Christopher Riedel
Assistant Professor of History and Department Chair
Medieval England and Europe
Chris Riedel has been teaching at Albion College since 2017, becoming assistant professor in 2021 and chair of the History Department in 2025. Before coming to Albion, he was a teaching fellow at Boston College, where he received his doctorate in medieval history in 2015. His first article, “Praising God Together: Monastic Reformers and Lay People in Tenth-Century Winchester,” was awarded the Peter Guilday Prize by the Catholic Historical Association. He has subsequently published articles with La Revue Bénédictine as well as co-edited a volume on tenth-century England, The Reigns of Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig, 939-959.
Dr. Riedel’s research focuses on early medieval England, monastic reform, and the way nostalgia and fundamentalism shape history. He teaches courses in both ancient and medieval history for Europe and the Middle East, including Greece and Rome from Alexander to Augustus, the Fall(s) of Rome, the Viking world, the Crusades, and Medieval England to Magna Carta, as well as his “Gilgamesh to Columbus” survey course, Ancient and Medieval Worlds.
In his spare time, Chris enjoys cooking, DIY carpentry, and roleplaying games. He is a great fan of JRR Tolkien, and teaches a first year seminar on his works of fiction and medieval scholarship.
Student drop-in hours for Fall 2025: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:15am – 3:45pm and by appointment: email [email protected].
Education
- Ph.D., Medieval History, Boston College (2015)
- B.A. with High Distinction, History, University of Virginia (2006)
Courses
- Ancient and Medieval Worlds
- Medieval England
- The Viking Age
- The Crusades
- Ancient Rome
- Ancient Greece
- Jerusalem: City at the Center of the World (Upper-Division Seminar)
- Tolkien and the Middle Ages (LA101 First-Year Seminar)
Publications
Publications
- Praising God Together: Monastic Reformers and Lay People in Tenth-Century Winchester, The Catholic Historical Review 102, no. 2 (2016), 284-317.
- Debating the Role of the Laity in the Hagiography of the Tenth-Century Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Reform, La Revue Bénédictine 127, no. 2 (2017), 315-46.
Select Presentations
- “Celibacy and Monastic Reform in 10th-Century England,” 28th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, July 2021 (remote)
- “A Status Apart: Reformed Monks and the Question of Claustration,” 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2021 (remote)
- “A Political Witch-Hunt in Tenth-Century England?” 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2019
- “Crusade and Confederacy: Lost Causes?” Narrative and Nostalgia: The Crusades and the American Civil War, Virginia Tech, March 2019
- “Remembering Bede in the Tenth Century: An All-Monastic Church?” 25th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, July 2018
- “Pastoral Care and Monastic Reform in Tenth-Century Winchester,” Winchester: An Early Medieval Royal City, Winchester University, United Kingdom, July 2017
- “Translating Bede’s ‘Golden Age’ of Monasticism into Old English in the Tenth Century,” 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2017
- “Monastic Reform and the Origins of the Parish Church in Late Anglo-Saxon England,” 4th Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University, June 2016
- “Æthelwold’s Monastic Reform and the Birth of the Parish Church,” 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2016
- “Competing Priorities for Monastic Reform in the Hagiography of Tenth-Century Anglo-Saxon Bishops,” American Society for Church History Spring Meeting, Edmonton, April 2016
Awards
Select Awards and Fellowships
- National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute for higher education faculty: Law and Culture in Medieval England, Western Michigan University (2021)
- Peter Guilday Prize for best first article, American Catholic Historical Association (2016)
- Postdoctoral Fellowship (Visiting Assistant Professor), History Department, Boston College (2015-17)
- Donald and Hélène White Prize for the Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Humanities, Boston College (2016)
- John Leyerle-CARA Prize for Dissertation Research from the Medieval Academy of America (2013)
- Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award, Boston College (2011-12)
- Sewanee Medieval Colloquium R.W. Southern Prize (2010)