Dr. Julia Rombough

ABOUT ME

I am a historian of women and gender, early modern Europe (ca. 1400 -1700), the Mediterranean world, Italy, social history, race, enslavement, the senses, urban experience, and the body. I completed my PhD (History) at the University of Toronto and my MA (Religion) and BA (Religion) at Concordia University in Montreal.

I mainly conduct research in Tuscany, Italy where I work in several archives and libraries and analyze unpublished manuscript sources. I am also a digital humanities scholar and use digital and sensory tools to reconstruct historical cities and urban experiences. I collaborate on several national and international projects that strive to make the past more accessible and engaging for researchers, students, and the general public. My current research focuses on the intersections of race, enslavement, gender, class, and sensory and social experience in early modern Tuscany.

TEACHING & PEDAGOGY

My teaching covers a wide variety of themes and areas, stretching from ancient to modern worlds. I teach both broad survey courses and niche seminars. I’m a scholar of the early modern period (ca. 1400 -1700) and regularly offer courses that focus on this period. While my teaching focuses primarily on Europe, all my courses consider a global context. In my classes we examine European engagement in the Americas, Africa, and Asia and analyze themes of global trade, colonialism and decolonization, diplomacy and conflict, and daily experience. In my courses you can expect to read and analyze historical documents, examine lots of artwork and material objects, and engage in in-depth discussions.

Courses I regularly teach include:

HIST2123 Gender and Sexuality in Premodern Europe

HIST2643 Sensory History

HIST2673 A History of Witchcraft & Magic

HIST3723 The Renaissance

HIST3243 The Reformation

HIST3773 Gender in Early Modern Europe

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Books

A Veil of Silence: Women and Sound in Renaissance Italy. Harvard University Press LINK: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674295810

Select Reviews of A Veil of Silence:

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/12/05/soundscapes-of-the-silenced-a-veil-of-silence-rombough/

https://acadia.novanet.ca/permalink/01NOVA_ACAD/662n3n/cdi_uchicagopress_journals_738100

https://acadia.novanet.ca/permalink/01NOVA_ACAD/662n3n/cdi_proquest_journals_3242901314

Articles & Chapters

“Regulating Sense and Space in Late Renaissance Florence,” Urban History (2021) First View, Cambridge University Press

“Air Quality and the Senses in Early Modern Italy”, Renaissance and Reformation Renaissance et Reforme, Vol 44 no.2 (2021), 39- 60.

“Noisy Soundscapes and Women’s Institutions in Early Modern Florence,”The Sixteenth-Century Journal, vol. 50, no. 2 (summer 2019), 449-469.

“City of Women: Mapping Movement, Gender, and Enclosure in Renaissance Florence,” in Public Renaissance: Urban Space, Geolocated Apps and Public History, Co-authored with Sharon Strocchia, Eds. Fabrizio Nevola and David Rosenthal (New York: Routledge Press, 2022).

“Women Behind Walls: Tracking Nuns and Socio-Spatial Networks in Sixteenth Century Florence,” in Mapping Space, Sense, and Movement in Florence: Historical GIS and the Early Modern City, Co-authored with Sharon Strocchia. Eds. Nicholas Terpstra and Colin Rose (New York: Routledge, 2016).