Rate My Professor Florin Curta

Florin Curta is Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology in the Department of History at the University of Florida, where he has taught since 1999. He is the founding member of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies program and director of the certificate program in Medieval Archaeology. Curta earned a B.A. in History-Philosophy from the University of Bucharest (1988), an M.A. in History from Western Michigan University (1995), a Ph.D. in History from Western Michigan University (1998), and an M.A. in Medieval Studies from Cornell University (1999). Earlier in his career, he served as an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology “Vasile Pârvan” in Bucharest (1990-1993). His academic appointments at UF include Assistant Professor (1999-2003), Associate Professor (2003-2007), Professor (2007-present), University of Florida Term Professor (2017-2020), and Waldo W. Neikirk Professor (2013-2014).

A specialist in the history and archaeology of the Middle Ages with a focus on East Central and Eastern Europe ca. 500-1300, Curta's research addresses barbarian migrations, Slavic ethnogenesis, Byzantine diplomacy, Christianization, and early medieval kingdoms. Key publications include The Making of the Slavs (Cambridge University Press, 2001; Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, 2003), Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (Cambridge University Press, 2006), The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1050 (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (Brill, 2019; Verbruggen Prize, 2020), Slavs in the Making (Routledge, 2021), The Long Sixth Century in Eastern Europe (Brill, 2021), and Medieval Europe from Another Angle (Routledge, 2025). He has edited volumes such as The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300 (Routledge, 2022) and Medieval Eastern Europe, 500-1300: A Reader (University of Toronto Press, 2024). Curta has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), Dumbarton Oaks, and the American Council of Learned Societies, and was elected honorary member of the Romanian Academy (2023). He co-edits Brill's East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages series and Palgrave's New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture, and organized sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies for 25 years (1993-2018).