Rate My Professor Matthew Gillis

Matthew Gillis is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he has served since 2014, advancing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in 2019. A historian of early medieval Europe, his research centers on the religious and intellectual history of the Carolingian period (ca. 750-900), with particular attention to heresy, dissent, monasticism, theology, and the intersections between religious culture and political power. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on early medieval Europe, the Carolingian Empire, and medieval monasticism. Gillis is affiliated with the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Tennessee and contributes to its activities, including public lectures such as "Medieval Holy War before the Crusades" delivered in 2023.

Gillis's major publications include the monograph Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais (Oxford University Press, 2017), which examines the theological controversies and predicaments of the ninth-century monk Gottschalk of Orbais through his poetry, letters, and doctrinal positions. He edited Carolingian Experiments (Brepols, 2022), the inaugural volume in the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance series from the Marco Institute, featuring essays on Carolingian innovations in various fields. Additional works encompass Religious Horror and Holy War in Viking Age Francia (Trivent Publishing, 2021), chapters such as "Headless and on the Road: Vagabond Monks in the Carolingian Era," and contributions to volumes like Ego Trouble: Authors and Their Identities in the Early Middle Ages (2010). He has published articles and book reviews in journals including Church History, Early Medieval Europe, and Augustinian Studies, and delivered numerous conference presentations on Carolingian theology and monasticism. His scholarship illuminates key dynamics of dissent and reform in the Carolingian world, influencing studies of early medieval religious history.