Rate My Professor Phyllis Jestice

Phyllis G. Jestice serves as Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Charleston South Carolina. She specializes in medieval European history, with particular interests in the Ottonian dynasty, tenth- and eleventh-century German history, twelfth-century ecclesio-political developments, and the history of religion, including recluses in the early medieval West. Jestice earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in History and Humanities from Stanford University in 1989 and 1985, respectively, and her B.A. in History from the University of Puget Sound in 1982, graduating summa cum laude as a Coolidge Otis Chapman Honors Scholar. Before joining the University of Charleston South Carolina in 2013 as department chair and professor, she held the position of Chair of the History Department at the University of Southern Mississippi for over seven years. She translates from German and has developed expertise in medieval warfare through book chapters and volumes for broader audiences.

Jestice has authored and edited numerous works, including The Imperial Ladies of the Ottonian Dynasty: Women and Power in Tenth-Century Germany (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Wayward Monks and the Religious Revolution of the Eleventh Century (E.J. Brill, 1997), Castles of the World (Amber Books, 2019), Medieval Knight (Amber Books, 2018), and Encyclopedia of Irish Spirituality (ABC-Clio, 2001). She translated Otto III by Gerd Althoff (Penn State University Press, 2003) and co-translated The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100–1350 (Ashgate, 2017). Her articles include 'A Great Jewish Conspiracy? Worsening Jewish-Christian Relations and the Destruction of the Holy Sepulcher' in Christian Attitudes toward Jews in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2007) and 'A New Fashion in Imitating Christ: Changing Spiritual Perspectives around the Year 1000' in The Year 1000 (Brill, 2003). Currently serving as president of the Southeastern Medieval Association, she received the 2005 USM Aubrey K. and Ella G. Lucas Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2008 Mississippi Humanities Council Humanities Teacher Award. Her ongoing research includes 'Daughters of Jerusalem: Inheritance, Foreign Marriage, and the Crafting of the Crusader States.'