UNC Greensboro|Directory|Jodi Bilinkoff

Jodi Bilinkoff

Professor

History

Email Address: jebilink@uncg.edu

Education

Ph.D., Princeton University, 1983
M.A., Princeton University, 1979
B.A., University of Michigan, 1976

Courses Taught

HIS 222: Europe 1350-1789 – A survey of European history from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, based on selected primary sources.
HIS 315: Witchcraft and Magic in European History – An examination of the religious, cultural, political, and social underpinnings of the “witch craze” of 1500-1700, based on selected primary sources.
HIS 369: History of Spain – Spain and its Empire in the Golden Age – A survey of Spanish history, from its earliest inhabitants to the end of the Habsburg dynasty in 1700, based on selected primary sources.
HIS 391: Historical Skills and Methods – A research-intensive course on The Age of Reformations (1450-1700) in which students use secondary and primary sources to pursue individual projects.
HIS 511B: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing – Self and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1350-1700 – A research seminar examining biographical and autobiographical texts and the construction of identities during the early modern period.
HIS 544: Early Modern Europe: Selected Topics – An examination of major themes in the history of Europe and its colonies between 1400 and 1800. Topics may include Italy in the Long Renaissance, The Age of Reformations, Microhistory, or History from the Bottom Up, and Reason and Religion in the Eighteenth Century.

Research Interests

Jodi is interested in religion, gender, life-writing, and the construction of memory in early modern Europe, particularly Spain. After working for many years on women in Catholic culture, more recently she turned her attention to masculine identity, especially male clerical identity.

In her current research project, Jodi engages all these issues by examining the life, afterlife, and legacy of (St.) John of the Cross (1542-1591). Today he is renowned as a mystic, spiritual guide, and one of the finest poets in the Spanish language, but his assessment by others has changed dramatically over the centuries. Jodi’s book-in-progress, John of the Cross: The History, Mystery, and Memory of a Spanish Saint, will not be a conventional biography, but rather, a critical study of the manifold, at times, conflicting meanings this intriguing figure has held for individuals and communities, both during and after his lifetime.