Judith C. Brown (born 1946) is an American historian and a Professor Emerita of History at Wesleyan University. A specialist on the Italian Renaissance, she is considered a pioneer in the study of the history of sexuality whose work explored the earliest recorded examples of lesbian relationships in European history.

Academic career

Brown holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her career as a faculty member at UMBC and Stanford, Rice, and Wesleyan universities, she has been Dean of the School of Humanities at Rice and Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Wesleyan.^[1] She was also the former Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Minerva University in San Francisco.^[2]

Currently, Brown is an Emeritus Professor of History at Wesleyan University.^[3]

Achievements

Brown has received numerous fellowships and awards, including fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Stanford Humanities Center, I Tatti (the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), as well as grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Pew Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and others.^[1]

Her 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy was adapted for the screen in 2021 as Benedetta by director Paul Verhoeven.^[4]

Scholarly interests

A feminist historian of early modern Europe and Renaissance Italy, Brown’s scholarly interests include issues in higher education and the history of women, gender and sexuality.^[1]

Works

Books

Brown, Judith C.; Davis, eds. (1998). Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (1st ed.). London, England, UK: Longman. ISBN 0582293251. LCCN 97042981.
Brown, Judith C. (1982). In the Shadow of Florence: Provincial Society in Renaissance Pescia (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195029933. LCCN 81038377.
Brown, Judith C. (1986). Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195036751. LCCN 85005031.
Brown, Judith C.; Benadusi, Giovanna, eds. (2015). Medici Women: The Making of a Dynasty in Grand Ducal Tuscany (1st ed.). Toronto, Canada: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. ISBN 978-0772721808. LCCN 2015460330.

Articles

Brown, Judith C.; Goodman, Jordan (1980). "Women and Industry in Florence". The Journal of Economic History. 40 (1): 73–80. doi:10.1017/S0022050700104553. ISSN 0022-0507. S2CID 154561359.
Brown, Judith C. (1984). "Lesbian Sexuality in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Sister Benedetta Carlini". Signs. 9 (4): 751–758. doi:10.1086/494108. ISSN 0097-9740. JSTOR 3173632. S2CID 144189609.

Essays

Fumerton, Patricia; Hunt, Simon, eds. (1998). "6: Everyday Life, Longevity, and Nuns in Early Modern Florence (Judith C. Brown)". Renaissance Culture and the Everyday (1st ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 115–138. ISBN 0812234545. LCCN 98035173.
Ferguson, Margaret W.; Quilligan, Maureen; Vickers, Nancy J., eds. (1986). "12: A Woman's Place Was in the Home: Women's Work in Renaissance Tuscany (Judith C. Brown)". Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe (1st ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 206–224. ISBN 0226243133. LCCN 85028829.
Duberman, Martin Bauml; Vicinus, Martha; Chauncey, George, eds. (1989). "Lesbian Sexuality in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Judith C. Brown)". Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (1st ed.). New York: New American Library. pp. 67–75. ISBN 0453006892. LCCN 89009417.
Smyth, Craig Hugh; Garfagnini, Gian Carlo, eds. (1989). "The Economic Decline of Tuscany: The Role of the Rural Economy (Judith C. Brown)". Florence and Milan: Comparisons and Relations – Acts of Two Conferences at Villa I Tatti in 1982–1984 (1st ed.). Florence, Italy: La Nuova Italia Editrice. pp. 101–115. ISBN 8822107179. LCCN 90161561.
Woolfson, Jonathan, ed. (2004). "Gender (Judith C. Brown)". Advances in Renaissance Historiography (1st ed.). Basingstoke, England, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 177–192. ISBN 978-1403901170. LCCN 2004051408.
Wyatt, Michael, ed. (2014). "15: Economies (Judith C. Brown)". Cambridge Companion Guide to the Italian Renaissance (1st ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 320–337. ISBN 978-0521876063. LCCN 2013024948.