DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Interests

Geographic Field(s):  Medieval and Early Modern European History

Thematic Field(s):  Religious History

Biography

Richard Kieckhefer (Ph.D., Texas, 1972) is a member of the Religion department and holds a joint appointment in the History department. His research focuses on late medieval religious culture, including mystical theology, magic, witchcraft, and church architecture in relationship to parish religion. He is the author of several books on medieval religion, most recently The Mystical Presence of Christ: The Exceptional and the Ordinary in Late Medieval Religion (Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures Series) (Ithaca, N.Y.:  Cornell University Press, 2022).

Additionally, he's published Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley (Oxford University Press, 2008). And Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (Penn State University Press, 1998). 

Awards and Honors

• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
• Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities.

Publications 

• The Mystical Presence of Christ: The Exceptional and the Ordinary in Late Medieval Religion (Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures Series) (Ithaca, N.Y.:  Cornell University Press, 2022)
• Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley (Oxford University Press, 2008)
• Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (Penn State University Press, 1998)