Dr Carolyn James - Researcher Profile

Biography

After completing an undergraduate degree at Monash University I became a secondary school teacher and taught for a number of years in Victorian government schools. I returned to study after an extended period in Italy and completed both an MA and a PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Melbourne.

I have worked at Monash University since 2000 when I was appointed to a Cassamarca Lectureship, shared between the Schools of Historical Studies and Languages, Cultures and Linguistics (Italian Program). My masters and doctoral research focused on the late fifteenth century Italian writer, Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, and since then I have worked on several new archival-based projects in Renaissance cultural history. A post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti in 2001/2002 allowed me to complete research on the Gonzaga correspondence in the State Archive of Mantua and to investigate the history of the European letter with particular emphasis on women's use of the letter between the 14th-16th centuries.

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Institution: University of Melbourne

Year awarded: 2000

ARTS

Institution: UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Year awarded: 1993

DIPLOMA OF EDUCATION

Institution: Melbourne University

Year awarded: 1977

Publications

Books

James, C.P., Pagliaro, A., 2012, Letters To Francesco Datinin, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Toronto Canada.

James, C.P., Pagliaro, A. (eds), 2008, Spunit e ricerche Special Issue, Italian Studies Programs, Latrobe and Monash Universities, Melbourne VIC Australia.

James, C.P., 2002, The Letters of Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti (1481-1510), Leo S.Olschki Editore, Florence Italy.

Book Chapters

James, C., 2011, Margherita Cantelmo and the worth of women in Renaissance Italy, in Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500, eds Karen Green and Constant J. Mews, Springer, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York, pp. 145-163.

James, C., 2010, A woman's work in a man's world: the letters of Margherita Datini (1384-1410), in Francesco di Marco Datini: The Man the Merchant, eds Giampiero Nigro, Firenze University Press, Florence Italy, pp. 53-72.

James, C.P., Kent, F.W., 2009, Renaissance friendships: traditional truths, new and dissenting voices, in Friendship: A History, eds Barbara Caine, Equinox Publishing, London UK, pp. 111-164.

James, C.P., 2008, A woman's path to literacy: the letters of Margherita Datini, 1384-1410, in Practices of Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds Megan Cassidy-Welch and Peter Sherlock, Brepols, Turnhout Belgium, pp. 43-56.

James, C.P., 2007, 'Machiavelli in skirts' Isabella d'Este and politics, in Virtue, Liberty and Toleration: Political Ideas of European Women 1400-1800, eds Jacqueline Broad and Karen Green, Springer, Dorderecht, The Netherlands, pp. 57-75.

James, C.P., 2005, An insatiable appetite for news: Isabella d'Este and a Bolognese correspondent, in Rituals, images and words: the varieties of cultural expression in late medieval and early modern Europe, eds F W Kent and Charles Zika, Brepols, Turnhout Belgium, pp. 375-388.

Journal Articles

James, C.P., 2012, Marriage by correspondence: Politics and domesticity in the letters of Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga, 1490-1519, Renaissance quarterly [P], vol 65, issue 2, University of Chicago Press, United States, pp. 321-352.

James, C.P., Kent, F.W., 2009, Margherita Cantelmo and Agostino Strozzi: Friendship's gifts and a portrait medal by Costanzo da Ferrara, I Tatti Studies: essays in the Renaissance [P], vol 12, Leo S. Olschki, Florence, Italy, pp. 85-115.

James, C.P., 2009, The travels of Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, Studies in Travel Writing [P], vol 13, issue 2, Routledge, Milton Park Oxford UK, pp. 99-109.

James, C.P., 2008, Friendship and dynastic marriage in renaissance Italy, Literature and History, vol 17, issue 1, Manchester University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 4-18.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

"Benedetto Dei and Fifteenth Century Florence"..

Supervisors:

James, C (Main), Howard, P (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

A Revisionist Study of the Late Medieval and Renaissance Florentine Family through Private Letters.

Supervisors:

James, C (Main), Howard, P (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Cristina Roccati Her Life and Times.

Supervisors:

Garrioch, D (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Gender and ambition in fifteenth-century England: Eleanor Cobham, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort.

Supervisors:

Cassidy-Welch, M (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Housing the popes: Florence and the papacy in the 1430s.

Supervisors:

Howard, P (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Literacy and the letters of Eleanor of Provence.

Supervisors:

James, C (Main), Monagle, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Prato: Urban Identity Within the Fifteenth-Century Florentine Territory.

Supervisors:

Howard, P (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

The power of letters: A comparative study of women's educational culture in high medieval Germany and France..

Supervisors:

Mews, C (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Thinking about silk in Renaissance Florence.

Supervisors:

Howard, P (Main), James, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

To the letter: Biographies of friendships drawn from the art and artifice of letters.

Supervisors:

James, C (Main).

Completed Supervision

Student:

Burke, E.

Program of Study:

THE GREEK NEIGHBOURHOODS OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY VENICE, 1498 - 1600: DAILY LIFE OF AN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY. (PHD) 2005.

Supervisors:

James, C (Joint), Kent, F (Joint-Co).

Student:

Di Crescenzo, L.

Program of Study:

The Letters of Bartolomeo Dei to Benedetto Dei (1486-1492). (Masters) 2009.

Supervisors:

Kent, F (Main), James, C (Joint).

Student:

Pellegrini, G.

Program of Study:

The construction of cultural identities amongst third generation Italians in Melbourne. (Masters) 2010.

Supervisors:

Scarparo, S (Main), James, C (Associate).