Professor James D Ryan

Contact Details

N/C

Background

When and where did you initially develop an interest in the history of the crusades and/or the Latin East?

I always had an attraction to history, and read fairly widely, but during my undergraduate years I majored in philosophy and classical languages, and took only the required history surveys.  After college I had the opportunity to live in Rome, where I lurked about among the relics of the Roman past (whose literary monuments I already knew well) and gained some competence in Italian.  I also found great pleasure in old medieval stones, both churches and castles.  When I returned to the states, I determined to pursue a doctorate in medieval history, and entered New York University were I studied under Marshall Baldwin.  I believe I was his last graduate student.

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm for the subject?

Baldwin moved me towards the crusades, but at that stage in his career he was already deeply interested in the history of the missions, and gently pushed me in that direction as well.  My dissertation looked at interrelationships between crusade and missionary activities in the pontificate of Nicholas IV.

Education

Please provide details of your Higher Education, including dates, institution(s) and the name(s) of your research supervisors.

My undergraduate studies were at St Bonaventure University, in Olean NY, where I took a BA in philosophy and classical languages.  After a half-year in Italy I earned a MS at Canisius College, Buffalo, NY (my home town), taking courses in literature and history to round out my education.  I earned my PhD at NYU, under Marshall Baldwin.

Career History

Please provide details of your academic career history, including confirmation of your current institutional affiliation and contact details.

While still ABD I held short-term stints teaching at Long Island University, St Lawrence University and Seaton Hall University.  I landed what I expected to be another interim appointment at City University of New York, Bronx Community College in 1970.  As fate would have it, revolutions in curricula at American universities in that era created a wealth of opportunities for graduates in philosophy, Sociology, and other social sciences, but that came at the expense of openings in history.  I was in a tenure bearing line, was fairly rapidly promoted to Professor, and remained at Bronx for the remainder of my career.  I also was privileged to teach at the Graduate Center of CUNY, and had considerable experience as an administrator during my years at Bronx.  I retired from CUNY in 2002, and after a three-year term as Resident Professor became Professor Emeritus in 2005.  I now fancy myself an independent scholar, and continue to research and write, albeit at a slower pace.

Influences and Methodologies

What ideas and/or methodologies have informed your approach to your research?

I have always believed the historian's first task is to learn from the record of the past (written and physical remnants), to sympathetically and thoroughly understand the actors and actions (including their intentions, accomplishments and disappointments), and then to make that understanding intelligible to students and those who might read the fruits of that research.

Research Outlook

What do you consider to be the most important avenues for future research in the field of crusader studies?

In terms of future areas of study, I am delighted to see, year after year, fresh questions asked of old sources. I believe there is still much we can learn from archeological excavation and other areas where "new material" may be uncovered, but most of the surviving record is open to students with the skills to read it. Nevertheless, there is still further meaning to be squeezed from the record as a new generation of researchers try to understand the actors and their actions, and make sense out of it all, first to themselves and then to a new generation of students and readers.

Research Output

Please provide details of your research output, including publications and other media as appropriate.

  • “Missionary Saints of the High Middle Ages:  Martyrdom, Popular Veneration and Canonization.”  Catholic Historical Review, January 2004 (XC, 1), pp 1-28.
  • “China,” in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Supplement 1, ed WC Jordan (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 2004), pp 117-20.
  • “The Choir Stalls of Toledo and the Crusade to Capture Granada,” Bible de bois du Moyen Âge:  Bible et liturgie dans les stalles médiévales, ed Frédéric Billet (Édition L’Harmattan, Paris, 2003), pp 193-209.
  • “Medieval Technology and the Chastity Belt,” Proceedings of the Pseudo Society: First Series, 1986-1993, eds RR Ring and R Kay (The Medieval Institute Publications, WMU, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2003), pp 47-50.
  • “Conversion or the Crown of Martyrdom: Conflicting Goals for Fourteenth Century Missionaries in Central Asia?” Medieval Cultures in Contact, ed R Gyug (Fordham Univ Press, 2003) pp 19-38.
  • The UN Under Kurt Waldheim -- 1972-1982.  Volume IV of the series Partners For Peace, ed G Lankevich (Scarecrow Press, Latham, 2001).
  • "Toleration Denied: Armenia Between East and West In the Era of the Crusades," Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflicts in the Age of the Crusades, eds  M Gervers and J Powell (Syracuse Univ. Press, Syracuse, 2001) pp 55-64.
  • “To Baptize Khans or to Convert Peoples? Missionary Aims in Central Asia in the 14th Century,” in Christianizing Peoples and Converting Infidels, eds G Armstrong and D Woods, (Brepols Press, 2000) pp 247-57.
  • “Christian Wives of Mongol Khans:  Tartar Queens and Missionary Expectations in Asia,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, VII, 3 (November, 1998), pp 411-21.
  • “Preaching Christianity along the Silk Route -- Missionary Outposts in the Tartar ‘Middle Kingdom’ in the Fourteenth Century,” Journal of Early Modern History, II, 4 (November, 1998), pp 350-73.
  • “Conversion vs. Baptism?  European Missionaries in Asia in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries," in Varieties of Religious Conversion in the Middle Ages, ed James Muldoon.  (University Press of Florida, Gainsville: 1997), pp 146-167.
  • "European Travelers Before Columbus -- The Fourteenth Century's Discovery of India," The Catholic Historical Review, October, 1993 (LXXIX, 4), pp 648-70.
  • "Missionary Objectives in China and India in the Fourteenth Century," Proceedings of the American Historical Association 1992 (University Microfilms, 1993), reference #10485.
  • "For Christ or Christendom:  Contrasting Western Missionary Goals in the Morea and Asian Mission Lands in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries," Transactions of the 17th International Congress of Historical Sciences vol II, (Comité International des Sciences Historique, Madrid:  1992), pp 840-851.
  • "Down the Up Staircase:  The Impact of Open Admissions in the City University of New York on Community College Faculty," Community Review, vol VIII, Number 2 (Spring, 1988) pp 14-21.
  • "The Problem of Map Illiteracy in the College History Classroom," The History Teacher, vol 19, Number 1 (November, 1985) pp 9-14.
  • "Nicholas IV and the Evolution of the Eastern Missionary Effort," Archivum Pontificiae Historiae, vol XIX (1981) pp 79-96.
  • "Interdisciplinary Studies in the Community College Milieu: An Introspective Progress Report," Centerpoint:  Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol 1,No 4 (Spring 1976).
  • The Interrelation of the Oriental Mission and Crusade Activities of the Papacy Under Nicholas IV (1288 - 1292) , (University Microfilm, 1973).

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