Current Projects
Teaching at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. (History of Technology, Renaissance History, History of Civilization I)
Teaching at Canterbury Christ Church University (Interpreting Media, Research Methods, Introduction to Cultural Studies)
Writing an article on the historiography of tools in the Middle Ages.
Writing an article on the organization of Hugh of St. Victor's mechanical arts.
Editing a paper on aspects of food technology, medievalia, and modern speculative fiction.
Working on a translation and edition of an early fifteenth-century history of invention.
Writing book reviews.
I earned my PhD from the University of Toronto. My dissertation is entitled "The Memory of Medieval Inventions, 1200-1600: Windmills, Spectacles, Mechanical Clocks, and Sandglasses".
Publications include....
"Stew in Context". Forthcoming in the Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts. (2010)
"The Influence of Lynn White, Jr.'s Medieval Technology and Social Change". from History Compass (June 2009).
"On Mills and Meaning" in Wind & Water in the Middle Ages: Fluid Technologies from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Steven A. Walton, ed. Penn State Medieval Series, 18. (Tempe, AZ: ACMRS, 2006).
See resume for a full list of publications.
Forthcoming Conferences and Talks of Personal Interest
Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science Meeting
"Mapping Paradise": an illustrated talk by Alessandro Scafi: author of Mapping Paradise. A History of Heaven on Earth. The Society's AGM.
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. UK. June 12, 2010.
Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery
Oxford. UK. July 9-11, 2010.
I will be giving a talk at the symposium on "Smoked and Mirrored in the Foods of Fantasyland".
International Medieval Congress
Leeds. UK. July 12-15, 2010.
British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference
University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen. UK. July 22-25, 2010.
I will be giving a paper at the BSHS meeting on "Like Stirrups and Sugar: Polydore Vergil and the Problem of Unknown Inventors".
37th Meeting of the International Committee for the History of Technology
Tampere, Finland. August 10-15, 2010.
Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Conference
Tacoma, Washington. USA. September 30 - October 3, 2010.
History of Science Society (HSS) Annual Conference
Montreal, Quebec. Canada. November 4-7, 2010.
The 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo, MI. USA. May 12-15, 2011.
International Medieval Congress
Leeds. UK. July 11-14, 2011.
I am organizing a session on "Technology and Literature" for this conference on behalf of AVISTA.
Other notes....
Historian and author Gill Polack published a short summary of my ongoing Stew Project.
My lyrics for "Is it a clock?" won one of two runner-up prizes in the 2009 British Society for the History of Science song contest.