CV/About

Kent Navalesi

Independent Researcher Lexington, KY

Education

2020 PhD History University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2010 MA Social Sciences University of Chicago

2008 BA History University of New Mexico

Teaching

2025: Medievalists.Net Online Courses Relics in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

2021-2022: Lewis Honors College, University of Kentucky Religion and Daily Life in Late Antiquity Knowledge and Society Women and Gender in Pre-Modern Europe Relics in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

2013-2020: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Western Civilization I Western Civilization II Medieval Europe Late Antiquity The Roman Empire The Global Middle Ages

Publications

Books

The Prose Lives of Venantius Fortunatus: Hagiography and the Laity in Sixth-Century Gaul, Amsterdam UP (under contract)

Peer-Reviewed Articles

2025 Alameh, S., BouJaoude, S., and Navalesi, K., “Social and Cultural Embeddedness of Science in Middle and High School Textbooks Across the Middle East and the United States of America,” in M. Shahat, S. Al-Balushi, and H. Fischer, eds., Cross-cultural Comparison of Science Education (IGI Global Scientific Publishing).

2022 ‘Written on the Parchment of the Heart’: Memory, Writing and Pastoral Care in the Prose Lives of Venantius Fortunatus,” Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 49.2 (2022): 185-206.

Book Reviews

2025 “Review of Benjamin Wheaton, Venantius Fortunatus and Gallic Christianity: Theology in the Writings of an Italian Émigré in Merovingian Gaul. Brill, 2022,” Speculum 100.3 (2025): 881.

2019 “Book Note: Stefan Esders, Yitzhak Hen, et. al., The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World: Revisiting the Sources. Bloomsbury, 2019,” Ancient Jew Review

Contributions to Online Databases

2021

The Life of Hilary (The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity)

The Life of Germanus (The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity)

2019

The Life of Radegund (The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity)

The Life of Marcellus (The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity)

The Life of Albinus (The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity)

2018

A Letter from Bishop Nicetius of Trier to Chlodosinda, Queen of the Lombards, Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters

Conference Presentations

2024Abra cadaver?: Female Asceticism and Political Crisis in Venantius Fortunatus’ Vita Hilarii,. International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 1-4, 2024.

“The Prose Lives of Venantius Fortunatus and Their Possible Homiletic Nachleben,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 9-11, 2024.

2018

In Cordis Membrana: Memory, Writing and Living Tradition in the Prose Lives of Venantius Fortunatus.” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 2-5, 2018

Session Chair: “Platinum Latin: Manuscripts and Editing.” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 10-13, 2018

2017

“Lay Piety and Religious Outsiders in Venantius Fortunatus’ Prose Hagiography.” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 3-6, 2017

Ad aedificationem plebis: Lay Piety and Pastoral Care in Venantius Fortunatus’ Prose Hagiography.” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 11-14, 2017

2015

Pudore mota muliebri: Women and Pastoral Care in Venantius Fortunatus' Prose Hagiography” International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 6-9, 2015

“Venantius Fortunatus' Treatment of Women in his Prose Hagiography” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 14-17, 2015

2013

“The Prose Vitae of Venantius Fortunatus and Cult Formation in Sixth-Century Gaul” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 9-12, 2013