Bio
Monique O’Connell is a Professor of History at Wake Forest University. She holds the James P. Barefield Endowed Faculty Fellowship, which recognizes excellence in interdisciplinary teaching, scholarship, and student mentorship. In both her research and her teaching, O’Connell is interested in understanding how the men and women of the past made sense of the world they encountered. Her scholarly work focuses on the history of Renaissance Venice and its empire, a topic that has taken her into the details of economic exchange, early print culture, political communication, classicizing rhetoric, clerical conspiracies, and the history of botany. She earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University (1996), her masters and Ph.D at Northwestern (1999, 2002) and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University before joining the faculty at Wake Forest in 2004. Her first book, Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice’s Maritime State (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) placed Venice’s overseas holdings into the larger debate on early modern empires and state formation, offering a new reading of how Venice successfully administered a wide swath of diverse territory for hundreds of years. Her second book, co-authored with Eric Dursteler, is entitled The Mediterranean World: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Napoleon (2016). She has held residential fellowships at Villa I Tatti, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Newberry Library and her work has also been supported by the NEH, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America. She is currently the project editor of Rulers of Venice (rulersofvenice.org).
O’Connell teaches a variety of courses covering medieval and early modern European history, from late antiquity through the sixteenth century. Many of her courses feature collaborations with different disciplines: her class on “Magic, Science, and Alchemy in Europe, 1400-1700” has several lab components led by a chemistry professor. They have not yet succeeded at making the Philosopher’s Stone but did put several medieval distillation techniques into practice.
Background
Education
B.A. Brown University 1996
M.A. Northwestern University 1997
Ph.D. Northwestern University 2002
Academic Appointments
Wake Forest University. Professor (2017-present)
Associate Professor (2010-2017)
Assistant Professor (2004-2010)
- HST 106 Medieval World Civilizations Why study medieval civilizations? The period of history between about 500 and 1500 is often defined as the Middle Ages, or a time between ancient empires and the rise of the modern world. But this time period was anything but stagnant- across Eurasia and Africa, societies were experimenting with new forms of government, religion, trade and culture. In this course, we will examine a world of connections, contrasts, and transformations across global societies that at first might seem very distant from one another. Medieval history shows us a world in motion, full of innovation and interaction. The course’s global framework challenges us to rethink familiar categories like “European” by placing them in a broader, more interconnected story.
- HST 206 Early Middle Ages: The Birth of Europe, 400-1100. This course explores a big and enduring question: when does it make sense to talk about a distinctly “European” identity? To answer it, we will trace the political, cultural, religious, and material history of Europe from the transformation of the Roman Empire through the early twelfth century. Long dismissed as the “Dark Ages,” this period is now understood as a time when many of the foundations of later European society were created. These centuries witnessed the emergence of new political structures, religious institutions, cultural traditions, and artistic forms that shaped Europe for centuries to come. In this class, we will examine how and why a distinctive Western European civilization began to take shape. Along the way, we will explore major themes such as the rise of Christianity and debates over its authority and institutions; the breakup of the Roman world into Western Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world; the creation and fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire; and the early beginnings of the Crusades. By the end of the course, you will have a clearer sense of how medieval Europe was formed—and why this period still matters for understanding Europe today.
- HST 207 High Middle Ages and Renaissance: Reform, Revival, and Renewal in Europe, 1150-1550The period from 1150 to 1550 witnessed a dramatic transformation in the patterns and practices of European culture. During these 400 years, Europe exploded from its boundaries, overturning religious and intellectual traditions and expanding geographically, economically, and politically. The High Middle Ages saw the rise of towns, universities, and cathedrals; the Church faced reformations from within and without, and the personal bonds of feudal kingship gradually gave way to the bureaucracies of developing nation-states. These transformations did not go unchallenged; struggles over religious unity and political hegemony combined with natural disasters such as plague and famine to further upset the traditional order. The European Renaissance revived the learning of the classical world, using it to claim a place for human reason and creativity in society. This class will examine how and why these transformations in European civilization took place .
- HST 306 Science, Magic and Alchemy in Europe 1400-1700:
This course examines the intersection of two different ways medieval and early modern individuals tried to understand and to manipulate the natural world: science and magic. Alchemy, understood as both an intellectual tradition and as a set of practices, provides a way to explore connections between the natural, the spiritual, and the supernatural. Alchemists transformed matter to understand it as well as to make things for practical purposes: metals, gems, medicines, and the philosopher’s stone. By examining alchemy’s changing relationship to experimental culture, medicine, magic, and religion, the course will emphasize the close connection between scientific and magical methods of interacting with the natural world. After a brief overview of ancient and early medieval approaches to science, magic, and alchemy, the course will focus on the period between 1400-1700, allowing us to consider the role scientific, magical, and alchemical knowledge of the natural world played in Europe’s transition from medieval to early modern. - HST 307 Italian Renaissance:
This course examines the social and cultural developments in the Italian world from ca. 1300 to 1615, a period that marked a profound transition between the medieval and modern worlds. During this period, intellectuals, politicians, artists, and urban elites struggled to combine the humanist recovery of the Greco-Roman classical tradition with the deeply entrenched religiosity of the medieval period. The result was a culture that celebrated human ability to create the best possible world on earth, but this faith in human potential was frequently shaken by warfare, civic strife, and economic instability. In addition to looking at how people at the time perceived these events, we will also focus on how scholars have interpreted the Italian Renaissance over time.
- The Mediterranean World: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Napoleon, with Eric R. Dursteler. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.
- Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice’s Maritime State. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
- TheRulers of Venice, 1332-1524: Interpretations, Methods, Database. (RulersofVenice.org)
- “Tumults on Venetian Crete and Contentious Politics in Venice’s Empire,” The Venetian State, the Greek Territories and their Stories (13th-18th Centuries), Proceedings of the Conference in Honour of Anastasia Papadia Lala, Forthcoming 2026.
- “ An immoderate appetite for empire: the multiple lives of Paolo Morosini’s defense of Venetian expansion,” part of a special issue on Renaissance Humanism and the Venetian Empire, edited by Clémence Revest and Luka Špoljarić, Renaissance Studies (2025): 530-549.
- “Personal Experience and Politics in Venetian Imperial Humanism (1470-1482),” Colloquia Maruliana 34 no. 34 (2025): 69-80.
- “Jem Sultan, Venice’s Intelligence System: Complex Archives, Information, and the Composite State,” part of a special issue on Information and the Government of the Composite Polities of the late-medieval and Early Modern World. European Review of History 30, n. 4 (2023): 580-599, DOI: 10.1080/13507486.2023.2207578. Published by Routledge as a book in 2025, 978-1-041-04127-6.
- •“Orating the News: Printed Diplomatic Orations, Political Communication, and the Roots of Public Diplomacy in Renaissance Italy 1470-1513,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 53, n 3 (2022): 721-42.
- “Vessels of Communication,” in A View of Venice. Portrait of a Renaissance City, edited by Kristin Huffman. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2024).
- “Representative Spaces of Republicanism: Constitutional Thinking, Virtue Politics, and Venice’s Great Council Hall in Early Modern Europe,” in Entangled Republican Spaces in Early Modern Venice, edited by Alessandro Metlica and Giovanni Florio, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), 64-75.
- “Success in a Silent Regime Change: Electoral politics, family strategies, and the Cappello Family in early sixteenth century Venice,” in The Culture and Politics of Regime Change in Italy, 1494-1559, edited by Brian Maxson and Alexander Lee (London: Routledge, 2022).
- “Memorializing Conspiracy and Unrest. Venetian historical writing at the turn of the sixteenth century” in Popular Politics in an Aristocratic Republic. Political Conflict and Social Contestation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Venice, edited by Maartje Van Gelder and Claire Judde de Larivière (London: Routledge, 2020): 45-68. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003017790
- “Venetian empire in oratory and print in the later fifteenth century,” in Georg Christ and Franz-Julius Morche (eds.), Cultures of Empire: Rethinking Venetian Rule 1400-1700. Essays in honour of Benjamin Arbel (Leiden: Brill, 2020): 41-62. https://brill.com/view/title/38673
- “Cyriac of Ancona and Mediterranean Networks of Exchange.” In A Republic of Letters: Knowledge and Community in Italy 1300-1600, edited by Suzanne Sutherland and Paula Findlen, 51-68. Routledge, 2019. https://www.routledge.com/The-Renaissance-of-Letters-Knowledge-and-Community-in-Italy-1300-1650/Findlen-Sutherland/p/book/9781138367500
- “Venice: City of Merchants or City of Merchandise?” in Maritime Trade around Europe, 1300-1600, edited by Wim Blockmans, Mikhail Krom, and Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz. London: Routledge, 2017, 103-120. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Maritime-Trade-around-Europe-1300-1600-Commercial/Blockmans-Krom-Wubs-Mrozewicz/p/book/9781138899506
- “The Multiple Meanings of Ritual: Orations and the Tensions of Venetian Empire,” in Rituals of Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of Edward Muir, edited by Mark Jurdjevic and Rolf Strom-Olsen, 91-110. Toronto, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2016.
- “Legitimating Venetian Expansion: Patricians and Secretaries in the Fifteenth Century,” in Patrons, princes and texts in the Renaissance Veneto: Essays in Honor of Benjamin G. Kohl, edited by Alison Smith, Michael Knapton, and John E Law, 71-87. Florence: Firenze University Press, 2015; online publication through Reti Medievali, http://www.rm.unina.it/rmebook/dwnld/Legacy_Kohl.pdf.
- “The Contractual Nature of the State,” in ‘Commonwealth’ Veneziano tra il 1204 e la fine della Repubblica, edited by Oliver Schmitt and Gherardo Ortalli. Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere, ed Arti, 2015.
- “Individuals, Families, and the State in Early Modern Empires: the case of the Venetian Stato da Mar,” in Zgodovinski casopis/ Historical Journal of Slovenia 147, 1-2 (2013): 8-27.
- “From Travel to History: Shifting Venetian Perceptions of Alexandria,” in Sindbad Mediterraneo. Per una topografia della memoria da Oriente a Occidente, eds. Ch. Lee and R. Morosini. Lecce: Pensa Multimedia, 2013.
- “A Tale of Two Families: the Abramo and Gradenigo between Venice and Crete,” in I Tatti studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, (Florence, Leo Olschki Press, 2013).
- “The Sexual Politics of Empire: Civic Honor and Official Crime outside Renaissance Venice,” The Journal of Early Modern History 15 (2011): 331-348.
- “Oligarchy, Faction and Compromise in Fifteenth Century Venice,” in From Florence to the Mediterranean: Studies in Honor of Anthony Molho, ed. Diego Curto, Eric Dursteler, Julius Kirshner, and Francesca Trivellato, vol I, pp. 409-426. Florence, Leo Olschki Press, 2009.
- • “The Venetian Patriciate in the Mediterranean: Legal Identity and Lineage in Fifteenth Century Venetian Crete,” Renaissance Quarterly 57 (2004): 466-93.
- • “The Castellan in Local Administration in Fifteenth Century Venetian Crete,” Thesaurismata 33 (2004): 161-77.
- • “Sinews of Rule: The Politics of Office-holding in Fifteenth Century Venetian Crete,” Renaissance Studies 15 no 3 (2001): 256-71.