Jacob Melish Adjunct Professorial Lecturer History

Bio: Jacob D. Melish grew up in Liverpool, England. He received his PhD at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. He also has a graduate degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and a BA from Tulane University, New Orleans. Before coming to AU he was an Associate Professor at the University of Northern Colorado.

His research concerns early modern Paris, working women and gender relations, and law and society. He is working on a book manuscript tentatively entitled, “Women’s Everyday Authority: Managing Men, Money & Sex in Early Modern Paris.” It examines working women’s roles in shaping key areas of men’s world: managing the front end and the finances of the family businesses that made up the pre-industrial urban economy; informally regulating men’s behavior, especially inter-male violence; and strategically using their heterosexuality.

His teaching fields include early modern Europe, particularly France and England; women, men and gender since 1500; and climate change, nature, and society in Western Europe from 1500 to the present. He has also taught courses on religion and society in early modern Europe, the Enlightenment, the Atlantic world, and both halves of the world history survey.

For the Media: To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.; AU Experts

Profile Jacob Melish