principality or a collection of principalities to one kingdom among many in Europe. It discusses how and why the titles came about, and why Rus鈥 was a kingdom. This book has recently been published in a Russian translation, as well.

The second book to come out of his sabbatical work focuses on intrafamilial conflicts in medieval central and eastern Europe, and how families manage those conflicts through the creation of "situational kinship networks," as a way to mitigate the effects of the conflicts. This book, Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe (Lexington Books, 2018), not only deals with conflict management, but shifts the perception of medieval eastern European polities, Rus鈥 in particular, as rife with 鈥渃ivil war鈥 or 鈥渋nternecine warfare鈥, into polities that are dealing with conflict among families in proactive ways鈥攄eescalating conflict, rather than maximizing body counts. The goal of both of these works is to shift the perception of Rus鈥 in particular as one kingdom among many in medieval Europe, rather than a dysfunctional outlier.

During his second sabbatical, Professor Raffensperger worked on two books again. The first was a book written in conjunction with Donald Ostrowski and entitled, The Ruling Families of Rus鈥 (Reaktion Books鈥攗nder contract). This book will be part of their Dynasties Series, but subverts that framework to look at how individuals and their family groups made decisions which undermined the idea of, or even the existence of, a dynasty. This book also covers a broad swath of time and territory and is not a repeat of a Russian-centric narrative, but inclusive of events in southeastern Rus鈥, and Lithuania as well.

The long-term project that Professor Raffensperger is working to bring to fruition is tentatively titled, "Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000-1200." This expansive volume looks at political culture from Ireland in the north, through Scandinavia and down through eastern Europe. Political culture in this case is inclusive of titles, succession practices, co-rulership, relations with the church, conflict among families, and governance. By examining this zone, often viewed as peripheral to a normative view of medieval Europe, we can shift our perception about what is medieval Europe as well as what kind(s) of polities are normative; ideally leading to a shift away from an England-centric focus of political development. This is the project as well that Professor Raffensperger is working on during his fellowship at the National Humanities Center in Spring 2022.

In addition to these monographs, Professor Raffensperger has edited several volumes. Two volumes in particular are devoted to the classroom. The first of those was edited with Donald Ostrowski and is entitled, Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe (Routledge 2018). It is a book of 鈥渋magined lives鈥 which looks at how people from elites to slaves, lived their lives in medieval eastern Europe. The second book, How Medieval Europe was Ruled (Routledge鈥攗nder contract), is in progress, but deals with how various polities were ruled in medieval Europe; including the medieval Roman Empire, Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal, the Khazars, the Plantagenet realm and much more. Both volumes provide a diverse look at medieval Europe that stretches it beyond the medieval West.

In that same theme of a broader medieval Europe, Professor Raffensperger edited a volume entitled, Authorship, Identity, and Worldview in Medieval Europe (Routledge 2022) which brings together a larger group of scholars to look once more at the primary sources to see how they constructed the world around them, and how that is different than the way that modern historians and scholars have done so.

Academic Background

  • Ph.D. University of Chicago
  • M.A. University of Chicago
  • B.A. Bates College

Recent Press

  •  - Springfield News-Sun
  • - Columbus Dispatch

Publications

Books:

  • Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus鈥 in the Medieval World, 988鈥1146 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012) - (see reviews in The American Historical Review, Slavic Review, Choice, and Comitatus)
  • Ties of Kinship: Rusian Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Publications, 2016) - (see reviews in Russian Review and Slavonic and East European Journal)
  • The Kingdom of Rus (Kalamazoo, Mich.: ARC Humanities Press, 2017)
    • Russian translation in 2018, forthcoming in 2020
  • Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe, 800-1300, Co-Edited with Donald Ostrowski (New York: Routledge, 2017)
  • Radical Traditionalism: The Influence of Walter Kaegi in Late Antique, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies,  Co-Edited with David Olster (New York and London: Lexington Books, 2018)
  • Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe (New York and London: Lexington Books, 2018)

Articles:

  • 鈥淓ast Central and Eastern Europe: concepts, geography, and historiography,鈥 in A Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300, ed. Florin Curta (in process)
  • 鈥淎lternatives to Commonwealth: Modes of Connectivity Between Byzantium and Medieval Eastern Europe鈥 in The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Byzantium, eds. Elizabeth Bolman, Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, and Jack Tannous (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020 [Anticipated]) (in production)
  • 鈥淐onflict and Coexistence: Kyivan Rus鈥 and Europe鈥 in Research Companion to Medieval Eastern Europe (volume in process)
  • 鈥淜ingdom of Rus鈥: A New Theoretical Model for Rulership in Medieval Europe鈥 in Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe: Power, Rituals, and Legitimacy in Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, eds. Grischa Vercamer and Du拧an Zupka (Leiden: Brill 2020 [Anticipated] in production)
  • 鈥淰isualizing Prosopography Through Digital Humanities 鈥 The Case for Rus鈥欌 Medieval Prosopography 34 (2019): 207-219.
  • 鈥淩eimagining Europe: An Outsider Looks at the Medieval East-West Divide鈥 in Medieval Networks in East Central Europe: Commerce, Contacts, Communication, eds. Bal谩zs Nagy, Felicitas Schmieder and Andr谩s Vadas (New York: Routledge, 2018): 9-24.
  • 鈥淚ziaslav Iaroslavich鈥檚 Excellent Adventure: Constructing Kinship to Gain and Regain Power in Eleventh-Century Europe鈥 Medieval Prosopography 30 (2016), 1-30.
  • 鈥淚dentity in Flux: Finding Boris Kolomanovich in the Interstices of Medieval European History鈥 The Medieval Globe 2:1 (2016), 15-39.
  • 鈥淩eimagining Europe: Discussing Rus鈥 in a Wider Context鈥 in 鈥淔orum on Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus鈥 in the Medieval World鈥 Russian History 42:2 (2015), 204-216.
  • 鈥淭he Place of Rus鈥 in Medieval Europe鈥 History Compass 12:11, 853-865 (November, 2014)
  • 鈥淢ia syntome istoria tou kratous ton Ros [A brief history of the kingdom of Rus鈥橾,鈥 in P. Sophoulis and A. Papageorgiou (eds), Mesaionikos slavikos kosmos (Herodotus: Athens 2014), 213-248.
  • 鈥淭he Missing Rusian Women: The Case of Evpraksia Vsevolodovna.鈥 In Putting Together the Fragments: Writing Medieval Women鈥檚 Lives. Ed. Amy Livingstone and Charlotte Newman Goldy (New York: Palgrave, 2012), 69鈥84.
  • 鈥淢apping History: Using Technology to Showcase Medieval Familial Interconnectivity.鈥 With David J. Birnbaum. Festschrift in Honor of Orysia Karapinka in Russian History/Histoire Russe 37:4 (2010), 305鈥21.
  • 鈥淒ynastic Marriage in Action: How Two Rusian Princesses Changed Scandinavia鈥 Imenoslov, F. B. Uspenskii, ed. (Moscow: Indrik, 2009), 187鈥99.
  • 鈥淪hared (Hi)Stories: Vladimir of Rus鈥 and Harald Fairhair of Norway鈥 Russian Review 68:4 (2009), 569鈥82.
  • 鈥淩urik and the First Rurikids,鈥 with Norman W. Ingham. The American Genealogist 82:1 (2007), 1鈥13 (part 1); 82:2 (2007), 111鈥19 (part 2).
  • 鈥淩usian Economic and Marital Policy: An Initial Analysis of Correlations.鈥 Festschrift in Honor of Richard Hellie in Russian History/Histoire Russe 34:1鈥4 (2007), 149鈥59.
  • 鈥淩usian Influence on European Onomastic Traditions鈥 Imenoslov: Istoricheskaia semantika imeni. (Moscow: Indrik, 2007), pp. 116-34.
  • 鈥淩evisiting the Idea of the Byzantine Commonwealth鈥 Byzantinische Forschungen 28 (2004), 159鈥74.
  • 鈥淓vpraksia Vsevolodovna between East and West鈥 Russian History/Histoire Russe 30:1鈥2 (2003), 23鈥34.

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