Karras, Ruth Mazo 1957–

PERSONAL:

Born February 23, 1957. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1979, M.Phil., 1983, Ph.D., 1985; Oxford University, M.Phil., 1981.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, 614 Social Sciences Bldg., 267 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455. E-mail—rmk@umn.edu.

CAREER:

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, assistant professor of history, 1985-93; Temple University, Philadelphia, associate professor, 1993-96, professor of history, 1996-2000, director of intellectual heritage program, 1999-2000, associate dean, College of Liberal Arts, 1999-2000; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, professor of history, 2000—.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rhodes Scholar, 1979-81; National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant, 1989, and NEH fellow, 1993; American Philosophical Society (APS) research grant, 1989; Scholar of the College, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, 2003-06; APS fellow, 2004; Outstanding Woman Scholar Award, 2008.

WRITINGS:

Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1988.

Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2003.

Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto Others, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

(Contributor and editor, with Joel Kaye and E. Ann Matter) Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2008.

Contributor to books, including Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West, edited by Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996; Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages, edited by Jan Ziolkowski, Brill (Boston, MA), 1998; In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages, edited by Richard Newhauser, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005; The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, edited by Matthew Kuefler, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2006; and Professing Gender, edited by Lisa Bitel and Felice Lifshitz, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2008. Member of advisory board for A Historical Guide to World Slavery, edited by Seymour Drescher and Stanley Engerman, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998. Assistant editor, Common Knowledge, 1993-98 and 2001—; editor, Medieval Feminist Newsletter, 1994-99, general editor, 1997-98; general editor, "Middle Ages Series," University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995—; associate editor, Journal of British Studies, 2004—. Contributor to academic journals, including Journal of Women's History, Scandinavian Studies, Early Medieval Europe, American Historical Review, and Journal of the History of Sexuality. Member of advisory board, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 1990-93, Medieval Feminist Newsletter, 1991-94, History Compass, 2005—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ruth Mazo Karras is a professor of history who has written several well-received books on sexuality in the medieval period. In Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England, she explores the concept of the "common woman," a prostitute by today's standards, but then defined as a woman who was acknowledged to belong to all men of a community. Common women included streetwalkers, call girls, and brothel workers, and their gender roles defined their existence. While these women were marginalized, their customers were not; it was widely acknowledged that men needed an outlet for their sexuality. For women, this dubious career path was often precipitated by rape, economic hardship, or poor marriage prospects. Karras outlines common women's social positions, the attitudes of others toward them, and the ways in which prostitution was simultaneously condemned, tolerated, and regulated. Women—especially sex workers—were believed to be lustful temptresses, consumed with sin and in dire need of repentance; they were defined wholly by their sexuality and suffered a significant violence. Moreover, the term "whore" often included single women because they were not yet the property of a man. As a result, prostitutes were routinely humiliated and punished for their deeds, whereas their male customers never were. According to a review by Corinne Saunders in Medium Aevum, "Karras's style is approachable and pleasingly uncluttered by theoretical vocabulary; her conclusions are both sensible and sensitive." Larissa Taylor wrote in the Renaissance Quarterly that "Karras has put together a definitive study of prostitution in late medieval England."

Karras explores homosexuality in Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto Others. For her, the idea of "gay sex" is a misnomer. Of course, homosexual acts were prevalent during the time, but they were defined in terms of active and passive roles—not gender. The term "homosexual" cannot apply to this era, Karras believes, because it was not coined until the nineteenth century. Sodomy, for instance, was a term used to describe any nonprocreative act and thus applied to many types of behavior—all of which were deemed sinful.

From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe explores the socialization process by which boys were initiated into manhood. She focuses on three paths to adulthood: the knight, the university student, and the master craftsman. The process revolved around the differentiation of the boy from one end of a dichotomy. In the case of the knight, the boy came to see himself as a man as opposed to a woman. The student saw himself as a man of rationality and science as opposed to an animal, and a craftsman came to see himself as an adult separate from the child he once was. Each subculture, Karras shows, had different ways of socializing boys to become men, complete with different norms, rituals, and expectations. For example, for all men, the idea of honor was paramount, but what was embodied in the term differed for each sector of society. The other commonalities of masculinity were competition, domination, and violence—all of which are aspects of power. "The book has a great deal to contribute, both directly and indirectly, to women's history," wrote Merry Wiesner-Hanks in a review for Albion, "and even more to the new field of men's history, to which it is a welcome addition." Although Anke Bernau felt that "Karras approaches the theorization of sex and gender with an oddly heavy hand," according to a review in Medium Aevum, "she comes into her own when discussing the sources themselves."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, review of From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe, p. 99.

American Historical Review, February, 2008, review of Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England, p. 157.

Choice, November, 1996, review of Common Women, p. 518; September, 2003, M.E. Weisner, review of From Boys to Men, p. 223.

Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, May-June, 2006, George Klawitter, review of Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto Others, p. 42.

Journal of the History of Sexuality, July, 1997, Shannon McSheffrey, review of Common Women, p. 127; January, 2007, Anne Gilmour-Bryson, review of Sexuality in Medieval Europe, p. 134.

Journal of Women's History, summer, 1999, Theo van der Meer, "Medieval Prostitution and the Case of a (Mistaken?) Sexual Identity," p. 178.

Medium Aevum, spring, 2000, Corinne Saunders, review of Common Women, p. 175; fall, 2003, Anke Bernau, review of From Boys to Men, p. 338.

Renaissance Quarterly, autumn, 2000, Larissa Taylor, review of Common Women, p. 911.

Speculum, October, 2005, Nancy Partner, review of From Boys to Men, pp. 1311-1313.