Laura Wangerin, Ph.D

Associate Professor of History
Department of History

I am a medievalist and a legal historian. My main areas of research are the Ottonians, the tenth century Saxon dynasty that founded what would become the Holy Roman Empire, and the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled in England from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. My recent book focuses on Ottonian government, and presents new ways of understanding medieval kingship, ideologies of rulership, and the administration of justice throughout the medieval European world. My next book-length project will explore noblewomen in the Ottonian and Salian periods of medieval Germany, continuing my examination of medieval governance by investigating the complex relationships between women, power, sanctity, and legitimacy.