Judith C. Brown (born 1946) is an American historian and a Professor Emerita of History at Wesleyan University. A specialist on the Italian Renaissance, she is considered a pioneer in the study of the history of sexuality whose work explored the earliest recorded examples of lesbian relationships in European history.

Academic career

Brown holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her career as a faculty member at UMBC and Stanford, Rice, and Wesleyan universities, she has been Dean of the School of Humanities at Rice and Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Wesleyan. ^[1] She was also the former Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Minerva University in San Francisco. ^[2]

Currently, Brown is an Emeritus Professor of History at Wesleyan University. ^[3]

Achievements

Brown has received numerous fellowships and awards, including fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Stanford Humanities Center, I Tatti (the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), as well as grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Pew Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and others. ^[1]

Her 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy was adapted for the screen in 2021 as Benedetta by director Paul Verhoeven. ^[4]

Scholarly interests

A feminist historian of early modern Europe and Renaissance Italy, Brown’s scholarly interests include issues in higher education and the history of women, gender and sexuality. ^[1]

Works

Books

• Brown, Judith C.; Davis, eds. (1998). Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (1st ed.). London, England, UK: Longman. ISBN  0582293251. LCCN  97042981.
• Brown, Judith C. (1982). In the Shadow of Florence: Provincial Society in Renaissance Pescia (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN  0195029933. LCCN  81038377.
• Brown, Judith C. (1986). Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN  0195036751. LCCN  85005031.
• Brown, Judith C.; Benadusi, Giovanna, eds. (2015). Medici Women: The Making of a Dynasty in Grand Ducal Tuscany (1st ed.). Toronto, Canada: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. ISBN  978-0772721808. LCCN  2015460330.

Articles

• Brown, Judith C.; Goodman, Jordan (1980). "Women and Industry in Florence". The Journal of Economic History. 40 (1): 73–80. doi: 10.1017/S0022050700104553. ISSN  0022-0507. S2CID  154561359.
• Brown, Judith C. (1984). "Lesbian Sexuality in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Sister Benedetta Carlini". Signs. 9 (4): 751–758. doi: 10.1086/494108. ISSN  0097-9740. JSTOR  3173632. S2CID  144189609.

Essays

• Fumerton, Patricia; Hunt, Simon, eds. (1998). "6: Everyday Life, Longevity, and Nuns in Early Modern Florence (Judith C. Brown)". Renaissance Culture and the Everyday (1st ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 115–138. ISBN  0812234545. LCCN  98035173.
• Ferguson, Margaret W.; Quilligan, Maureen; Vickers, Nancy J., eds. (1986). "12: A Woman's Place Was in the Home: Women's Work in Renaissance Tuscany (Judith C. Brown)". Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe (1st ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 206–224. ISBN  0226243133. LCCN  85028829.
• Duberman, Martin Bauml; Vicinus, Martha; Chauncey, George, eds. (1989). "Lesbian Sexuality in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Judith C. Brown)". Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (1st ed.). New York: New American Library. pp. 67–75. ISBN  0453006892. LCCN  89009417.
• Smyth, Craig Hugh; Garfagnini, Gian Carlo, eds. (1989). "The Economic Decline of Tuscany: The Role of the Rural Economy (Judith C. Brown)". Florence and Milan: Comparisons and Relations – Acts of Two Conferences at Villa I Tatti in 1982–1984 (1st ed.). Florence, Italy: La Nuova Italia Editrice. pp. 101–115. ISBN  8822107179. LCCN  90161561.
• Woolfson, Jonathan, ed. (2004). "Gender (Judith C. Brown)". Advances in Renaissance Historiography (1st ed.). Basingstoke, England, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 177–192. ISBN  978-1403901170. LCCN  2004051408.
• Wyatt, Michael, ed. (2014). "15: Economies (Judith C. Brown)". Cambridge Companion Guide to the Italian Renaissance (1st ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 320–337. ISBN  978-0521876063. LCCN  2013024948.

Reviews

• Brown, Judith C. (2018). "Habitual Offenders: A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy by Craig A. Monson (review)". Early Modern Women. 13 (1). Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies: 199–202. doi: 10.1353/emw.2018.0061. ISSN  1933-0065. S2CID  191901005.

References

Further reading

• Henking, Susan (September 15, 2011). "Lesbian Nuns: Still Immodest After All These Years: Judith Brown's Influential History Hits a Milestone". Religion Dispatches. (Interview)
• McGinn, Bernard (1 December 1987). "Book Reviews. Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. By Judith C. Brown. Oxford University Press, 1986. 222 pages". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. LV (55): 820–821. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/LV.4.820.
• Randall, Frederika (January 19, 1986). "Divine Visions, Diabolical Obsessions". The New York Times. p. sec.7; 27. (Review of Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy)

External links

• Judith C. Brown at IMDb
• Judith C. Brown at Wesleyan University
• Judith C. Brown at Google Scholar
• Judith C. Brown biography at The Living Room, Matt & Andrej Koymasky

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