Wessell Lightfoot, Dr. Dana
PhD, MA, BA (University of Toronto)
Biography
Dr. Wessell Lightfoot received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2005. Her research focuses on the lives of women often seen as "powerless" in late medieval Europe--lower status women, Jewish women and conversas (converted Jewish women)--and how they navigated marriage, property, family alliances, and religion in 14th and 15th century Spain. Currently she is working on two collaborative projects with Dr. Alexandra Guerson (University of Toronto), both funded by Insight Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The first project explores how Jewish women and conversas navigated the crises facing the Jewish community of the city of Girona from 1391-1425. The second project is a comparative analysis of conversas in Barcelona, Girona, and Valencia from 1450-1492.
She has won article and book prize awards from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, the Association of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, and the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies for her individual and collaborative work with Dr. Guerson.
In 2014, Dr. Wessell Lightfoot was named a member of the inaugural class of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.
Dr. Wessell Lightfoot own the UNBC Teaching Excellence Award in 2014 and the Excellence in Service Award in 2019.
She teaches courses on medieval and early modern European history, medieval Spain, pre-modern European women's history, the witch hunts, popular culture and medieval history, and the medieval Mediterranean.
Research and Expertise
- Medieval Spanish history with a focus on gender
- Medieval European history
- Gender and Women's Studies
- History
Selected Publications
Dana Wessell Lightfoot, Women, Dowries, and Agency: Marriage in 15th century Valencia (Manchester University Press, 2013).
Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Alexandra Guerson, and Dana Wessell Lightfoot eds. Women and Community in medieval and early modern Iberia (University of Nebraska Press, 2020).
Alexandra Guerson and Dana Wessell Lightfoot, "A Tale of Two Tolranas: Jewish Women's Agency and Conversion in late medieval Girona", Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 12.3 (2020): 344-364.
Alexandra Guerson and Dana Wessell Lightfoot, "Digging Through the Archives Together: Collaborative Research in late medieval gender and Jewish History", Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal 13.1 (Fall 2018): 92-105.